1931 A welcome form us

Hello all :) :)

We are new to here and have had a little read through. We are Graham who is English and Monica who is ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ, from Udine. We live in Leamington Spa.

We have two children Leonardo aged 5 and Aaron aged 3. Graham speaks very little ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ, while both boy can speak and understand ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ, maybe something to do with watching Braccio di ferro on Rai Due. 7.30pm English time.

We would love to move to Italy but you know what it is like, work and all that. Graham does not speak good enough ½ûÂþÌìÌà to find work. We did think of doing wine tours for English speaking tourists on holiday in Venice up to Friuli, but that is a no go due to ½ûÂþÌìÌà laws. Oh well guess we will just have to make do with holidays.

Graham and Monica

Category
Introduce Yourself - Piacere Conoscerti

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/18/2005 - 07:22

Hi Graham and Monica,

Welcome to ItalyMag. Hopefully you will find the forums a fun and friendly place to while away the hours...

I like your idea of doing wine tours in Italy - can I ask how ½ûÂþÌìÌà legislation is preventing you from making this a reality? Is it the fact that you have to register as a tour guide or something else?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/18/2005 - 07:54

It’s the fact that the tour guides have to register. I knew that you had to register in certain places like the whole of Venice, the centre of Rome etc and kind of agree with it. There are in total about 2500 places. But then when I called the Friuli tourism agency they informed me that the whole of the region was restricted. Again if we were thinking of taking people to the castle in Udine or Aquileia I could understand but the whole region..........

To make matters worst we looked in to it in depth, we have contacts through my father with many vineyards and a couple of proscitto factories in San Daniele del Friuli. Graham was planning to purchase a people carrier, and advertise via the Internet and hotels in Venice. We were going to aim primarily at the people already on holiday in Venice. We were thinking along the lines of E80 per person going down with more people booking together, including transport to and from Venice, the wine tasting, a meal in an Agriturismo including a quarter of litre of wine. Then we found a company already doing something similar and they quoted us E690.00 for a group of 4 but you had to get the train from Venice to Udine then back when you finished, by yourself.

The man at the tourist agency basically told me Graham had no chance of taking the exam to register, as a basic requirement in the Region is that the person taking the exam speaks fluent ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ. The exam is only offered in ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ.

So much for the EU, oh well

Monica

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/18/2005 - 08:43

Hi there

just discovered the Italy mag and am most impressed. I emigrated to Sirmione on Lake Garda after my A-levels years ago and love the ½ûÂþÌìÌà culture. Didn't realise there were so many of us out there!

Look forward to being a part of this

Mirella

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/18/2005 - 08:44

[QUOTE=Grahamandmonica]It’s the fact that the tour guides have to register. I knew that you had to register in certain places like the whole of Venice, the centre of Rome etc and kind of agree with it. There are in total about 2500 places. But then when I called the Friuli tourism agency they informed me that the whole of the region was restricted. Again if we were thinking of taking people to the castle in Udine or Aquileia I could understand but the whole region..........

To make matters worst we looked in to it in depth, we have contacts through my father with many vineyards and a couple of proscitto factories in San Daniele del Friuli. Graham was planning to purchase a people carrier, and advertise via the Internet and hotels in Venice. We were going to aim primarily at the people already on holiday in Venice. We were thinking along the lines of E80 per person going down with more people booking together, including transport to and from Venice, the wine tasting, a meal in an Agriturismo including a quarter of litre of wine. Then we found a company already doing something similar and they quoted us E690.00 for a group of 4 but you had to get the train from Venice to Udine then back when you finished, by yourself.

The man at the tourist agency basically told me Graham had no chance of taking the exam to register, as a basic requirement in the Region is that the person taking the exam speaks fluent ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ. The exam is only offered in ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ.

So much for the EU, oh well

Monica[/QUOTE]

Monica,

Your plan sounds very good, and at those prices you would outcompete the competition easily.

I would suggest that you do not give up your dream. What might work is if you consider registering/qualifying as a tour guide, and 'employ' Graham as the interpreter, or something along those lines.

I am sure if you look at your options you will find a solution - if you are marketing to English speakers only, then the interpreter option should work for you, and even if Graham does all the talking, with a 100% foreign and English clientele, chances of being caught out are minimal. Down the line once his ½ûÂþÌìÌà has improved he could qualify as a guide himself.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/18/2005 - 08:50

hi

this is exactly why I would not want to move to Italy full-time as there are so many silly rules that we dont have in the Uk.

what a shame for you but why not try another region.abruzzo for example?
Becky

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/18/2005 - 08:53

[QUOTE=Mirella]Hi there

just discovered the Italy mag and am most impressed. I emigrated to Sirmione on Lake Garda after my A-levels years ago and love the ½ûÂþÌìÌà culture. Didn't realise there were so many of us out there!

Look forward to being a part of this

Mirella[/QUOTE]

Welcome!

I am gathering that there are a lot of 'stranieri' scattered across Italy - it is just a matter of finding them.

Hope you enjoy your time on the boards!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/18/2005 - 08:55

[QUOTE=manopello]this is exactly why I would not want to move to Italy full-time as there are so many silly rules that we dont have in the Uk.[/QUOTE]

[url="http://www.dumblaws.com/laws/international/united-kingdom/"]http://www.dumblaws.com/laws/international/united-kingdom/[/url]

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/18/2005 - 09:02

[QUOTE=derekL][url="http://www.dumblaws.com/laws/international/united-kingdom/"]http://www.dumblaws.com/laws/international/united-kingdom/[/url][/QUOTE]

Some good ones there. On the South African section they are missing a few doozies!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/18/2005 - 09:07

[QUOTE=manopello]this is exactly why I would not want to move to Italy full-time as there are so many silly rules that we dont have in the Uk.[/QUOTE]

or...
[url="http://www.management-issues.com/display_page.asp?section=research&id=2054"]http://www.management-issues.com/display_page.asp?section=research&id=2054[/url]

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/22/2005 - 06:57

Welcome to the forum.

Don't give up on your dreams. You could set yourself a target that in 3 or 4 years you will do the move and in that time either learn the language fluently or re-train in someting. I think as long as your children have at least a year in an ½ûÂþÌìÌà primary school then they will cope quite well when they move up.

At least this will give you a goal to aim for. Go for it