No Dolce Vita for Italy’s youth 

I was working as an external IT consultant in an aerospace company in Rome, my salary was 1450 euros. I couldn't afford to rent an apartment, I was depressed. Emigrating was the only solution to get out of this condition.

Dolce vita ended in the 80s like the american dream.

As someone who left Italy long time ago, Italy is great just for holidays.

"L'Italia è come il primo villaggio in un rpg, è fatto per essere abbandonato."

Living in Italy it's a dream, if you don't wanna getting rich

Italy is the best country in the world IF AND ONLY IF you don't need to work for living.

In Italia si lavora un sacco e si guadagna un cacchio!

02:02 Un enorme ringraziamento a tutti i governi degli ultimi 30 anni, incredibilmente lungimiranti, e che soprattutto non hanno badato solo a risultati nel breve termine per ingraziarsi la fascia elettorale più ampia (ovvero i vecchi)

I'm American, but moved to Italy from London for love. Overall, it's the best country I lived in for quality of life and a sense of community, but it's extremely hard to find work. I've been here for a year and can't find work as a skilled worker and I speak Italian. I love it here, but if there's no future for me, I don't see a future for my future kids.

I moved back to Italy after living in several different countries abroad. While it's true that salaries here are a joke and moving up the career ladder feels more like a dream than a real possibility, the quality of life in this country is hella high. Unfortunately, it took me years to understand that happiness isn’t tied to the career you have and the money you make. Yeah, I’m happier here, way more serene and healthier. If only bureaucracy and taxes weren’t such a pain in the a**.

As a 23 year old Italian who left 3 years ago, there really is no Dolce Vita for us.

I had the same idea of Leonardo: go away and then come back in Italy to support with new ideas a new model of development. This was 30 years ago. I'm now 60 years old and live in Switzerland, where everything I expected from job market and business was the simple reality of every day. When I think of going back to Italy, and I understand the real resons why things work the way they work there, in my mind I think I will give up the second part of the project, because it is simply impossibile.

I lived in London for 4 years and I moved back to Italy because there the situation is even worse, fortunately I live in the north east of Italy where at least the job is not a problem, unfortunately the south Italy job market doesn't exist and I understand the difficulties the people have to face there.

In Italy today a young person lives well only if he or she has legacies. Starting from scratch is impossible or in the rare cases of success means that you have sacrificed your youth to do so.

When I hear these stories I remember why I left the country. The hopelessness I was feeling was unbearable for me, it was even stronger than the fear to not being able to make it in a stranger country. I’m so glad I left all this behind. I feel sorry for who is in that place now, I hope things will change.

Italy is the best place to live if you are ALREADY rich

I totally relate to the participants in the video. I am 25. Twenty days ago I graduated from the University of Turin, after completing a master’s degree in European Legal Studies. It’s been several months since I moved to Milan and all my efforts to find an internship have so far been in vain: some of my applications have been rejected and some haven’t even been reviewed. I’m a foreigner and I feel a bit fooled because I was always told that getting a degree would lead me to make a living. Now I am somewhat disappointed as I start to feel that maybe I am not well-prepared or for the labour market, though my thesis was on quite a relevant topic of AI and Legal Issues of Manipulation. It’s very frustrating to devote so much time and effort doing a degree and then witness you can not make use of it

Situation in Italy for young people is very bad. I left Milan 4 years ago and I’m living way better now abroad. Not having a minimum wage is a CRIME

I live in northern italy (Emilia-Romagna) and i consider myself a working poor earning just above average national pay. I was unemployed for a lot of time too, but now i am in stable working condition, even if pay is on the low side. Luckily i don't have to pay for housing but, it's probably the thing that keeps me here. I tried living abroad for a year too but it's not for me.. too high cost of living (USA) and quality of life went down the drain... couldn't afford anything beyond basic living necessities and i had a high paying job there. But Leonardo is right on the fact that our education system does not prepare you for the actual job market... i had to get private courses after university to find something.

