What I Wish I’d Known Before Moving to Italy as a Wellness Professional

When I moved to Italy in 2016, I knew that starting over in another country wouldn't necessarily be easy.

What I wasn't prepared for was just how many things I would need to figure out at the same time.

There was the move itself, culture shock, learning a new language and adjusting to a completely different way of life. At the same time, I was trying to understand how I could actually start working and build a career as a wellness professional in Italy.

Finding reliable information was confusing. I didn't always know which questions I needed to ask, let alone where to find the answers.

There was a lot of trial and error. Bad information. Frustration. Wasted time.

And underneath all of that was the destabilizing experience of trying to build a new life in a country whose systems and culture I was still learning to navigate.

Ten years later, I run Worldly Wellness in Florence, working with local and international massage clients as well as villas, retreats and events throughout Tuscany.

There are many things I understand now that I wish someone had explained to me when I was starting.

If you're a massage therapist, yoga teacher, mindfulness instructor or another wellness professional dreaming about building a life and career in Italy, these are some of the things I wish I'd known.

1. Moving to Italy and working in Italy are two different challenges

When you're dreaming about moving abroad, it's easy to focus on the move itself.

Where will I live? How will I get there? What paperwork do I need? What will my new life look like?

But being able to live in Italy and understanding how you're going to work in Italy are separate questions.

I was trying to navigate both while simultaneously adapting to life in a new country. It was overwhelming.

I wish I had spent much more time before the move researching not only how I could get to Italy, but what establishing myself professionally would actually involve once I arrived.

There isn't necessarily one tidy checklist that applies to every wellness professional. Your nationality, immigration status, qualifications, profession and how you intend to work can all affect the path you need to take.

I eventually found my way through it, but I could have saved myself an enormous amount of time and frustration by approaching moving to Italy and building a career in Italy as two interconnected—but distinct—projects.

2. Italy has a lot of sfumature

One of the Italian words I've come to appreciate is sfumature.

Literally, it means shades or nuances.

And there are a lot of them here.

Coming from the United States, I was accustomed to wanting a relatively straightforward answer:

Can I do this or can't I?

What form do I need?

What category does my profession belong to?

What exactly are the rules?

Italy taught me that often the answer isn't as black and white as you'd like it to be.

Different professionals may interpret something differently. Your particular circumstances matter. There can be a difference between what theoretically exists on paper and how something actually works in practice.

Learning to operate comfortably in an environment with more gray areas was a real learning curve for me.

That doesn't mean ignoring rules or accepting an answer you don't understand. Quite the opposite. It means learning which questions to ask, who to ask, and when you need professional advice rather than another afternoon of Googling.

I wasted plenty of time trying to find definitive answers to questions that were more nuanced than I realized.

Understanding that sfumature are part of navigating life and business here would have saved me a lot of frustration.

3. Expect some trial and error—but you don't have to reinvent the wheel

I made mistakes.

I followed bad information. I spent time researching things that led nowhere. I spoke to people who gave me contradictory answers. I tried things that didn't work.

Some trial and error is inevitable when you're building a business anywhere, but doing it in another country adds another layer.

You're learning the professional system while also learning the culture behind it.

Looking back, I wish I'd had a resource specifically written for someone like me: a foreign wellness professional trying to understand how to start building a legitimate working life in Italy.

Not because a guide could have answered every question for my individual situation, but because it could have helped me understand the landscape.

Knowing what you need to investigate is half the battle.

4. I wish I'd started learning Italian before I moved

This is probably one of the biggest things I would change.

I wish I had started learning Italian before moving to Italy.

It would have simplified my life tremendously.

Language isn't only about being able to order dinner or chat with your neighbors. If you're planning to actually build a life and business here, it affects almost everything.

Speaking Italian made it easier for me to assimilate, navigate everyday life and eventually work much more effectively.

Today, it allows me to communicate directly with Italian colleagues and collaborators. I can coordinate with villa staff when I'm providing treatments for guests. I can build relationships with local professionals rather than limiting my network to English speakers.

And there was another enormous professional milestone:

getting my Italian driver's license.

Being able to drive significantly expanded where and how I could work.

That's especially important for the business I've built in Tuscany. When you're providing massage and wellness services at private villas, retreats and events, mobility opens opportunities that simply aren't practical otherwise.

If I could give my 2016 self one piece of homework before getting on the plane, it would be:

Start learning Italian now.

You don't have to arrive fluent.

But don't wait until you're here to begin.

5. Your network may become one of your greatest business assets

If you had asked me when I started Worldly Wellness where my future clients would come from, I'm not sure I would have predicted just how important relationships would become.

Today, I estimate that around 90% of my business comes through networking and word of mouth.

One studio client recommends me to another.

Someone I've worked with remembers me when a friend needs a massage therapist.

A villa manager passes my contact information to another villa manager.

A collaborator introduces me to someone organizing a retreat.

One relationship leads to another.

This has been particularly important as my business has expanded beyond studio massage in Florence into villas, retreats and events around Tuscany.

There is a wonderful Italian word for this too:

passaparola — word of mouth.

Your website and social media matter. Being discoverable online matters. Marketing matters.

But don't underestimate the value of becoming someone people know, trust and feel comfortable recommending.

Your professional network isn't something separate from your business.

It is part of the business.

6. Be prepared for things to move slowly

Italy has taught me patience.

Sometimes unwillingly.

Things can move at a very slow pace here.

Bureaucracy can take time. Building relationships takes time. Establishing a reputation takes time. Developing a reliable client base takes time.

And when you're eager to start your new life, that can be incredibly frustrating.

You may arrive motivated and ready to work, but that doesn't mean your business will immediately move at the same speed as your enthusiasm.

I wish I had been more prepared for a slow start.

Not because building a successful wellness career here isn't possible—I am now a decade into doing exactly that—but because realistic expectations would have made the early stages much easier emotionally and financially.

Give yourself runway.

Give yourself time to understand the system.

Give yourself time to learn the language.

Give yourself time to meet people.

Give people time to get to know and trust you.

And, particularly when you're making your financial plans, don't build them around everything going perfectly or quickly.

Ten years later, here's what I know

Building Worldly Wellness in Italy has involved far more than learning how to give a good massage, teach mindfulness or lead a wellness experience.

I've had to learn how to be a wellness professional in Italy.

I've learned the language. I've navigated bureaucracy. I've learned to become more comfortable with sfumature. I've built a professional network from scratch. I've learned how much passaparola matters. I've developed relationships with colleagues, clients, villa managers and other professionals throughout Tuscany.

And I'm still learning.

I don't think there's one perfect blueprint for moving to Italy and starting a wellness business here. Everyone arrives with a different nationality, profession, qualification, financial situation and idea of what they want their life to look like.

But I do believe you can arrive far better prepared than I did.

The resource I wish I'd had

That experience is why I created L'Essenziale: The Italian Relocation Guide for Wellness Professionals.

It's the resource I wish someone could have handed me when I was trying to make sense of everything.

Rather than spending countless hours trying to piece together disconnected information, my goal is to help other wellness professionals understand the landscape, know what questions they need to ask and approach their move with much more realistic expectations.

It's designed specifically with wellness professionals in mind—including massage therapists, yoga teachers, mindfulness professionals, counselors, psychologists and others considering bringing their work to Italy.

And for those who want to go deeper, I've also created In Più: Advanced Strategies for Wellness Professionals in Italy, covering the practical realities of areas such as language, finding work, contracts and self-employment, renting treatment space, pricing, Italian business culture and building a sustainable professional life here.

I can't eliminate every sfumatura you'll encounter along the way.

But I can help you start with something I didn't have:

a map.