Making š®š¹ Italy Your Home: 20 Lessons From 20 Years in Trieste
Tania Troyan 
Tania Troyan shares 20 practical tips to feel at home in Italyāfrom becoming part of the local community to speaking Italian with confidence.
Key Takeaways | Punti chiave
How Do You Really Make Italy Your Home?
Whether you are dreaming of spending more time in Italy, moving here one day, or already living here part time or for good, this is for you.
As I celebrate 20 years in Italy, I have a lot of hard-earned wisdom to share about making Italy feel like home.
A true sense of belonging does not come simply from time spent in a place. It comes from how you build and nurture your Italian Ecosystem.
Twenty years was long enough to build my Italian identity, la mia identitĆ italiana, make Italy my home, and make plenty of mistakes I can now help you avoid.
I want to mark this Italian anniversary by sharing twenty of the most important lessons Iāve learned ā lessons that can help anyone who wants to truly belong in Italy.
One for every year of my life in Trieste, so your own journey toward feeling at home in Italy can be a little less bumpy than mine.
Living in Italy and belonging to Italy are not the same thing.
I wish Iād had a shortcut. A roadmap. A cheat sheet showing me how to fast-track that authentic belonging I was craving.
Twenty years later, I am sharing with you the roadmap I wish Iād had.
Buona lettura!
1. Have Breakfast Like a Local | Fai colazione al bar
Choose a place with good coffee and turn breakfast thereāor even just a morning coffeeāinto a regular ritual.
You will quickly become part of a tiny pocket of local life. The same people arrive at the same time, read the newspaper, discuss the weather, exchange news, and occasionally solve the problems of the world before 9 a.m.
At my bar sotto casa, friendships are forged, information is exchanged, and if I disappear for too long, questions are asked.
Becoming a regular is one of the simplest ways to stop feeling anonymous and start becoming part of a neighborhood.
2. Read the Local Newspaper | Leggi il giornale locale
A local newspaper reflects the life of a place like almost nothing else.
In Trieste, it is Il Piccolo, which you can find in cafƩs around the city.
You discover not only local news, but concerts, lectures, exhibitions, cultural events, public debates, and small happenings you may never find through tourist channels.
And if you are learning Italian, local news gives you something invaluable: things to talk about.
3. Tune In to the Local Calendar | Segui il calendario locale
Every Italian town has its own rhythm and its own calendar.
In Trieste, May brings the Bavisela, summer fills the city with Trieste Estate, October means the Barcolana sailing regatta, and 3 November is the feast of San Giusto, the cityās patron saint.
And, of course, the wider Italian calendar has its own traditions too ā from religious celebrations to the relaxed rhythm of Ferragosto in August.
Do not wait for an entire year to pass before tuning in.
Find out what happens in your town. Attend the festival. Watch the procession. Cheer at the race. Go to the concert.
You do not need to be the star of a local event to become part of it.
4. Discover the True Local Cuisine | Scopri la vera cucina locale
Food is at the center of Italian social life, and every town is fiercely proud of its own traditions.
Start at the bakery.
Well, I always start at the bakery.
Then discover the dishes that belong specifically to your area.
As a vegetarian, much of traditional Triestine cuisine is off the menu for me, but la pinza, la putizza, and la torta Sacher are more than cakes.
They are an edible map of Triesteās history and geography.
5. Stay Out of the Expat Bubble | Evita la bolla degli expat
Expat friendships can be comforting, useful, and valuable.
But if they become your entire social world, they can also keep you speaking English and standing just outside Italian life.
Especially during your first years, deliberately build your life around Italian connections, places, and communities.
I avoided expat circles for almost fifteen years and immersed myself in Italian life instead.
Slightly extreme, perhaps.
But building my Italian identity had to come first.
6. Learn the Local History | Impara la storia locale
Italian towns and their inhabitants are deeply rooted in local history.
For many Italians, identity is strongly local before it's national.
Only when I intentionally began researching Triesteās history did many pieces of the local puzzle start falling into place.
Its Roman roots, centuries of conflict, and long Habsburg history help explain its architecture, food, customs, language, and identity.
Including, most importantly, its glorious bakery tradition!
7. Explore Beyond the Map | Esplora oltre la mappa
Local life extends far beyond the places listed in an official city guide.
