James Doran (00:06.638)

So hello, welcome to the Expo Pod. My name is James, your host. And today I'm joined by my friend Adam, who I met living in Bambri when we just finished our bachelor's degrees and he now lives in Italy. But Adam, give us a bit of an introduction by yourself, please, mate. Yeah, I can do that. So I live in Italy with my wife and dog. We moved here about a year and a half ago and basically living the dream.

Yeah, what is it you're doing in Italy? Ask. So by trade, I designed Formula One cars. Quite a nice thing to say. About a year or two years ago now, I saw a job come up for the sister team, which is what I was working for at the time, to come out here and work in Italy as a bit of an information. So I took the opportunity with two hands and now I'm here. Awesome.

James Doran (01:07.694)

So I know I was on a station one of the podcasts all about getting there. Now out of you briefly touched upon you found a job posted in your sister team where you're working before in the realms of Formula One albeit a slow team in F1 now I believe. Quite the opposite I think. Just to get the SEO for you know Beyond the Racing Line and all those other podcasts on this one. You need to try and get the cross -pollination. But so you were living in the UK saw this app with Joe Abbott go.

Was it during COVID, right? Yeah, it was during COVID. Well, at the end of COVID, yeah. No, it was fully during COVID. Sorry. Yeah. Fully during COVID. So that added an extra bit of spice against the knife. What was that experience like then applying for the job? Well, obviously I didn't actually go to see the factory or the place where I was going to live at all. So I'd visited Italy before moving here like three, four times. But to say I'd actually been to the factory or

where we were going to live, not done at all. So the fact that all the interviews were done online as a couple of interviews. And then I got rung up. Whilst I was at Red Bull, I got the formal job offer. Made sure I got all the contracts and stuff in place as you do before I can get notices and all this kind of stuff. And then, yeah, took the plunge. Nice. Scary? Yes.

Additionally scary because we hadn't seen the house that they're gonna move into or rent. I hadn't seen where it was gonna work. It was all being done during COVID. So yeah, and Brexit as well. Just an extra little bit of spice. Man, Brexit, the game started. Visas are not fun. No, they are not. How in the - Did you make a mistake? Well, the original conversation started in 2021.

And then I got the official kind of, yes, you're okay for you to work at Christmas, I think 2022. It took me until August to actually move. So most of it was like getting official contracts plus tweeting kept changing the rules of like, I needed to be here for longer than a year. So a year and a day for to get a personal number and all that kind of stuff. So it was, I thought I'd be moving at Easter. I didn't move until the summer. So it took you about six months.

James Doran (03:31.406)

Yeah, yeah, I think so from like starting off conversations with work and then to you know moving into a place I like you haven't seen it before paying a fortune for red because I'm not Swedish and therefore don't have the opportunity to do a first -hand contract so I have to do some effectively long -term Airbnb thing which is very nice but obviously I move house on Monday to a colleague's house who's going to live on a boat which is the most accurate thing you can hear.

Is that a canal boat or is that? No, it's a full -on, like a seasailing boat. You can get to Demlong with it. For us it took five months to get all of our contract. Well, no, it took even longer than that really because you start to do stuff when you go here in Italy as well. So it was a long time coming. So luckily I had six months notice period. Lucky or unlucky, whichever way you want to look at it.

It took my on all of that time to get my what they call for Mercedes Adorno And even then it wasn't fully done. It was just like the initial part and then once you're initially have to go to the Lego Correstra is what it's called, but basically cancel office get your little card Take all your fingerprints and all this kind of stuff all quite daunting when you do enough For the job. Did you have to know Italian before you left? Not word. Is it an English speaking role? Yes.

It's an English speaking role. Obviously I am learning Italian. I'm Kittafli root, not TV. But I'm by no means fluent. I mean, all I know is like, Ciao bella. Sorry. That's only if you're speaking to a lady, right? Don't call me bella. I haven't got... Well, maybe I do. I don't know what the... How bella is the... Of course, you just... I changed the bow, right? I'm Gassow. I know Gassow is cat.

or get that. It could be both. right. I still I don't know if it's got a gender. It is like you find that with a lot of I guess, or a German's got gender too. But reading doesn't have what it kind of does with the word the if you add the front of it like a table it's got four depth which the ETS the the bit but like other things are like Apple or something. Yeah.

