Dreaming of Living Abroad

Hmmmnn. island, sun, ocean. I think that's the key. Not to mention the snail-paced lifestyle. I think it may increase everyone's life expectancy.

--not to mention, natural additive-free food!
Thanks Steven!

Ciao.

Hey Teresa,
My parents took my brothers and I on a 4 week trip to Italy in May 07. We did a 2 week tour of the entire country and spend 2 weeks with family (Abruzze region). I absolutely LOVED it there. I had been getting on my parents about applying for their citizenship but you know how that goes, out of sight out of mind. I gathered all the paper work and brought them with me to the Vice-Consulate becausec I wanted to get mine and wasn't able to without them.

As far as I know, your children are able to get their Italian citizenship whether your husband revoked his Italian or not but that depends when he became a CDN citizen and what year your kids were born, process might be a bit longer in that respect.

Italy is absolutely gorgeous. I loved every minute of my time there. Obviously I feel conected to it because of my family's history but the laid back lifestyle was definatley a nice change.

Before you move to Poland, maybe you experiment with some rural life in Canada. The "European town" sounds idealistic, but it may not be the panacea you seek. Try some typical relocation research, such as cost of living, medical care, social welfare, retirement, etc.

Hello!
A comment from a Dutch citizen having lived for many years in Canada, and France, and Holland, and Africa.
A book about emigrating to Canada told me Canadians "work to live" while Europeans "live to work". I almost fell off my chair laughing. It is true that some cultures spend more time relaxing than others, but in France, Canada, Holland, you'll always find that with certain jobs (for example: management!) you tend to have to be a workaholic, whilst with others, you can relax more.
A few differences between Canada and France for example:
France: loooooong lunch breaks with hot meals (sandwiches? are you nuts?! Nooooo, you need an appetizer, main course, wine, dessert, and coffee of course!)
Canada: sandwich will be fine thanks. Longer lunch if you need to get yourself a business deal, or if you're a mister/miss fancy-pants, or if you just so happen to be lucky, rich, and have loads of time.
(Dutch: sandwiches, sandwiches only, and you need to make them at home every morning. almost no one buys their lunch during their lunch break!)
France: bureaucracy: aaaawful! (but some light bending of the rules as well, and that can sometimes be fun and harmless)
Canada: bureaucracy: average.
Where I am living (rural Brittany, northern France): climate comparable to Vancouver (read: rainy, a lot of gray skies, pretty summers that aren't too hot). region is gorgeous (breathtaking views of cliffs, ocean, etc) culture: these are seriously the nicest people i have met aside from Canadians. Dutch are nice to tourists but a lot less nice to people who stay or to their own citizens. Breton-French are nice to everyone. Work: every place has a few lazy guys, but where I live everyone works super long hours! My boyfriend works in a small construction company and still manages to work from 7.15am till 6.45am every day, and extra on every single Saturday! And what has him worried about Canada? The fact that he thinks no one gets more than two weeks of holiday a year.
But honestly, would you rather work shorter hours and spend time with the kids each day of your life, or see them intensely for 5 weeks a year?
I'll take option 1 please.
Either way, what I really want to say is: don't change country because life will be better. Change because the change will give you new reasons to live, fight, be optimistic, be creative, be adventurous.
Because in the end you are best off living there where you can get a job you LIKE, where your husband can get one he LIKES, where your kids can get a good education and make good friends, and where the climate and culture makes you feel happy and not burdened.
Good luck!
p.s.- a lot of Polish flee to The Netherlands, France, etc because they cannot find jobs in Poland (high unemployment). So beware of that. My advice is just to secure a job BEFORE making the move to Europe. Except for that, don't worry and pick a place where you and your family like the climate and culture/language, and where it isn't too hard to enter

EU passport- translation-> passport of an EU country.

I agree

I said EU passport because I have a Dutch passport and live and work in the UK without.

Without the British I assume? You must have the Dutch with you.