I've noticed that in Trieste right now everyone seems to be having a difficult time economically. There is just not that much money floating around. What continues to surprise me, however, is how good people are here about it. Let me explain. When I lived in the States, there was NO WAY I could survive if my pay were two months late (and I made a hell of a lot more money than I make now). Here, it happens to me (I'm freelance so that's to be expected) and my husband (who is a regular employee of a company) all the time, and we're not the only ones. It's almost normal. You work your normal hours and payday comes and goes, but the money never makes it to your account. Often there is no explanation or any kind of conversation about it. You just don't get paid. When the money comes in, whenever that is, you probably will. No use in complaining about it (this is not to say that a fair amount of complaining doesn't get done, because it does), you just have to suck it up and wait, just like your company is doing. End of story.
Since Italy has lots of small companies (a company the size of say, Illycaffè, by the way, even though it's an international brand and a pretty big outfit, is considered a medium-sized company and most people here work for companies which are teeny by comparison, and family owned) there just isn't that safety net of money for employers to rely on when things get tough. Getting rid of people is much more difficult than not paying them and waiting for the sun to come out, so that's what happens. Employees who don't get paid hang on with the same optimism of brighter days ahead-- that, and they're terrified of not finding another job, or worse, of getting another job but having no benefits and/or a lousy contract.
I was already on my way to a simple life before I came here, but living in Italy makes it much easier. Since I spend a fair amount of time complaining in my blogs, I figure it's high time I praise Italy and my triestino friends for what somehow allows me to live with a sense of security even though I don't have that much money. Here we go.
1. Healthcare. The inner peace you get from knowing you have it and that it can't get taken away from you goes without saying. It's also very easy to get here. If you're married to an Italian you qualify for it automatically. If you're a foreigner living here with a proper visa, you can also pay into the healthcare fund every year and get coverage (and if I remember correctly it costs less than what it would cost to pay for insurance from abroad, but this must be verified). In the States, the only time I didn't live in constant paranoia about healthcare was when I was covered under my parents' policy and that's because I was too young to know what could have happened if one of them lost their jobs and would have had to pay for, say, a broken arm, out of pocket. Throughout my adult life I was constantly worried about getting laid off or fired from a job and losing that coverage. I no longer carry that burden (Fire me all you want, suckers!!). That being said, I shutter to think about how much it would cost to have a baby without insurance in the States (a thought that never occurred to me before, but now that I'm seven months along, it somehow comes to mind).
2. Fresh food is cheap. Very delicious, locally grown food (I don't know about packaged food here, because I stay away from it unless you count the roll of pizza dough I use to make homemade pizza a couple times a month) doesn't cost much. It almost always tastes good. After about 150,000 peaches consumed this summer, today I had my first kind of funky one, but that might just mean the season's coming to an end. No fear, I have a two-euro giant watermelon waiting for me on the bottom shelf of the fridge to compensate. If you don't mind cooking stuff up yourself (and if you do, just eat stuff raw for heavens' sakes!), you can really live on a small grocery bill.
3 and 4. One car is totally doable and banks are meaner. I live in what is condescendingly referred to as "la periferia" as in not downtown or in the fashionable Carso. It's a working-class area with big and horrible-looking apartment buildings (I happen to live in one of them), the Stadium, lots of grocery stores, and a ton of busses which take you downtown and to the train station at the end of the line in 20 minutes or less. You find a lot of nice people here, young families and other folks living the simple life. I happen to love it. What attracted us to this area was the abundance of affordable housing which allowed us to buy a small apartment (with a parking spot in a big garage) on one salary (which is what we were living on at the time). Thanks to the fact that the bank required us to pay 20% down (no money, no mortgage, which is what I meant when I said they were meaner, but it's really just tough love and it was for our own good) and we were able to cover that by cleaning out our piggy banks and putting the money together, our monthly mortgage payment now is about the same as what I paid for rent my first year of university 18 years ago in Milwaukee (not, say Manhattan, and I lived in an apartment roughly the same size). As far as cars, we could probably get by without one, but when I worked in Basovizza in the Carso, it was handy to have one, as it meant 10 minutes instead of an hour-long bus ride (the periferia is not well connected to the Carso) and I often work out of town.
5. Bartering. I thank my lucky stars for portable skills. Having decent English language skills for translations and English lessons has helped me save money on lots of things, both for me and for the non-profit I run: legal services, accounting services, help with phone bills, all kinds of things. This is a culture where professionals help each other out through trading services. It rocks. I also learned Italian and worked on my Portuguese by trading half hour language lessons with friends I met here. Bartering gives you immediate value for your work and there are no taxes to pay (bartering, sadly, does not make taxes go away but it doesn't give you any additional ones, either, so it is still a win-win). My advice to young people starting out in the world: hone your portable skills.
6. There is free stuff to do everywhere: nature (Adriatic sea, Carso, Val Rosandra, public gardens, etc), look at historic stuff (downtown architecture and piazzas, Miramar gardens, free museums, etc), concerts and events (thank you, Comune and cultural associations), and two very kick-ass bike paths means there's plenty to do without breaking out the pocket book.
7. Ice Cream is cheap if you know where to go. I go to Marco downtown (not far from Piazza Unita, accross the street from the Roman theater, you know, by the Questura). He's still at 1.00 a scoop and his stuff is about the tastiest in Trieste.
Um. That's about all I can think of for now. But I think that's a pretty good start.
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