James Doran (05:56.11)

And they're probably going to get it wrong, but my Swedish is very elementary. Basically a two year old in Sweden. I feel like the same sometimes. I could just about get by basic conversations, restaurant situations and that's about it. Awesome. Well, we'll scratch the surface of that a bit more later. but so when you first moved, so to what, the housing stuff, like how did the company help you with that? When did you source it yourself? What was the situation?

so we sourced the house stuff ourselves. The company, did help us a lot with all of the visa stuff. So they helped get my vice visa as well as mine. So she was quite lucky. She actually was able to take her English job over to here because she works for a European company. so they helped us out with all that side of things as well. But then no, we had to source house ourselves, which is fine. We were very lucky.

place we found a place with a garage plenty of guest space as well and it's actually cheaper than our mortgage in the UK. nice so yeah it's cool. Absolute score yeah. And then okay so was there anything else you needed before you left like I guess COVID documents you might have needed like vaccination proofs and yeah obviously yeah but at the time we still needed all of our vaccination proofs and that was a bit of a staff as well yeah.

That was a simple fact, because we needed all of our vaccines and then we had to get other shots in Italy. But we didn't have our promessages to Jordan card, so we couldn't get the health card to then get our shots. right. So what was the wait time on that then? So we arrived in November, we didn't get our promessages to Jordan until January. And then after that, it was getting the test results, which was another couple of weeks.

And then we go out and jab straight away after that so that we're all good. And you thought you could walk around mask off, you know, unless you're in Venice where the mask comes on because it's part of it. Yeah, when I first got here it was all masks everywhere. Waving desks, the noise kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah, that's one thing which I've noticed in Sweden. When I came for work in 2021, I came from the UK, right? Yeah, tier three. So I was like, okay, mask everywhere. And come to Sweden, get the bus to work, have a mask on. Everyone looked at me.

James Doran (08:18.99)

like I was some strange person because I'm a mascot. I mean, I am strange anyway, but I was like, I feel I'm the different one. So it's interesting how different cultures are, I guess, living with, lived with COVID at the time. Now. Yeah. Over, isn't it, by the WHO. So yeah, doesn't exist anymore. What? What was good? Awesome. Anything else you need to really...

Expand on before you moved you took your car over right? Did you have to be yeah? We brought our car over we brought a dog over as well Luckily he was Irish so he was more European than us. Is he on Irish passport? Yeah, he has an Irish doggy passport. Is it a dude? Did you when you caught him? Did you get him? Why? How does that work? What was his father Irish? No, he is actually Irish. So he used to race in Ireland Because he's a greyhound so he is

So he used to race in Ireland and then got brought over to the UK, broke his leg and died. So, and now he gets to live the life of luxury going around Venice, Florence and Wisconsin. Lots of pasta, right? Yeah, lots of pasta. Well, it's more a pile than a squadron. I'm jealous of the dog. It's a European passport and Parmesan. What would you want? Yeah, I know, right? Perfect. Well, I guess there wasn't too much to say about before you got there. No, not really. Yeah, obviously the...

visa was a lot. We obviously had a car full of to bring it with us. So we were up to our eyeballs in all of our stuff. Parents came over and helped us out. They brought back that stuff over as well, which is really helpful. And then, yeah. What was your house furnished when you moved into it? Or was it unfurnished? It's furnished. That's useful. All of it. That makes sense. Here's a fact for you. If you get an unfurnished flat, sometimes they don't have kitchen.

no, I heard about this somewhere else as well. Like in Desmond you take your own washing machine with you and like, I'm like, I'm like, there are really happy things to shift your effort. Yeah. We had to, we bought the washing machine in the tumble dryer off of the previous landlord. but, and the kitchen, we had to make sure it was a furnished place because sometimes if it's unfurnished, the kitchens are not there. But no cupboards. No cooker, no cupboards, no anything. Sink the lot.

James Doran (10:39.566)

Wow, it's a camping stove stuff. Fish. Yeah, no, no. Yeah, luckily it's fully kitted out. So this is why we went for a fully furnished option. Whatever furniture was in there is great, but the main thing was the kitchen. Yeah, I guess you can always go to get a chair somewhere, but you know, buying your stuff. It's harder to do than dealing with Italians in a different language. So yeah, really good bit of advice. If you ever you're moving to Italy, to protect you getting kitchen. Yeah, exactly.

And it's the same with houses as well when you're buying a house. The kitchens don't come included necessarily. Like a guy at work has just bought a house and it has no kitchen. Wow. I mean that's just completely foreign to us. Literally foreign to us. yeah. Is there a reason? Did he say why? Like surely the kitchen will fit somewhere else so it's exactly the same size. I have literally no idea. I can't understand it at all. But maybe it's there.

