Welcome to my blog.
I was born in the South Indian state of Kerala. Malayalam is my mother tongue. I also speak Tamil and understand Hindi. I’ve lived most of my life in and around Philadelphia (Northeast United States). I enjoy reading, writing, photography, watching detective shows on Amazon Prime, traveling, playing cricket and contemplating.
Although I am years away from it, I often think about what I want to do when I am done with working for corporate America! I want to split time between the three countries that I love the most, namely the United States, Italy and India.
A few years ago, I sold my car and started using public transportation in order to save money. I then took out a personal loan and purchased a tiny apartment in Volterra, a small hill town about 75 minutes from Florence. It was a run down apartment that cost me $65,000. This apartment is a two minute walk from Piazza dei Priori!
I first travelled to Italy in 2002 and have visited Italy many times since. But I never lived in Italy long term prior to purchasing this property. I created this blog to write about the process of identifying where to live in Italy and how to buy a property or rent one and also renovating one. I also wanted to write about Italy in general and life in Italy as an immigrant.
Visiting Italy for a couple of weeks and living in Italy for months are two different things. Italy is a fantastic country, but it is also true that a large number of Italians would leave the country if given the opportunity. Thousands of years of heritage, great cuisine, a beautiful language and awesome works of art won’t pay the bills. Italy needs a strong and vibrant economy.
Link to my blog is below. I hope the articles that I have written are helpful. Please feel free to contact me at italyirl@gmail.com if you have any questions or comments.
Link To Blog
