- I took a trip to Italy in 2023 that changed my life.
- At the time, I was working a Big Tech job and burning out.
- Italy transformed my outlook on life and now I live the dream life I only used to read about.
In May 2023, on a regional train from Naples to Pompeii, I was reading a memoir by an American woman. She’d moved to Naples for an internship, met the love of her life, and, despite regularly indulging in ragù and sfogliatella (a sweet pastry), had somehow lost 20 pounds.
Lucky her, I thought with admiration and slight envy.
I, on the other hand, felt exhausted. I had dark circles under my eyes from working myself to the bone across time zones, my skin dulled from endless hours staring at a screen. I was supposed to be on vacation but my phone kept buzzing with messages pulling me into yet another crisis the company was involved in.
By then, I was nearing my fifth year in Big Tech — two of them at Google during the pandemic and 2.5 leading the EMEA branch of a team at the height of TikTok’s hypergrowth — and hadn’t had a real, unplugged vacation in many years.
In Big Tech, I operated in an “around-the-sun” setting, which meant there was always a team somewhere, from San Francisco to Singapore, responding to my work. I rushed through my 20-minute lunches, I constantly checked messages in and outside work hours, and I sat at a desk most of the day and barely moved.
As the train approached Pompeii, I slipped my fingers through the narrow opening of the window to touch the breeze and thought of my week ahead. I would be on the Amalfi Coast, among citrus trees, diving into turquoise waters, and eating plenty of seafood during extended meals that lasted longer than 20 minutes.
Perhaps it was the Italian lifestyle, or maybe it was that I’d grown tired of my girlboss job, but I returned from that vacation a changed person. Within the next two years, I quit my job and permanently moved to Italy.
Am I worried about losing the financial comfort blanket Big Tech jobs provided me? Hell, yes, I’m terrified. But If I had to choose again, would I even blink? Assolutamente no.
I now live the dream life I only used to read about
As I mark my first year anniversary in Italy, my life now mirrors the countless memoirs of women — it really is a genre — who left the grind to move to Italy in pursuit of their dream life.
While I have a base in Rome, I split my time between the city and Puglia, where I spend the summer months.
I’m proudly no longer part of the corporate hamster wheel. I’m in love with the man who is now my husband, and I start my days with delicious caffè doppio in the neighborhood café where everyone knows each other.
Listening to my neighbors’ latest scandalous revelations — like how a certain signora divorced her husband after he gifted her a giant fish for their wedding anniversary — is more fulfilling than spending countless hours in meetings, which could have been an email.
I now work remotely for a small company and am transitioning to freelance consulting to create more time and space for myself.
My life in Italy has taught me a few important lessons
First, money matters, but not at the cost of your health, relationships, or ability to truly experience life.
Second, joy isn’t necessarily found in the gamified pursuit of the next corporate milestone. With my new perspective on life, if getting a promotion or a fancy corporate title means spending less time with my family, living with perpetual back and shoulder pain, and experiencing sleep deprivation, then I don’t want it.
Third, everyday activities, from preparing a meal to taking a walk to feeding my cat, should be approached with the same gravitas as preparing a presentation for a senior executive audience.
Most importantly, work should enable life, not the other way around.
My girlboss era felt like an Instagrammable cacio e pepe; while technically correct, it lacked soul. My life in Italy, on the other hand, resembles a fiery amatriciana, the kind that paints your shirt with tomato sauce, juicy and rich.
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