So it takes like, grandma's cooking. Maybe, yeah, maybe it's all the years of like flour residue on it and it's like a wok. You can't wash a wok. It's got years of oil. It's like, yeah, that's the, that's the fake. Yeah. The authentic Italian fake. It's the worktop where they'd made loads of pizza bases and pasta.

James Doran (12:06.093)

So hello, welcome to part two of the podcast, section two of the podcast. All about being there. So Alan, this is where I tend to ask my guests a bit of two questions about what the first impressions were, what life's like socializing and kind of just day to day living. So let's start with the first impressions. I guess you said you drove across from the UK. What was the drive like? First of all, was it like, must be beautiful, right? Well, France is boring as hell.

until you got to the mountains near the more blonde tunnel but yeah it wasn't that interesting to drive that side of things but once you got to through the mountains yeah it got more and more exciting as we got closer it was about a 20 hour drive so me and my wife we took it in turns doing stints stopping every couple hours for the dober making sure he was all right he probably had the comfiest seat in the house because he had his bed in the boot so they just curled up in that hallway literally doing your own 12 hours of Le Mans 20 hours to your house yeah

20 hours to our house yet and it had all of our clover in the back so it's literally like the windows was you couldn't see out the rear windscreen so how did you find the break breaking down there in the Alps then with a castle of a messy way over the payloads well we didn't actually have to go over the Alps we went through the Mont Blanc tunnel so okay so what's the anyway with my alpine geography but there must still be some alpine descent no the well it's like going up over the mountains no we do

We didn't have to do much of that. There's two kind of routes you can do because we've done it. We've done the journey to and from Italy a few times now in the car. The best way we found is actually going through Switzerland, but going through the France wave, there's not many mountains. It's kind of sad to say, like you go through a little bit to Mont Blanc, but once you go through the tunnel and out the other side, it's a nice flat again. Nice and fresh after your long drive. What was your first impressions? The Fianza itself, the driving...

When you first get there, it's a very industrial town. So the side we came in at was you're seeing all this industrial stuff. It's not like you're a quintessential Italian town. You're like going to Bambury and you just see like Pro Drive there if you go off the masterway. Yeah, it kind of was. Bellburn Coffee. It was all this kind of a wine factory. Yeah, industrial building like. I mean, I'd take a wine factory over to a Daiquitz factory any day. Well, not until they explode on you. I thought you had that one, didn't I? yeah. Was that a wine factory?

James Doran (14:28.397)

Yeah, it was a wine factory that exploded. So this was last week. The factory opposite us literally exploded and it was, it was 2 million litres of alcohol in a vat and there was 30 of them, the coal. Well, that's a Spencer's mistake. And it was pretty sketchy coming out flames three, four stories up and all this kind of stuff. But there we go. Anyway, I digress.

That's okay. You're in this industrial town. You just arrived and you're a bit skeptical now. Yeah, but then we were, we then started to drive around to our house and we saw the mountains in the background. Okay. Now I understand. Cause it was just like all the rolling you imagine. And the mountain range we share in the media, Romana is the same one as the Tuscan Hills. So it's all quaint essentially a tally. You want to get out past the plains of where we live basically. So, but where we live is really nice.

As I say, it's not on the industrial side of the town. Like all the northern part of Lyons is industrial and then the southern part is really quite nice. Yeah, well you get it in any town or city, don't you? You get industrial parts and not so industrial. I meant the whole country is brimming with each other. Well, this is also true. Northern bits industrialised southern bits. It's almost the opposite in Italy though. Like the northern bits industrial. So all across Emilia Romana, Lombardy, Genoa and Turin, there's all the industrial parts of Italy and then further south you get the lesser lesser is that.

It's almost like flipped of the UK the northern parts like the south of England and the southern parts like the poor part of Italy It's like the North's port, mate. Is it? You know what I mean? Yeah, it's like there's a bit of a cross split. There's north -south divide going on between us. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Bloody scats. Brilliant. Well, our country though. Exactly, yeah.

You've got like several R's in every word. Yeah, I can't help it. That's probably not helping for this, is it? No, it's fine, mate. People... I put subtitles on or something. Yeah, I think it's needed. For me as well. Especially as I have more wine as well. You're about to lose impressions then. how was your... Have you been doing a lot of sign language since you moved or...? Not... ...beknowingly. Yeah, because you understand doing quite good children's stay down your side. Yeah, I'm trying my best. I'm trying my best.