As a very young entrepreneur originally from Venice, who left Italy many years ago to start businesses in Iceland I can say my experience has been beyond great! No comparison between the bureaucracy, markets and overall ease of doing business here in the northernmost capital of the World. It’s been already half of my life outside of Italy and I think will continue, although I would want to go back but then again, just to retire as an older person. My father always told me there are no opportunities and I should go - it’s really sad to see that the situation just keeps getting worse:(

In italy where there is work it is impossible to find housing, where there is housing there is no work.

Having done this a long time ago I can only tell you this: if you have saved a couple thousands euros, leave the country and don t look back. That s literally what I started with, all you need to know is the language of where you want to go, and it'll work out far better than in Italy, no matter what you wanna do. Italy is mot a place for young people, and the old fools who got it easy and maybe even keep complaining about young people will realise soon the mistake they made, either through their pensions or national healthcare. Such drainage of young talent will have dire consequences in the near future. Hopeless country ruled by hopeless people.

Io ho 25 anni e ho lasciato l’Italia 2 anni e mezzo fa. Diplomato in meccanica e meccatronica in Emilia-Romagna, avevo trovato un lavoro che pagava quasi bene per l’età e la posizione lavorativa. Quello che mi spinse ad andare via è tutta questa cultura di nonnismo al lavoro (e non) che trovo insopportabile. Un giorno un responsabile di produzione venne da me a dirmi: “se continui a fare un bel lavoro, magari tra 20 anni ti faccio caporeparto”. Lì è scattata una sorta d’allarme. All’inizio ero un po’ restio ad andare a vivere all’estero ma adesso penso che sia stata la scelta più sensata da fare.

As an American currently studying in this beautiful country, my heart is heavy that young people feel they have to leave their home just to survive. This has been going on for some time and it doesn't seem like it would take that much for the government to invest in its youth (and, might I add, for it's own survival and viability longterm). The young man is right -- the education system and the job market need to talk to each other. We have our issues in the US as well. The cost of college has simply become prohibitive for a lot of Americans. And yet, our society says you simply must have a degree to be successful. But then you can be stuck paying back college debt for (literally) the rest of your life if you don't find a high-earning job. I so wish the best for these two young men (everyone in this situation, really) but especially Leonardo. His frustration and sadness was palpable. But Italians are strong stock -- I have every faith that he will indeed make his dreams come true and then return to Italy to give back. Bravo young man

There's an Italian song that sums it up well enough. Mistaman - Si salvi chi può

I'm 27 years old, I worked as a cook for 10 years, then I went into total burnout because I worked from 10 to 14/15 hours a day for 1400 euros, as soon as I asked for a raise after 4 years I worked in that place and I had to argue with the owners to get 400 euros more in addition to the mobbing after the request, so I quit and now I'm happy to say that I'll go back to work But abroad in Holland and I don't care that it is more expensive than Italy here I don't see a future and I don't see any prospects, I firmly believe that abroad there are more opportunities in many fields than we do We Italians are not even used to thinking, I hope it is a message that can be shared and that it acts as an alarm for those who are young in Italy and for those who are abroad and think that living the "Bella vita" is a fiction, You can do it if you are very wealthy and maybe you are there for a "working holiday" but I wouldn't recommend it for settling down permanently.

As an Italian , who lives to work to plan his future, even with a surplus on the average pay.. it's close to impossible to buy a house or go leave alone without spending more than what you earn .. I'm planning to leave soon and see if things can be better outside !

From Vicenza to Michigan in 2016… well, the financial situation is way better than Italy but I find that even though salaries in the United States are much more generous, at least in my experience, many aspects related to quality of life are debatable. In the United States, as well as in other countries where I've lived, you can forget about the quality of life you find in Italy, which can potentially affect not only your mood but also your health. To sum it up, I can say that while the financial aspect is easily addressed by moving abroad, the price to pay in terms of quality of life is not always worth it.

