The Promise by Lisa Clifford

Recently several books have been written by Australian women who have gone to live in Italy. These provide an interesting glimpse of the differences between life in Italy and life in Australia. They include The Promise by Lisa Clifford.

The Promise is a moving love story and an honest account of Lisa Clifford's experiences of Italy.

When Lisa first went to Europe she was a young school-leaver, excited by the prospect of living in a different culture. The daughter of a famous ex-model who runs modelling and finishing schools, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life.

Her sister lived in Florence so Lisa decided to join her. When she was about to catch the train from Rome she couldn't find the time for the train anywhere. A helpful Italian pointed out that she should be looking for 'Firenze' not Florence!

This was just the start of her adventures. She worked in a bar in Florence where she met the older and very handsome Paolo, a dentistry student. She found herself very taken with him, but the cultural clashes were a difficulty. When she invited him back to her flat, for example, after an early date, she relaxed and put her feet up on the table. When he thought this was an invitation to bed she was astonished and got angry.

She also found Paolo's close-knit family very different from her own. Paolo's father was rather intimidating, and she got the impression that he would like Paolo to marry an Italian girl. His family had peasant origins and she didn't like their lack of table manners. She found their habit of wolfing their food down uncouth after her mother's heavy emphasis on etiquette and presentation. (I am sure that most Italians aren't like this at all!)

The cultural clashes were difficult and Lisa also missed many aspects of living in Australia, which was easy-going compared with trying to learn a different language and work in a foreign country. Another example of a cultural difference was that Paolo was used to his mother doing all the housework and spending a lot of time cooking - Lisa had no intention of agreeing to this!

She yearned for her family and friends in Australia and flitted between the two countries for years attempting to make up her mind about Paolo. Finally she brought him out here with her but he found living in Australia much more difficult than she found living in Italy.

The book keeps you on tenterhooks as you wonder what the outcome will be. Will Lisa overcome her doubts about Paolo and living in Italy? The problem is that she also got on my nerves (and Paolo's father's) with her indecision about whether to stay with Paolo or not.

It's a good book and well-worth reading for anyone interested in living in Italy.

Many people dream of leaving it all behind and throwing themselves into the dream of living in italy to discover if this place is really as beautiful as everyone makes out. Well, I have been here for 12 years and I can assure anyone thats considering it to do it, just to simply do it, do it...! I have the most amazing experiences, love-stories and fun since living here in Italy. I left Brighton, England with its apparently amazing culture of great music, great clubs and general cool scene and landed here. When I landed I discovered a completely different culture where its un-cool to drink too much, where people fold their clothes, where people don't eat crap, where tomatoes taste like tomatoes, where people don't have disgusting carpets on the floor and where the phrase "You're a friend" actually still means something. It meant changing my normal routine from the English routine of liquid lunches, piles of dirty clothes, fast-food, vegetables that look and taste like bloody plastic and so-called friends that take the piss and will even wanna fight you when they're on the piss.
Coming to Italy was the best thing I personally ever did...!
What's your story...?

I went to Rome in 2000 and realized that someday I would need to live in Italy. I couldn't NOT live there... all the reasons Jonathan said, plus its history and architecture and art... I wanted to be surrounded by that life all the time.

I've been back twice for longer periods of time each trip and have come to the conclusion that while living there would be wondrous, I have a great life here in the USA also, and an amazing relationship that won't be transported, so... the best of both worlds is what I'm seeking to find.

I'm planning to live in Italy for at least six weeks every year, preferably two months or even three. Each time I will make a point to visit an area I haven't been to yet, and to spend some time there. Longer than a few days, long enough to get the feel of the place, meet a local or two, have dinner at an Italian's house, drink wine with new friends, eat dinner for four hours at an outdoor cafe, and watch the sunset over the local temple or hill or 2000 year old wall.

I sometimes wish my life had led me to live there, where the land is lit by a different sun, where edges aren't sharp and the vineyards and the fields of sunflowers tumble over the hills for as far as you can see.

I find that Italy has become a state of mind. I imagine it when I am not there, and I immerse myself in all its color and tastes and sounds so it will stay with me when I come home. It looks a lot like Spanish Broom on a hillside in Tuscany, and it tastes like Chianti, and it is the browns of Siena and the purple blossoms climbing the walls of the canals in Venice. It is sunlight glinting off the water, and it is the echoes of lives long past in the empty streets of Pompeii. Italy haunts my days and it slides into my dreams...

... I open my eyes... I am not there now, but I will be. And I am content.