James Doran (16:54.061)

The findings is true what they say Italian speak bands. I think it's you see you see lots of this you see lots of and They do say Mamma Mia when they're very excited as well Quite quite a few of the so they don't see how I'm true. Yeah What was it the first time you heard that that were you like you're taking me the make now that you I think it was like when Someone stepped out in front of them or a car drove past them on it

A zebra crossing or something like that. It's like, Mamma Mia! here we go again, look. It was a quite here we go again because, yeah. Gotta get some Swedish Abba Jameson. Yeah, yeah, yeah, very good, very good, very good. Yeah, it sits. It's... It's fun. It's always entertaining. Is it day -to -day life? Is that what we're on? Yeah, well, just like everything, so, well... Everything. It's all part of it. All part of it, okay. Well, let's look at social life then. I guess you didn't really know many people.

Where you were living or anyone really? Yeah, no, no. I literally know them. So we moved to a foreign country knowing no one. Not learning the language? Not the language. And around here, this is not a touristy area. Not many people actually speak English. Probably 50 % of people don't speak English at all. So there is a bit of a barrier. In work it's fine. But even some of the guys on the shop floor don't speak a word of English. So you have to try and use your pitch in Italian.

to communicate or work as well. So that could be a point to get things. Point two, quest still perfect. And this kind of, yeah, pigeon Italian. But yeah, day to day life. We get to go out exploring at weekends. We get to have nice evenings in town. It's a lot more social, I would say, than the UK. So we go out for lunch every day.

Me and a group of friends go out for lunch every day. We get an hour and a half for lunch. Okay, another general Italian thing that you think of is, yes, you go out, have some pasta at lunch with workmates. Go for drinks in the evening. Yeah, it's nice. Needless to say, because of El Pomodoro, bit of timber. So I've got to try and join a sports club or something. Try and make some friends outside. I guess hockey's not so popular in Italy.

James Doran (19:13.389)

No it's not, so the closest team for that is Bologna. In FIAM to itself, the more favoured sports are basketball, football and rugby. rugby would be good. Yeah rugby would be good, I'd just get injured a lot. Just do touch. Yeah, so all of those I'm quite tempted by. Basketball is, I've played a lot of basketball growing up, it's a good fun sport. Yeah, both of us being of quite tall stature, either of those are good options. Yeah.

Yeah, I think when you get close to me is you're pretty pretty lucky. Yeah on my Mr. Shawna says one meter 98. Mine too. that's it. obviously the same. Not in shoes and then in shoes. There you go. Awesome. What's it like? You mentioned about lunch and you get obviously a day every day to have lunch. You know what else is different in the working culture between both?

Obviously the industry is the same, still very competitive, but there's a huge difference. Little bit. Sometimes there's a... well, I don't know, maybe it was just from coming from Red Bull and going to Alpha Tary, there was a little bit more of a Blaine culture. Well, blaming the parents for giving you a bad engine or something. Yeah, at the last minute, it was... yeah, that's starting to go away now, which is good, but yeah, there's a little bit of a Blaine culture, it seems, when I first got here, like, death on shoulders.

never, never an individual's fault. They wouldn't like to see the hands go, yeah, I called her and then try and fix it. Is there a culture of if you do, if you are to blame for something, it's like, it's, it's seen as quite bad. Cause like for me, if I make a mistake, I'm like, yeah guys, I mean, mistake here, let's see who solved the solve it. And you want to die. It's possible. I think so. I think so. I think there is a bit of that. it's not seen as a

good thing to admit your faults, whereas I've come from the work culture at least to admit like, don't lie, admit to your faults and then do your best to fix it. You're doing a good job, not a good job that you made the error in the first place, but you're willing to get your hands dirty, fix it, it's not my fault, someone else can do with that. You get the gist of what I'm saying, I think. So that was a little bit of a learning curve, but as I say,

James Doran (21:38.733)

It seems like that's going away a bit by... because it's a very... you know F1, it's a very international sport. Obviously, most of the design offices in the UK are probably 50 % English and then from all over the world the rest of it. It's the same kind of... it's 50 % Italian over here and then the rest is from all over the world. And everyone's obviously...

out to prove themselves and show they can do a good job. So yeah, it is competitive. And if you don't, if you don't do a good job as case of our, she buried analysis that she'd get the job. So that wasn't me by the way. It's probably a slightly better job, I think. it's good title. She fair on that. So with, with the, the kind of 50 split of locals and like expats, have you found your, your more socializing with.

the people who were not living in the country that they grew up in? Yeah, it tends to be, but then like, yeah, it's the mix. Like whenever we go out, we've obviously made some friends and stuff, but yeah, it's generally the expat. Obviously during Easter and stuff, they all go home to their families, so which I can't blame them for. So yeah, it's other people that get left behind. So obviously, as you probably well know, that's the thing you miss most about moving to a different country is your friends around.