I'm an italian, I worked in my profession (across 3 different companies) for 8 years, but all the job offers that cover my expertise are looking for 20 year old interns 🙃 I'm 34 and I support a family of two, I can't do that anymore, I need a real full-time job with full pay. I'm lucky I'm working right now, but i had to compromise a lot because there was literally nothing else for me. I'm too overqualified or too old for certain positions, and not qualified enough for managerial work. And I'm sure there are many people in my same situation, settling in terrible conditions in mediocre PMIs.

there is a big difference between northern and southern Italy. Northern Italy in terms of standard of living and job opportunities can be compared to southern France. Public services work and there is still a civic sense. Southern Italy lacks jobs and public services are at the level of Saharan Africa.

The main issue of Italy is not the lack of job (there would be plenty of opportunities if only politicians managed the labour market in a “fair” and not “obsolete” way) but the corruption, favouritisms within relatives and friends( if you want to become a professor, a judge or to work in the public sector it’s basically impossibile to have a little possibility if you don’t have any powerful link with someone of the system), the economical and wealth differences between north and south, the expensive rent in big cities (not only in Rome and Milan) and the exploitations of workers by employers that don’t have rigorous rules to follow. Moreover, manual jobs have been understimated for the past 30/40 years and there are consequently hundreds of underpayed lawyers, teachers (but not engineers) and ZERO artisans, plumbers. The only solution that many young people find is to cross the fingers for a public employment (since public salaries are the same in each part of Italy, it could be very different to be a civil servant in Rome rather than in some small town) or to go away. I’ll go for the second one!

I'm a doctor. Mine is usually a very well paid job, but here is like the others. Imagine a neurosurgeon or an othopedic, a very wealthy professional in every other region of the world: here you get 1500€/month working 60h/week during the specialization and after that you go up to 2500€ in the beginning and 3300€ when you are expert. Self-imployeds, even bricklayers, make more than that.

There is a significant gap between the starting points of the two guys in the video. One of them could only rely on his own strength, while the other had assured support. As in every country, money makes a difference. Unfortunately, in Italy, the class divide is widening, similar to what is seen in some less developed countries.

I live in Florida and there are some people in my neighborhood who are from Italy, husband and wife with their two sons and they moved here for a reason and that reason wasn’t because life was so great there. When our governments make it hard to do business, they make it hard for people to live and so people leave.

Il problema è che gli affitti dove c'è molto mercato del lavoro, superano persino gli stipendi medi italiani. Questo perchè c'è molto afflusso di turisti che affittano per qualche mese B&B. La cosa brutta è che sta prendendo piede a più non posso questa moda. Per fortuna prendo un buon stipendio, ma se perdessi il lavoro per qualsiasi motivo, dovrò ricominciare d'accapo con uno stipendio base. E se non riesco a riuscire a sopravvivere a fine mese, addio lavoro e forse anche l'Italia.

Yeah, of course in Italy there's "vita lenta": in Italy things move at glacial pace, burocracy is mind-boggling, inflation is ever-growing and corruption is rampant. And there's no solution to this: the ones who should decide to change things are exactly the ones who want to mantain the status quo

The problem is not Italy. The problem is the salary. Increase it and it’ll become the number one place in the world to live

I live in south Italy and here the job market is the worst, if you find a regular, normally paid and not toxic job you're considered Lucky

Ten years ago, I walked away. Now, I’m lecturing at one of the top three universities in the world. Had I stayed, I’d likely still be stuck volunteering at the local ASL, watching my potential wither away.

It is incredibly hard to find jobs, minimum wage does not exist, skilled people end up leaving the country, young people are depressed...yet the government insists that the number 1 problem are immigrants...

I had three different jobs in the last year and a half, earning between 800 and 1100€, working full time [with occasional (not paid) overtime] and with little to none growth rate. I got so full of this that I’m sadly starting university soon here in Italy (I would go abroad if I could) to get my degree and then I’m going to be outta here with the biggest smile this world has ever seen.

