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Writer's pictureChiara Marturano

Expat Journal

Holidays at friend'

Vicoli genovesi Vita da expat

Random phrases from Emma on this vacation!


"This is the best ice cream in the world! This is the best pizza in the world! This is the best croissant in the world!

But do people only live in apartment buildings? Aren't there any houses?

Mom, there are too many people, there's too much noise!

How beautiful the blue sky is! Mom, it's hot!

But are the playgrounds so small?

Mom, bikes don't fit in that bike path!

I don't like the buses here.

How beautiful the color of the sea is!

Mom, today was the best day of my life!"

And then there are the heart friends, despite the distance.


When you emigrate with your family, you hope to give your children the best and that their life will be simpler and happier.

Then difficulties arise, and you think you've messed up, that you've ruined their lives.


Maybe it would have been better in Italy.



Even though we only speak Italian at home, the kids spend a lot of time listening to and speaking Dutch. And, as happens to me too, they start replacing some Italian words with Dutch ones. Sentences become a linguistic puzzle.

They absorb approaches to life, to study, to relationships.

Their roots are Italian, but hybrid ones are emerging, tied only to the land where they are growing up.

I'm not afraid of this detachment. I would like them to feel comfortable wherever they go without having to make comparisons like "things work badly here, they work better for us."

Citizens of the world welcome and adapt to what they find; if it doesn't meet their needs and values, they change and find something that satisfies them more.

They let each passage transform them.

This attitude of flexibility and adaptability helps them grow and evolve continuously as they navigate through the various facets of the world.

I think of them and wonder if they will feel this way, if they will understand the positive side of being bilingual and having many places to call home, many people to feel like family.


But doubts remain. Did I do the right thing by raising them here?



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