It's not as easy to see them. We've been quite lucky so far that we've had lots of people come out and visit us, which is really quite nice. So... Go away with my invite, but yeah. Maybe, come out whenever. I was just putting it like, which one? Last? Okay. But yeah, no, yeah, we're lucky that lots of people come out and visit us. Almost to the stage that it was almost too much sometimes, actually, because we were getting home from work and then having to clean for...

next lot of people coming, which is great. It was lovely. But at the same time, there's a lot of hard work because you probably don't should. I don't know. Yeah. And he just is not. I lived in a place which is like 25 square meters when I first moved. And it was hard enough having my girlfriend visit because I couldn't stand up in the room that I slept. Like it was one meter 50 in height and I'm so two meters. So it's not exactly comfortable for her guests. now my, my, my, my second place, my new place is somewhere else.

James Doran (24:00.781)

I have like, I sleep six, technically, but realistically I sleep four, five maybe, because they've got this couch behind me which you could lie across. But I put out beds downstairs. There's no doors, so there's no privacy. So my family have come, my brother and my mum came and stayed. Evie's friends come with her to stay as well. That's kind of been it. I've gone home quite a bit. Well, because long as this is where it's at, she's gonna have to.

go back and forth, right? You know, you need to move with your wife. It gets just difficult when you're married by law to go a long distance with. It's like being all frowned upon. Yeah. Especially in the Catholic country. But yeah, it's been, it's yeah, it was difficult, but I've got two phones with my key on so I can always go as per key. It's an expense. You've got a second phone now. I've got three now. I think I'm free. See, this is a phenomenon that the beat has as well. See, I've been clever.

I've got two sitters on my single phone, so I've got the UK number and the Italian. Yeah, but I need the phone, physical phone is the spare key because if my phone dies, I can't get my house. So I've got... Yeah, you haven't told us enough about how you're getting your house and your phone. I think you need to explain some more because I don't fully understand. Right, this is like 17 weeks after the first view, so everyone have forgotten. Everyone have forgotten? I've watched the first...

3 episodes and they've had it all in because you haven't posted the rest yet. No, they probably are. It probably is featured in most of them. So I'm just taking the piss out of you now for it, but no one else has done that already. Yeah, I'm nervous now for that. I might have to start posting about my own key. Hey, it's my key. I'm gonna make a reel about it. It's alright. You're moving house soon, so you won't get that shit. I know, I'll give it to a fob. Just real, I should not be swearing at this. That's alright, I can edit it out.

Do you have anything more to extend upon about Liffey in Italy? yeah, that's what we should be talking about. Yes, sorry mate. Just going off on tangents all over this shit. Liffey, yeah, yeah. So obviously the food's great, I've said that already I think. And it's cheap as well, so like to go out for a meal, like where you pay am I? 15 quid in the UK to go out for a restaurant meal is like 7 quid.

James Doran (26:27.597)

I called for a main mill. no. Yeah for a main mill. So it's like Dutchy like pieces over here like a Domino's is like 20 quid in here isn't it? It's daylight robbery. Yeah it is daylight robbery. Over here you can get them for like six quid. So it's luxurious. You can wide draw Domino's when you've got like a large roll of pizza. yeah they weren't busted in Italy as well. They tried. They tried. They tried to open one in Pallania or something and then yeah. They're in Napoli right?

Naples does have the best pizza, we haven't been down south yet. That's the next digital. Well, you know, I think the locals would never survive a day in Naples. It's not neapolitan. Yeah, they would not. But it's really quite nice. Like, we've got a pizzeria that's five minutes walk down the road, a pizzeria, a duattaria, the closest bar is like ten minutes walk away. It's probably like living in London, but I don't know, I'm a country boy, so I've always been used to living out in the sticks.