I'm a 26yo italian from the north east, I never had issues getting employed, always worked and studied very hard (even though I don't have a uni degree), never worked "in nero" (without contract) and I never relate to these videos or some other italian people's experiences. Yes, it is not the best country if you want to make money (too many taxes and regulations), but I don't want to lol. I ork from home, earn enough to pay rent, to go to restaurants and to go on holiday, I live close to Garda lake, not too far from the sea or mountains, so I'm happy to say I am living my dolce vita :)

How can I get hold of Leonardo? His diction is perfect and he would be fantastic as an on-line Italian teacher. I for one would be truly grateful to have weekly sessions on-line to learn from him. He doesn’t need to be able to speak English. Can you put me in touch with him?

L'italia è solo bella per le vacanze. Per il resto mi pento di non essere andato via quando potevo farlo in serenità.

This is a great documentary! I personally left Italy at age 24, just a couple of days after my graduation. I never looked back for 15 years, as I felt in a place where I grew and felt valued professionally and more . Italy was seducing me from a distance, and now when I decided to come back few years ago, the truth about the country poor organization and lack of opportunities, and the way someone skilled with international experience, is treated like a piece of crap, was not be the best welcome I wished for. I have a channel where I encourage Italians to move away for work and to open their mind to a world of opportunities....

I was exactly in the same situation and the same city in 2012. I spent 1 year in Arezzo, I was harvesting grapes for 4 weeks, I was waiting for my payment 20 weeks (no joke). I couldn't socialize much with another people, not having money. I spent a lot of time walking alone around the city because of that I know every corner of centro storico, I saw Giostra del Saracino. Is very beautiful place but unfortunately I left there only sadness and disappointment. I hope that one day I will come back to Italy and I will be able to live there as a tourist for the rest of my life.

Lived in Italy for 16 years and hated every minute of it, as soon as I got my passport and British citizenship I moved back to England, not enough opportunities for work and my career in film, wasn’t the place for me

I moved to Italy 4 years ago. Like anywhere if you want a cushy job in the city there are 'very limited options' and life is expensive because there is so much competition. If you are prepared to work hard in rural Italy there is always work and life is cheap and beautiful. I didn't even speak Italian but I could always easily find work (and hardly anyone where I live speaks English, I learned the language fast this way!) Italian work culture is centered around doing as little as possible, so businesses cry out for foreign labourers to do any and all hard work.

Talking about tech, it's not always true that you have to go private, there are many ways in the public, including the university to get top-notch skills almost free of charge. At my university more than half of the students have a scholarship, and as early as the first year proposals for well-paying jobs started coming in. I lived abroad working in the tech sector as a graduate, but I decided to return to Italy to continue studying, hoping to bring my contribution to this country. I also believe that you don't have to study to do a job that brings earnings, but you have to study what the individual likes, and then the world of work will adapt to that, not risking stagnation and activating the social elevator.

Don't move to the Netherlands 🇳🇱 we don't have houses and we are in deep shit aswell Mutch love to Italy

Sadly, italy is a country made by old people and built for old people. The previous generations made italy as it is for them and not for the next generations: if you have some money (you are a pensioner) you can enjoy your life a bit but it's not the right place to start an enterprise nor to work (as a temporary slave waiting for the next slave job). Italy needs a real revolution in the market job. A revolution that looks far away to come.

Italy is a failed country since 1992 in economic and demographic irreversible decline due to lack of reforms and investements. No future here.

I am an Italian who moved abroad and came back. All I have to say is that this is a topic that cannot be discussed in 10 minutes. Anyone can get the wrong idea one way or another.

USA take note, the public education system is the USA is also failing to prepare students for the workforce. Mike Rowe has been sounding this alarm for years.

One thing that they don't tell you is that they don't let you work when you are a teen, you need to be at least 20 to become a waiter, a job that is done by teenagers in other countries, so we literally take double the time to get things, this is also why we live with our parents till we are old

I worked as English teacher at 600eu could not afford a room or house! I left …and accept a job in a field where I am not trained for and so I cannot build a career out of it . Condemned to have a job done mediocrely forever !