It reaches into neighborhoods, villages, landscapes, and areas known by names you may never see on a tourist map.
Three years after moving to Trieste, I got my first bicycle and began exploring the coastline and the Carso plateau, with its trails, villages, and traditional farm taverns, le osmize.
Pedaling uphill may not be my favorite pastime, but over time the territory itself became part of my story.
Want to fast-track your Italian fluency and feel at home in Italy?
Become a priority reader for Italian You ā the one book that will take your Italian to the next level.
š Get āItalian Youā with the Priority Bonus8. Join a Local Club | Iscriviti a unāassociazione
Italyās local clubs - associazioni - bring people together around shared passions.
For someone moving to Italy, they offer one of the most natural routes into a local community.
Nothing creates connection quite like doing something you care about beside people who care about it too.
For nineteen of my twenty years here, I have belonged to different associations and even co-founded a couple.
Where do your passions lie?
Folk dancing, martial arts, termite farming, extreme ironing?
Find your associazione and ask to join it.
9. Sing in a Choir | Canta in un coro
If you have no idea which association to join, start with a local choir.
Community choirs are always very happy to welcome new members, and they create regular contact with the same peopleāand regularity is one of the secret ingredients of friendship.
Rehearsals also give you Italian practice twice over: through singing and through conversation.
And before you say you do not sing, trust me: a successful choir debut depends considerably less on vocal talent than you might imagine.
One important rule: always stay for the post-rehearsal drinks.
10. Volunteer | Fai volontariato
Choose a cause you genuinely care aboutāwhether that means helping at a hospital, an animal shelter, or a wildlife sanctuary.
Joining a club connects you through a shared passion.
Volunteering connects you through shared responsibility.
You arrive not simply looking for connection, but ready to be useful, to do the work.
That creates trust remarkably quickly.
For me, animals usually win over people, but volunteering is also about the humans you work alongside.
When you work together for something that matters, fellow volunteers can become your local Italian family.
11. Become a FAI Member | Iscriviti al FAI
FAI ā Fondo per lāAmbiente Italiano protects and promotes Italyās historical, artistic, and landscape heritage.
Membership gives you opportunities to explore properties, cultural events, and places that often reveal deeper layers of Italian life.
Most importantly, it connects you with people who share your love of culture and history.
If this is your kind of thing, it is less a membership card than a pass into deeper local cultural life.
12. Respect the Sounds of Italian | Rispetta i suoni dellāitaliano
Learn to produce Italian sounds properly instead of automatically importing the sound system of your first language.
Pronunciation is not cosmetic.
It changes how easily people understand you, how confidently you speak, and how the language physically feels when it comes out of your mouth.
As you craft your Italian sounds, you begin to craft your Italian voice.
There's no need to chase the "native" sound. But respecting the language and its sounds is a shortcut to belonging.
13. Learn a Little of the Local Dialect | Impara un poā del dialetto locale
Listen for the dialect words that slip into the Italian spoken around you.
Learn what they mean and how people use them.
You do not need to become a dialect expert.
A handful of words can be enough to show that you are paying attention to the culture around you.
I became fascinated by the Triestine dialect, il triestino, from my first days in the city.
It still amazes me how one dialect word, dropped into conversation at exactly the right moment, can create an immediate connection with a stranger.
14. Learn When to Be Formal | Impara ad essere formale
Learning Italian is not only about vocabulary and grammar.
It is also about understanding relationships and social context.
Knowing when to use Lei, the formal āyou,ā instead of tu, and knowing whether ciao is appropriate or out of place, helps you navigate Italian social rules.
Choosing the right level of formality tells the other person:
I understand the situation, and I understand our relationship within it.
I have seen perfectly fluent learners with multiple degrees cheerfully say ciao in completely inappropriate situations.
Language fluency and cultural fluency are not always the same thing. Pay attention.
Want to fast-track your Italian fluency and feel at home in Italy?
Become a priority reader for Italian You ā the one book that will take your Italian to the next level.
š Get āItalian Youā with the Priority Bonus15. Find a Local Tandem Partner | Trova un partner locale per lo scambio linguistico
Find someone local who wants to practice English and meet regularly for coffee, dividing your time between the two languages.
A regular language exchange gives you structured speaking practice and, because the help goes both ways, puts you on equal footing.
But do not confuse a tandem partner with an Italian teacher.