So it's quite nice to actually be in a town and has that kind of quality. And yeah. And then we're also not far from the countryside either. So like 15 minutes down the road, you get to one of the prettiest villages in Emilia Romana, a place called Briscala. And you literally walk from a castle to a clock tower and you're walking through the yards to get there. And it's all like...

proper Italian dance thing. And how far are the lights from you as well? They must be close. Yeah, we went skiing earlier this year. So, actually, we actually went up for a day trip. As you do? As you do, with five of us. And then we went for a long weekend as well. But yeah, to get to the dog. My wife always tells me off about this. I always say it's two and a half hours, but it's three and a half hours to get up there. So it was a long day. Depends on how you drive. Depends on how you drive. I don't mean to go through it this slow, I just know. Yeah, well.

I don't know if you've seen but I've got a Scooby Imbretzer over here, like a 90s one, so that was fine at the show. It is a wagon, so the dog can go in the back. Is that import? No, it's a left hooker, so not an import. Can we JDM import? No, I can't. They're right hookers, mate. No, I mean, yeah, no, until you said left hand drive, I know the right hand drive, but if you want I can Imbretzer. Yeah, I know, I know, but...

James Doran (28:50.893)

Yeah, we had a right hand drive over gut. Or this is the whole reason why we got the expresser because we had to take our UK car back because to change plates from a UK car to an Italian one was a right. Like Italians love bureaucracy. Love it. So you have to go the right place with the right form and get everything spot on. Otherwise they just go, nah, don't do it. Man, that sounds too familiar. I think it's just like...

Anything if you're not local everything feels like bureaucracy Yeah, maybe is that maybe is that but it feels Yeah, you'd war so like even Italian post offices kind of renowned for the shite When we first got here we had to be send off our Residency card the MSOD's to join the dark saying about and it was no joke a four -hour wait at the post office All right, that sounds fun

Yeah, the end because it was going so slowly the one we're at we actually booked an appointment at another post office then drove there and got to that one and it was like still an hour's wait, but it was a lot quicker. It's just that side of Italy you don't see because it's all very paper based. Nothing's online. It's not like we used to have the UK or even Sweden by the sound of it. Nothing's online at all. Is there a catch? A catch where yeah, Italy's still a very

It's all on their watch. They've paid a thing to my watch. There they are. They do obviously have all the NFC stuff and contactless and all this kind of stuff, but there's places that still don't pay card. I even have an email address book on my phone for all my like my pay slips and my like government documents go into like Kivra. It's cool.

which is like better than the post that people will be posting to you. Some things you get posted from the tax agency, but most of it sits in this app, which is just insane. HR stuff, like all my payslips go into a HR. Normalized. But they are only just starting to become online with something called spins and things like this. Like it's only happened to me for the last couple of years and stuff. It's getting better, but it's...

James Doran (31:17.325)

It's quite paper based, a little bit tricky. You've got your translating app open as you're doing it as well? Yeah, it would be a lot better this kind of stuff than I am. I must have... Well, yes, I think she struggles a little bit more than I do. So obviously I go into work every day and see lots of people, whereas she's based at home most of the time. So getting out and about and meeting people is a little bit harder for her than it is me.

We haven't helped ourselves because when we first got here, we were just going all over the show traveling. So yeah, I think we start as we're looking to stay here a bit longer now, because my visa is up for renewal in September. We're going to start doing clubs and stuff and around. Wait five years, get an Italian passport and then you're fine. yeah, absolutely. All of that stuff. But you never have kids at least.

It does, it does, it does absolutely. But the other nice incentive that's over here for expats, and it is a delightful one, because for expats we get 70%. What? Yeah. So moniker is it, right? Yeah. Because Italy's an Asian country, they want people my and B's age. And my age, right? And your age. People our ages to come to Italy to work because they are an Asian country. Much like Japan and other places around the world. And the incentive.

do that is this expat cat spreg. And you get it first five years. Then if you have kids who buy houses, it goes down to, you can have it for 10 years and it goes down to you. Wow. So, can you read job? You have to find it. I mean, there, there, there are jobs at where we are, but you have to wait another six months or so to get the leisure again. That's right. She sounds like a good place to live for pizza master and a what?

So I wanted to do the road marathons, so I'll be training you for that. speaking of marathons, there is actually a horrendous one that comes from Florence to here. So they... I'm not selling it with horrendous, but... Well, it's an ultra -marathon, so they start in Florence, and then throughout the day they run over the mountains to here, and it's about 100 kilometres. That was fun. Yeah, do that way. Maybe, as you get older, you get better as you get older at long distances. Okay, do you? Okay. Yeah, let's go over time.

James Doran (33:41.517)

The road marathon one's easy. Yeah, I've got a half marathon on Saturday to do, so... Fair play. Also, I think that is going for section two.