Goodbye Malinconia.

Based on my experience from the early 2000s, the labour market is incapable of absorbing graduates and to bring their skills to profit. The majority of businesses are small, often family run; they don't invest in innovation, between the family ties and skills they privilege the former.

Here in uk I have come across so many young Italians single plus families living here my family emigrated 70 yrs ago and it’s still going on . I cry for Italy 😢

Often looking for a job does not give people the best outcome compared to finding your passion and living and breathing it. My 2 sons found their passion in music, but had no idea what kind of jobs they could do. They lived and breathed music from very young until at 15, the opportunity presented itself for them to go to a private college, the School of Audio-Engineering. After they finished college, one son landed his first job at 18 years old as a junior sound engineer at a new radio station and progressed up the ladder. Now 20 years later, he works full time from his home studio for the last 6 years. The other son landed a sound engineering job in television and then he moved into the documentary film industry in Sweden. Following your passion will give you the best opportunities in life to manifest a well paid job that you are passionate about and that you could never imagine was possible.

Finally, thank you. No one in their right mind would ever leave such a wonderful place. The fact is that we, the Italians, cannot afford it. If you are born poor, you will die poor and that's it.

i'm 26 years old, left Italy when i was 19 and would really like to come back. But the work world in Italy is a mess and that stops me from going back. It's really a shame that even tho we love our country, we are "forced" to stay away from it to have some financial peace of mind

I know plenty of people that are going back to Italy. Grass is almost never greener on the other side. Unfortunately media pump reasons to leave non-stop. You all beat the same drum and you're all (mostly) wrong

I left 30 years ago. It was extremely difficult to find a job. However, there are many old people who need support: it’s difficult to find someone who can do the groceries for them or accompany them to the doctor etc. If I came back to Italy, that would be one of my jobs.

Io che guardo questo video mentre come pranzo mi bevo un Actimel (sottomarca ovviamente) per non sbilanciarmi troppo, visto che ieri ho preso una coca cola al bar.

Torno malvolentieri anche in vacanza, tanto forte è stato lo stress traumatico dei miei anni lavorativi.

I am 21, born and raised in Italy. I can’t wait to move to the USA. Laws are terrible in Italy, if you want to achieve something in life, or simply live without 100 headaches a day

By saying this I want to make sure that people know that a lot of young Italians like myself are doing great and don't want to leave, contrary to whats being said by the dude in the video, who seems to be speaking for everyone. You can't make a whole documentary insinuating a collective thought of a whole generation and interview only one person. It's dumb.

Italy owes it's misfortune to our corrupt politicians at the mercy of the policies in Washington and Brussels. We lost the war and our masters will never let us forget that

Italy sucks for us...

Education system does not prepare us for the job market, at least Universities; at the same time employers (and the government) require the most ludicrous skills and expertise for the most basic jobs, often paid less 800€ (gross) per month. It's a quicksand from which is hard to come out, even moreso considering that, even if expanses are pretty low (not considering the ridiculous prices of textbooks -if not illegaly photocopied- and rents), graduating at a University is a slow and time demanding process, impossible to speed up, and that many people drop out due to lack of fundings (our parents are in most cases the ones paying for everything, since you can't find a part-time job paying enough to finance your own studies). For the same reason, private universities and professional courses are out of reach, being expensive.

How can u explain the situation of a country by a person story? If u don’t work in Italy maybe the problem is not the job market….

Im italian and im waiting to finish scool just to move out of this counry

Italy is a dying country. Just come here for vacation, we have the best places and food. If you think prices are excessive, well it's not a tourist thing, we have to deal with that daily while having 30 years ago salary.

It is not that different from Germany these days, especially Eastern Germany. No jobs, and if, very low salaries one can hardly survive with. That is why most people get used to living from state benefits as they are higher than if one worked actually.

