Leaving NYC – A culture writer who built her life in New York City says she resigned less than a year ago, moved to Florence, and started over in Italy—signing a lease, enrolling in an intensive Italian-language program, and living off a declining account balance while free
Less than a year ago, she walked away from the version of life she’d worked five years to earn in New York City. It wasn’t just a change of scenery—it was a deliberate break from the job security that had anchored her days.
After working as a culture writer in NYC, she says she had long believed her dream career would keep expanding. But as she moved higher through her role, she felt her identity tightening around her job title. Between filming TV segments and attending meetings. she kept noticing the same gap: her personal goals weren’t work-related. and the time to pursue them never seemed to arrive. With limited annual leave. she says she couldn’t make space to do what she actually wanted—like learning a new language or experiencing a different culture.
The idea of moving abroad started tugging at her more insistently as she entertained visions that didn’t fit neatly into a work calendar. She imagined attending culinary school in Paris or practicing samba in Rio. After working through the logistics. she submitted her resignation letter at work and landed in Florence. Italy. as her new home.
The adjustment, she says, hit with full force. The transition to life abroad was lonely and disorienting. even though she arrived with some stability: she signed a lease in Florence and enrolled in an intensive Italian-language program. She also started freelancing when she moved to Italy. planning to rely on occasional writing work until she had a more concrete career plan.
Still, without the structure of a 9-to-5 schedule, her days felt unmoored. She told herself she could manage on the momentum of freelance gigs, but she described her routine as something that had vanished. Without it, she says the days seemed to slip away.
Language made everything harder at the start. She spoke almost no Italian when she arrived, despite taking an online course the month before she left. In social situations. the barrier left her feeling isolated—especially in moments where. in New York. she says she would normally have been one of the chattiest people in the room.
Even her comfort rituals didn’t land the same way. In New York. she leaned on small habits that helped her through tough days. like grabbing a frothy afternoon coffee or raiding the romance section at her favorite bookstore. In Florence, she tried to replicate that rhythm. But she learned that Italians don’t drink cappuccinos past 11 a.m.—they switch to espresso—and she says she was trying to assimilate. The bookstore near her apartment had limited English selections at best.
Then there was the time difference. Because Florence is in Central European Summer Time, six hours ahead of New York, she says it became difficult to lean on her US-based support system.
Over time, the story began to shift from survival mode to momentum. She describes slowly adapting—between relaxing in piazzas and perfecting her espresso order “al banco.” Seven months into her move. she says she could hold a basic conversation without stumbling over her words. after arriving speaking almost no Italian.
She also began to distinguish between productivity and what she calls a dysregulated nervous system. In Florence. she says she started to feel like she was getting back years of her life she’d sacrificed to hustle culture in New York. Along with that came a change in confidence: her calendar filled with trips with friends she hadn’t known six months earlier. and she said that while visa applications and logistics used to send her into a tizzy. she now felt more capable of handling whatever came next.
Still, the move didn’t erase what she missed. She acknowledged she missed parts of New York. But she said the nostalgia wasn’t strong enough to pull her back.
There is a financial edge to her current chapter that she doesn’t soften. She says she is living off a declining account balance and doesn’t yet know her next career move. Even so, she says she has never regretted taking a risk and relocating. She describes the sense of everyday reward in small. vivid detail—watching the sunrise from her apartment before stopping for an espresso at a café around the corner. She said she would still take a New York bagel over a cornetto any day.
What she misses least, though, is the pressure she once carried. Moving to Italy, she says, has opened her world. Florence may not be her forever home, but it has made her want to live a freer, more fearless life. She doesn’t know what her future holds, especially for her career. But she says the uncertainty no longer makes her feel like a failure; instead, it excites her.
She says there are more countries she wants to see and languages she’s determined to learn. Maybe she will still go to Paris or Rio—destinations she’d dreamed of for years. For now, she says the certainty is simple: the world is big enough for her to reinvent herself.
New York City Florence Italy freelancing culture writer relocation Italian language program visa logistics personal reinvention account balance career uncertainty