James Doran (33:56.781)

So I know and welcome to section three of the podcast as Adam enjoys a glass of wine. This part is all about, can I review? I haven't named it at all, but it's all things a big joke at this point, I think, after we've been recording this podcast. Is that me or you or all of it? I think it's the combination of the two. It always ends up in, you know, low levels of the quorum. Yeah. What's section four again? Pardon? What's section four again?

I mean, section four is you finish a bottle of wine. That's it. Yeah. Okay. Section three now. Section three. Yeah. So section three for the for the for the inter -time is where I ask you a bit about your kind of review of life so far. And if you could go back to yourself, I guess, 18 months ago or longer and give yourself some advice or tell yourself, hey, do this.

Is there anything you can think about? Good question. As the last guy on the, I listened to on the podcast said, to be honest, there's not much I would change because I've thoroughly enjoyed it so far. You seem to be enjoying it right now as you speak. I am enjoying it right now, you're right. Having a local glass of wine and Hempstead, a lovely company and a host. But yeah, no, we've had a fantastic time over here so far.

So my recommendation is just to do it. It's something that me and Bea have always wanted to do. We talked about it. We were getting to the stage after recent war, we got Cody, our dog. We were thinking, we've run out of time to settle down. We're going to start settling down in the UK. And then this opportunity came up. We were just like, sod it. We'll take it. And we've done it. Yeah. And we don't look back. So well, so far, we've turned it back.

Obviously there's times where we miss friends and family. That's always the thing. So birthdays you miss, it's like, anniversaries or parties you have and the spontaneous, hey, you want to come for a weekend? No, it's quite expensive. Exactly. And we've got grands and granddads that are getting older as well. So that's always a bit of a worry as well. So well, they can live in your house, enough rooms. Yeah. It's good for them. Yeah. Got enough rooms here.

James Doran (36:22.765)

I mean, yeah, Mediterranean diet is good for them. Warm weather. Well, not this past week, but yeah, normally it's not warm weather. Context has been flooding quite a lot. Yes, there has been flooding and people canoeing with cars up to their roofs and canoeing between houses to get home. Nice. I mean, I've got a paddle board you can borrow. Yeah, that's what it looked like when people were on.

It's not been a fun week here with the explosions, floods and then possibly more floods at the end of this week. But hopefully we get back to the normal 25 degrees and sunny sea. But yeah, this last week it hasn't been. So it's been more English in terms of weather. If someone was moving to Italy, what would you tell them the things you need to think about and kind of check off? What would help them? What would help them?

knowing that it's going to be a long wait for you. These are facts. The first thing to be wary of getting a good estate agent and place to rent. That's another good point. Like as I say, getting a place and you turn it up and find out you haven't got a kitchen. It's going to be good. So be careful with where you look for and some estate agents and notoriously and then the big dodgy. So yeah, do your research on that side of things.

and get a company that's willing to help you as well. Obviously your company helped you a bit, mine's helped me a bit and that helps no end because obviously they speed them in, go they know most of the processes inside and out obviously that changed a bit with Brexit. There's extra things that come your way because of it as well like the latest one for us has been drivers licenses. The latest thing is that we weren't allowed to you well we were

extended our use of driving licenses, but they did reach an agreement until this December. So it allowed us to change our UK drivers license for Intaliable. So if they hadn't have reached that, obviously that would have been a bit of a pain in the ass for a while. Yeah. I think for me it's, well from what I understood it's you're allowed to use your UK one for a year and then switch it. But then they said, the UK one is fine actually just to keep. Okay. So I didn't need to change it, but I'm only here for a year. So it doesn't really matter.

James Doran (38:47.501)

so these are any for you only seeing in it this week and free it. Yeah, I moved back in September. wow. That's short and sweet. Well, it's only a one one year place by excommon. Okay. I'd like to be extended it. I'm needed back home. Advice. Yes. Key go distracted. exchanging cars over here. That is an expensive thing to do. like the view five document in the UK. That's obviously free over here.

that's ended on the car anywhere between 600 to 800 euros. wow, it's quite expensive. Because of that you get to see lots of older vehicles on the road so that again quaint essentially Italian you see lots of Fiat Pandas and old Fiat 500s on the road. Some Bravas maybe? Well maybe not. yeah Brava. Down by now. Mate, Fiat Panda 4x4s are big but they will get you anywhere.

