This is not a question. It is more of a

And yet they are still in the Shit with very high unemployment, state industries such as ENEL rip people off due to hardly any competition.

Although Italy is suffering from high unemployment this is also happening in quite a few countries as a consequence of the world crisis which started in 2008. As for ENEL, it is no longer a fully state owned company and deregulation is helping to introduce more providers into the country; however, the high cost of electricity in Italy has to do with higher production costs. This article explains some of these issues http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enel

I think people often have strong opinions about places they really don't understand. Plus the media seems to relish focusing on negative news coming out of Italy rather than the positive. Yes there are a lot of problems here, I wouldn't deny that. But there are so many positives too. I personally chose to live in Italy rather than the USA and though it was hard in the beginning, our day to day lifestyle is really what makes it worth it.

So what do you actually do for a living? which is the big problem with trying to live in Italy.

Italy is a beautiful place with a much better social acceptance of people of all ages, unlike Britain where anyone over 45 is considered an old fogey and forced to wear beige.

But call it taupe and its fashionable.

I suppose so, but the great thing about being in Italy is that you can be 75, wear a lime green puffa jacket and tight orange jeans and nobody will bat an eyelid.

embrace the puffa ;-)

I've just got back from Lucca and have started subscribing to the ex-pat magazine, Lucca Grapevine, a lovely little magazine that contains some excellent articles and also lists useful contacts.They were describing a wonderful event that took place recently to raise money for charity. This was a white evening of elegance. Everyone was invited to the main piazza but they were asked to wear white, bring their table (complete with white cloth, candelabra etc ) No plastic was allowed! This is the sort of thing I love about Italy! It sounded like something out of a Marcello Mostroianni film!

The white dinners started in France, I believe. I've done several in San Francisco as a pop-up dinner event (the location was revealed only hours before the dinner). Glad to hear they are in Italy, too!

They are becoming very popular all over the world http://dinerenblanc.info

Grapevine Is an excellent source of information for the area.

They do something similar to that in Florence, dress in all white and bring tables, wine glasses etc. I haven't yet gotten to visit but it does sound interesting :).

Apparently dinerenblanc is not cena in bianco nor white dining - I suspect there is competition and the reputation of advertisers at stake! I like the idea of a sort of flash mob dinner much more than some corporate product designed to sell iwatches or the like....

The event in Lucca was entitled Andare Oltre si Puo and is to support families facing the challenge of Down Syndrome. http://www.andareoltresipuo.it/it/2015-04-20-15-55-00/2015-04-20-16-04-38/white-party-2015 This was their second year.I hope I'm in town for the 2016 event!