A tandem partner is a conversation partner, not a substitute for structured Italian learning.
16. Resist the Switch to English | Non passare allāinglese
Italians may seize the opportunity to practice their English with you.
Unless they are your tandem partnerāor your mother-in-lawāresist the switch.
Reply in Italian and keep going.
The moment a conversation becomes difficult is precisely when some of the most useful practice begins.
If something is unclear, ask them to repeat it as many times as you need.
Unapologetically. But with a smile. Con sorriso.
17. Ask People to Correct You | Chiedi agli altri di correggerti
There is an important conversation you need to have with the people you interact with most often in Italian.
Ask them to correct your mistakes.
Make it clear that you genuinely welcome those corrections.
A few years before moving to Trieste, I lived in Perugia.
It was my first experience living in Italy, and I quickly realized that people were not correcting my mistakes.
They were too nice.
So I started asking:
- Does this sound right?
- What would you say instead? Why?
Then I wrote everything down before I forgot it.
This went completely against my introverted nature. But I knew how important this was, so I pushed myself.
If fear of mistakes holds you back, learning to welcome correction is one of the most useful mindset shifts you can make.
18. Keep an Italian Diary | Tieni un diario in italiano
At the end of each day, sit down and process part of your reality in Italian.
Give Italian words to your thoughts and let the language become the prism through which you reflect on your day.
In the 3D Methodā¢, your Italian diary, il diario italiano, is an important fluency builder.
It helps you retrieve words, organize thoughts, and construct sentences without the pressure of a live conversation.
And remember - āš» write your Italian diary by hand.
Writing is not separate from speaking. Done intentionally, it wires your brain for fluency.
19. Build Your Local Italian Ecosystem | Costruisci il tuo ecosistema locale
Your local Italian Ecosystem is everything that surrounds you:
- The people you speak with
- The places you return to
- The activities you participate in
- The Italian you read and hear
- The rituals that repeatedly bring the language into your life. Daily
Your cafƩ, choir, morning newspaper, tandem partner, lessons, and Italian diary are not separate pieces.
Together, they create the world in which your Italian identity can grow.
Your Italian Ecosystem will not build itself.
Build it intentionally. With love, care, and a sense of humor.
20. Learn Italian. Properly. | Impara lāitaliano. Sul serio.
You do not need Italian to live in Italy.
There. I said it.
I know people who have lived here for decades and managed perfectly well in English.
But living in Italy and belonging to Italy are not the same thing.
If you want to understand the culture, form deep relationships, find your place in the community, and build an Italian identity, the path inevitably runs through the language.
Italian is not the icing on the cake of your life in Italy. It is the foundation.
Make it a priority.
Give it a prominent place in your calendar.
Invest time and effort in it.
Welcome it into your life and your world until you begin to feel it running through your veins.
It will change your relationship with Italy, with Italians, and with yourself.
You will become the Italian version of you.
Twenty Years Later | Ventāanni dopo
Twenty years ago, Trieste was simply the place I had moved to because that's where my School for Interpreters and Translators was.
Today, it is home.
And in those twenty years, I first built my own Italian identity, my Italian Ecosystem, and a life that feels deeply mine.
Then, I founded 7-Week ItalianĀ® and had the privilege of helping thousands of other passionate Italian learners move closer to their own Italian dream. š
I found my calling and my purpose while building the identity and life I desired.
If you were to take away just one thing from my 20 lessons, let it be this:
Feeling at home in Italy is not only about where you live. It is mostly about who you become.
About the Author
Tania Troyan is the founder of 7-Week ItalianĀ® and the author of the book š Italian You: How to Unlock Your Learning Potential, Master Italian, and Feel at Home in Italy. Sheās on a mission to change the way adults learn Italianāreplacing outdated methods with a holistic, neuroscience-based approach grounded in linguistic and cultural transformation.
Through her 3D Methodā¢ and with the support of her dedicated team of native Italian teachers, she has helped thousands of English speakers build fluency and shape their new Italian identity. She believes learning Italian should be a transformative and empowering journeyāfor mind, heart, and voiceā a journey toward your Italian Self.
Making Italy Your Home š®š¹ FAQs:
How do you make Italy feel like home after moving there?
