Ciao

Hello loyal experience readers! Welcome to my blog. I guess the only way to start this correctly would be to take a trip back in time to January of 2007. I was living in New York and working as a Professional Liability Underwriter for the biggest Insurance Company in the world. I enjoyed my job and despite the fact that I hated my commute, I was having a good time living back on Long Island after 4 years away at college.

That being said, there was something eating away slowly at my soul. I had always wanted to move to Italy. It wasn't something that I could cure with a nice two week vacation either- I felt like I had to be there, live there, buy vegetables in a market that wasn't "super," and drink wine in a big, open piazza filled with history. I decided that 2 years after college, it was time to make just such a move- before I was so tied in with obligations to work and my life in New York, that I would never get out.

So on February 1st of 2007, I moved to Rome. I must say that it was significantly easier to effectuate a transatlantic move because I had dual citizenship and therefore am legally Italian- but I was also moving to a place with a tight job market and relatively high unemployment. Either way, within 2 months I had found a job, working as an Aviation Insurance Broker for a big American company. It was an interesting job and a good continuation of what I had started in New York, but I had also learned that if you want a serious job with room for upward mobility- it was better to be in Milan. Through some contacts I had made while still in New York, I learned that my old company was looking for Financial Lines Underwriters (Professional Liability, Directors and Officers Insurance, Crime/Fidelity and Employment Practices Liability) in Milan.

So here I am! February 2008- a full year later, and I’m living and working in Milan. Even though it is hard to be so far away from home, I learn new things every day both on the job and outside the office. So ask me questions! Its not the easiest thing to move overseas- there was a lot of prep work before hand and constant challenges, but it has certainly proved the age old saying to be true- Nothing worth getting comes easily…