I'm an italian who still lives there ha ragione

It doesn't help that older employers also see the youth living as cowards or spineless people who don't want to work; there is an insanely sick culture where people think here that it is THE NORM working yourself to the bone to barely manage to survive a month without being able to save anything, and just about afford to live in poverty. You're seen as unwilling and lazy if you refuse to partake in that, or if you say you desire to leave the country, or even worse, if you show desire to pursue a carrier in what you studied for that the italian work market does not offer; we are also directly put in competition with immigrants and refugees, who will do anything to survive for a pay that's even less than the already inhumanely low checks we get for modest jobs. This exploitation wouldn't happen with minimum wage, and people even go as far as to blame them, the immigrants, for this situation, instead of blaming our greedy employers and government

I'd really like to ask Leonardo what degree he got. Because I'm Italian and I know that in Italy there a lot of "easy" University courses that clearly do not offer many career opportunities, but some people choose them just to please their parents or to can say "I'm studying X at the University", when in reality they do not have any clue on what to do with their lives.

No country for young men.

is this video extremely loud for anyone else???? I can't turn my headphones any lower and it is painful to listen to..

Growing up in Italy you’ll learn for sure one thing… YOU HAVE TO LEAVE

This was a very sad programme to watch. To see the youth of any country waste like this, truly is a scandal. I want to wish both of these young men much luck for their futures and i hope they succeed.

Can confirm it all. That said, I still love it...after all, it is my home.

FINALLY someone is talking about this.

I'm really curious to know what Leonardo studied in university. If it's a humanistic degree what did he expect? If he had studied a STEM degree, I am sure he didn't have so many problems to find a job. In Italy the problem is that too many people study useless (even tho interesting) humanistic degrees that doesn't lead to any practical job. And also public university offer classes in engineering, math, AI, etc.. you don't need a private university to study these subjects.

Im from Sicily. Basically there is no job market and horrible salaries. I left in 2018 :D

there's Italy you see in films and then there is Italy you see in cities. Not the same thing

In terms of quality of life, Italy is still DOCLE VITA. These guys never lived abroad. I am an Italian living abroad and I would return to Italy like right now

I live in Friuli in the North East of Italy but I don't feel that if a person wants to work he will not find a job. Actually I don't know of any person without a job in my area. Also if a person does not find a job he can create one by becoming an Entrepreneur

Also I will start studying in Rome this September but i could not find any apartments for myself. I sent messages to at least 100 different apartment advertisement. I do not know how can I find it. It is really depressing too.

italy is like morocco, most beautiful country in the world if you're a multimillionaire

The reason is simple: last generation dried everything up. They didn't care about who would come next. And now my generation is paying the price.

My goodness! I am Leonardo. Everything he said, 100% accurate

l'Italia è bella solo per i turisti

Just left Italy for The Netherlands, educating myself at WUR for landing a job here and never ever ever have to deal with Italian slave-wages (and road traffic). The only way for me to earn something from my job, in Italy, was to leave my flat and move in a van, avoid paying bills and rent. I was able to spare enough to pay for my education and move away. I am sorry but I will only miss the weather, the food, and the beauty of our historical centres...

Did 5 years as chef in Italy, non possible to live. Better do plumber or electrician in Italy.

Infatti tutti i miei cugini si sono dovuti trasferire all'estero ALMENO per consegnare pizze a domicilio, non dico così che cosa. Io a trent'anni ancora non ho lavoro e parlo sei lingue, di cui cinque come fossero la mia.

Lavoro per udacity e facciamo una fatica assurda a entrare nel campo del lavoro italiano (mi occupo di gestire progetti di formazione di competenze tecniche per i dipendenti di medie e grandi aziende - quindi pagano le aziende per la formazione. Funziona ovunque tranne che in Italia). Non so se sia culturale... Perche come dice uno dei ragazzo qui, il boom tech sta avvenendo anche in questo paese.

In Milan people doesn't live the Dolce Vita, it's more the American Nightmare

Buona fortuna Leonardo 🫶