Profile of Emma Bird
Had anyone told me five years ago that I was going to ditch my job as a newspaper reporter in Liverpool to end up on an Italian island, start my own business and write a book, I would probably have told them to cut the fantasy and start living in the real word.
Yet as cheesy as it sounds, here I am, living a dream on the Costa Smeralda in Sardinia. I have a lifestyle that I would never have been able to afford if I?d stayed in Britain, where I was drowning in a sea of student debt. Now, I live less than a two-minute walk from a beautiful beach, eat out several times a month and am totally debt free.
My obsession with Italy started back in the summer of 1996 when I was 19 and aupairing in Naples. Yes, the city was dirty, crime-ridden and squalid, but it also oozed passion and a vitality for life that was missing in England.
I got the same feeling in Abruzzo, and again in Bologna, where I spent my third year of university. I was so enamoured with la bella vita as I?d experienced it, I longed to be able to make a life in Italy. The only thing was, I had no idea how to make that dream come true.
So when I was offered a job as a textile reporter in Milan, I only had to imagine the travelling around Italy, the flexing of my credit card in the designer boutiques and the sipping of Campari and soda with a gorgeous Italian by my side before running into my editor?s office on my 25th birthday and handing in my notice.
That was in 2001. A year on, in Milan, I was made redundant. I retrained as an English teacher and temped in the city?s major banks and multinationals. In 2004, I became a corporate relocation consultant, and a year after that I moved over 200 km to the north of the island and launched howtoitaly.com, which helps would-be expatriates plan their move to Italy. I still teach and write on a part-time basis as I love both too much to give them up totally.
My boyfriend Mario is a management consultant and chartered accountant, and he and I co-wrote Starting a Business in Italy, a book on how to set up and run a successful business in the Bel Paese. Italy is a land of entrepreneurs, with more than 1,000 new businesses launched every day. We wanted people to have a nuts-and-bolts guide to becoming self-employed in Italy.
Ten years ago I was too shy to speak Italian for fear of making a mistake, and didn?t think I had what it takes to be a success in a foreign country. But Italy has given me so much, and not just fluency in the language, an idyllic lifestyle and a fantastic group of Italian and expatriate friends. It has shown me that when you are determined to make a new life abroad, you will. If I can do it, anyone can.
Emma and Mario have co-authored Starting a Business in Italy: How to Set Up and Run a Successful Business in the Bel Paese (Paperback), available from Amazon.co.uk at £8.83
Readers get to join in a free one-on-one Skype chat with Emma and Mario on starting a business in Italy.
Questions answered by Emma Bird
I moved with my family to live in Italy this year. Having bought a left hand drive car in the UK we drove to Italy. How do I now re-register my car in Italy as I believe it is the law, and I don't fancy having to return to Britain each year to MOT it! I also brought with me two motorbikes, so will need to do the same with these.
I'm moving to Italy to be with my girlfriend, who lives in the seaside town of Forte dei Marmi. I need to find work as a tefl teacher and will probably have to live in Pisa.
Can you give me an idea of how difficult and/or expensive it will be to spend my time commuting back and forth on an English teacher's salary?