Feeling at home in Italy comes from becoming an active participant in everyday local life, not simply living at an Italian address. Build repeated contact with the same people and places: become a regular at a cafƩ, attend local events, join an associazione, volunteer, learn the history and food of your area, and gradually build relationships in Italian.
Over time, these routines become your Italian Ecosystemāthe network of language, people, places, and habits that turns Italy from somewhere you live into somewhere you belong.
Do you need to speak Italian to live in Italy?
No. It is possible to manage daily life in some parts of Italy while relying heavily on English. But there is an important difference between living in Italy and belonging to Italy.
Italian gives you access to conversations, humor, friendships, local events, cultural nuances, and relationships that are difficult to experience fully from outside the language.
How important is learning Italian when moving to Italy?
If your goal is genuine integration, learning Italian is one of the most important investments you can make. Italian helps you move beyond functional interactions and into relationships, belonging, and cultural understanding.
You do not need perfect Italian before you arrive. Daily life in Italy can become part of your learning environment, provided you keep studying deliberately while using the language in real situations every day.
How can I integrate into Italian life after moving to Italy?
Start with ordinary local life rather than waiting for special opportunities. Become a regular at a neighborhood cafƩ, read the local newspaper, attend festivals, join an associazione, choir or sports group, volunteer, learn about local history and food, and use Italian consistently.
Integration grows through repetition. Seeing the same people, returning to the same places, and participating regularly is what gradually turns acquaintances into relationships.
How can I make Italian friends after moving to Italy?
Instead of making āfinding friendsā the activity, choose activities that naturally put you beside the same people repeatedly. Join a choir, club, sports group, volunteer organization, or language exchange.
Shared experiences create easier friendships than forced networking. Regular contact gives conversation and trust time to develop naturally.
How can I avoid the expat bubble while living in Italy?
You do not need to avoid other foreigners, but make sure English-speaking expat circles are not your entire social world. Deliberately build part of your week around Italian-speaking people, places, and activities.
Join local organizations, attend Italian events, maintain Italian-language routines, and resist automatically returning to English whenever communication becomes difficult.
What is the best way to practice Italian while living in Italy?
The strongest approach combines structured learning with deliberate real-life use. Speak Italian in everyday interactions, find a tandem partner, ask trusted Italian speakers to correct you, keep an Italian diary, and join local activities where Italian is the normal language.
Living in Italy gives you enormous exposure, but exposure alone does not guarantee fluency. You still need to notice, practice, retrieve, and use the language actively.
Should I learn the local dialect when living in Italy?
You do not need to speak a local dialect fluently. But learning a few words and understanding when they are used can give you insight into local identity and create surprisingly strong connections.
In Trieste, for example, understanding a little triestino helps you hear the city differently and recognize how local culture enters everyday Italian. Start by listening.
How can I immerse myself in Italian culture while living in Italy?
Immersion works best when culture becomes part of your ordinary week. Read local news, attend festivals, learn regional food and history, explore neighborhoods and nearby villages, join community groups, volunteer, listen carefully to local speech, and use Italian throughout your day.
Immersion is not one activity. It is an environment you build around yourself.
What is it like moving to Trieste as a foreigner?
Trieste has a distinctive identity shaped by its geography, history, multilingual influences, and position between Italian, Central European, and Adriatic cultures.
From my own twenty years living here, the city became much easier to understand when I began learning its history, attending local events, exploring the Karst, discovering local food and traditions, understanding some Triestine dialect, and building relationships in Italian.
Moving to Trieste is not only about learning where things are. It is about learning how the city thinks, speaks, celebrates, and remembers.
Can I live in Italy without becoming fluent in Italian?
Yes. It is possible to manage daily life in some parts of Italy without becoming fluent. But if you want deeper relationships, greater independence, cultural understanding, and a stronger sense of belonging, developing good Italian becomes enormously valuable.
You do not need perfection. What matters is that your Italian keeps becoming more capable, more natural, and more genuinely yours.
Italian You ā build your Italian Ecosystem to fast-track fluency
Want to fast-track your Italian fluency and become part of the Italian culture? Become a priority reader of Italian You ā the book that helps you not just learn, but speak, think, and become more Italian.
- Avoid the pitfalls of outdated learning methods.
- Create an immersive Italian Ecosystem that makes fluency feel effortless.
- Master grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation naturally.
- Stay motivated and committed to your learning journey.
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