and they love them over here. They love like the old school boxy ones. Yeah like a I'm thinking of like a C2 but it's not a C2. Yeah it's kind it's kind of that but it's like I'll send you a picture after so it's like a proper boxy. Yeah. Yeah do it. they love them maybe. lots of health. Yeah so a few vespers that's more down south again. There's a few but there's not loads and there's

loads and loads that goes on during the summer as well like this. Festivals galore, like this weekend alone there's a possibility to go to find different ones. The most for festivals starts this week in Modena that we could go to for example. There's a local folk festival that we could go around and it's in a local village and it's basically people play old Italian folk music with a tent set up around the route.

and it's like a five kilometer walking route and you just go to each tent have a glass of wine each one and walk around and listen to Italian folk music. There's another one that I saw today that's a strawberry festival that you could go to. Like they love their Italian random food festivals like in Brizilei, the place I was saying the most picturesque place near us. They have random ones like artichoke festival, truffin fest, random stuff like that. And it's...

James Doran (41:13.741)

in the tents they do like local foods that are cooked up. Another example is like they're well into their traditions as well. So one thing I'd never heard of before I got here is something called a paliu. What a paliu is? No. It's basically, no it's not a medical thing at all. It's like, it's like palio. No, it's not palio. The most famous ones in Siena where they basically do a...

horse race around the local piazza and there's like 10 horses that go for a horse race around it. And we went to Siena three weeks ago and the piazza is not big it's like more than a foot and there's these 10 horses racing around it which is a spectacle and certain. It's a horse race round the boat. Yeah but it's a size field.

I've been to Polo but I just have to park on the Polo pitch. Okay, posh boy. But the one in Fienza is slightly different. So they do flag waving and jousting. The jousting race actually is. And then this is held over certain periods of the year and there's various, there's five Rionis that do it. So.

They each have different feeling nights on during the year as well. And it's a big thing. And like youngsters are doing it as well, which is really quite fun to see. And you see them practicing at the Thrive Club and all this kind of stuff. Is there a Sir Mr. Stroll doing it as well? At least like a bit? Yeah, very good. Terrible, but very good. I mean, you're close to Imola, right? Yeah, we are close to him. As I say, there's just so much that goes on.

around here during the summer, like winter it's pretty dead. So for you two and a half hours or three and a half hours? Yes, yeah, for three and a half hours. But yeah, obviously, it's my busy time as well, because that's when the cars actually get designed and built. So it kind of works quite nicely from that side of things. So yeah, advice to myself is make the most of it because and they kind of already have so yeah. Awesome. That's good. The other thing to say is yeah,

James Doran (43:35.245)

as I'm now progressing to be here a bit longer is to start going into sports clubs and stuff like that to start making friends outside of work. Well you can start with all these immutable sports. Maybe I should do that. Maybe I should take up jousting. I don't think the horse would quite like my weight though. it's a good excuse to drop some timber. Or use some timber. Exactly. That was what I was going for. Brilliant man. Great well thanks Adam.

Sorry, I appreciate you being on the podcast and finding time on your busy schedule of socializing and drinking wine and building F1 cars and, you know, watching them break. Yeah, I really appreciate it. The only reason you drive through the apps, that's one thing. I thought you'd have to like route them and do a nice picturesque drive. As I say, there's many ways to do the apps, but the easiest ones are going through tunnels. Yeah.

I guess I've not been through a round of school skichips to Austria but I just didn't realise. Not if you're going to Austria. You're a bit off again. You're a bit off then. Long panels. North. East of Italy. So yeah, if you're going to Austria you wouldn't be going that way. You'd be going through Germany. Yeah, I'd really go past the Amiens. So again, I was only like 15, half my age. It's a long time ago. Yeah, it is quite a while ago. I'll give you that.

I've gained intelligence since then, not much, but so. Yeah, no, I've really appreciated having you, having your insight into, I guess, moving during COVID, moving out of the UK during Brexit or post -Brexit, should I say? Well, it's still during, but it's not over yet, unfortunately. It's always post, it depends what happens afterwards. But yeah, it's really great to get some insight into that lifestyle.

Good to see that you're enjoying it. Yeah, and hopefully people have enjoyed this podcast for what rambling on we've done. I've found some advice somewhere in there. It's like finding a nice snack. At least it'll be entertaining. Well, make sure you get house with a kitchen if you move to this. There you go. There's one piece of advice to take away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Literally, it's everything but the kitchen sink.

James Doran (46:01.101)

Yeah, make sure you actually have the kitchen sink included, yes. Perfect. Well, thank you and we'll see you next time for the X -Pet Talk. And cheers. Yeah, skål. Skål.