Two-Approach Job Guide and Career Assistant

The title of Living, Studying and Working in Italy says it all: this book is intended for would-be expatriates with an eye for Italy. The authors have both had extensive experience living and working in the Bel Paese--Neighbor was in Florence for four years while Larner still lives in Rome, where she is a journalist for Business Week. Together they have pooled their experiences and collective knowledge of living abroad to address the practical side of living, working, or studying in Italy.

The first thing you might notice about this book is that it lacks references to Italy's great art, popular tourist sites, and best hotels. But remember, this is no ordinary guidebook--leave the tourist stuff to others and let Neighbor and Larner take you on a tour of everyday life as an expatriate in Italy. Here you'll find information about taking language courses and teaching English, volunteering for archeological digs, and starting a business. There are plenty of practical tips about visas, banking, residency requirements, and--alas!--taxes. There are lists of language schools, volunteer opportunities, and internship programs as well as information about freelance, part-time, and full-time employment opportunities. In short, this guidebook extraordinaire might just be an expatriate's best friend in Italy.

Anyone planning an extended stay in Italy will be grateful for this book. Neighbor, who managed the U.S. bureau of the leading Italian weekly, L'Espresso, for over two years, and Larner, who works as a reporter for Business Week in Rome, offer the distilled experience of a combined ten years of living in Italy. In scrupulous detail, they show the reader how to handle the vexations of bureaucracy, find accommodations, handle taxes, and so forth. The section on studying provides information pertinent to American students at Italian universities, American study abroad programs, and language schools. Some of the areas covered in the section on working are teaching, starting a business, internships and volunteer opportunities, as well as the nitty-gritty of obtaining social security numbers and Italian work visas. Lists of useful addresses and Internet sites are included, and the appendix serves as a handy reference tool. Recommended for public and academic libraries.?Ravi Shenoy, Hinsdale P.L., Naperville, Ill.