I'm going to be completely honest with you and flat-out say that I've had minimal experience with finding and renting a room, apartment, or house in Italy. The only two places where I've ever resided here are my in-laws' house and the house my husband and I currently call "casa dolce casa", home sweet home. Yet being an expat in Italy, especially one with a blog and a big pink "Contact Me" button, I tend to be asked a variety of questions on moving to Italy that typically start with words like HOW and HOW MUCH. Over the years, I've met my share of expats new and old, temporary and lifelong, those here on assignment and those here working on assignments (shoutout to all you students!). As such, I've found myself not only privy to insider knowledge, but also on the receiving end of all the key questions, the first and most important of which is: How do I find a place to hang my hat in Italy?
This is usually followed-up by a postscript plea along the lines of: by the way, I don't speak any Italian. From the get-go, the language barrier can post a huge issue as many Italians put their properties online on Italian sites such as subito.it or kijiji.it, which is all fine and dandy unless you've never lived in Italy before and you're moving here to study International Business and not Italian 401. Even the English sites can become daunting seeing as in this day and age, we are virtually bombarded with search options. One of the main headaches that students seem to come up against, next to the language problem, is the seemingly scarse supply of short-term, furnished housing options. While some sites are geared towards tourists (think Airbnb) and others towards long-term rentals with year-long contracts, a unique and welcome entry to the mix is Nestpick, conveniently available in French, German, English, and Spanish and with the option to chat with representatives in any of these languages. Finding a place to live is hard enough without having to worry about miscommunication.
Nestpick is a site that partners with a handful of other established sites such as Spotahome and Urban Apartment, in a Skyscanner, Kayak, or Trivago-like manner, essentially aggregating all the options in one place, minimizing the time you spend clicking from one website to the next (and inevitably avoiding that moment when you find the perfect place and forget where you saw it!). It's beautifully designed on both desktop and mobile, to streamline your search efforts and save a ton of time that you could dedicate to aperitivo with new friends (or cute Italians) or to exploring your new neighborhood and city (with aforementioned cute Italian as a tour guide, of course).
This is usually followed-up by a postscript plea along the lines of: by the way, I don't speak any Italian. From the get-go, the language barrier can post a huge issue as many Italians put their properties online on Italian sites such as subito.it or kijiji.it, which is all fine and dandy unless you've never lived in Italy before and you're moving here to study International Business and not Italian 401. Even the English sites can become daunting seeing as in this day and age, we are virtually bombarded with search options. One of the main headaches that students seem to come up against, next to the language problem, is the seemingly scarse supply of short-term, furnished housing options. While some sites are geared towards tourists (think Airbnb) and others towards long-term rentals with year-long contracts, a unique and welcome entry to the mix is Nestpick, conveniently available in French, German, English, and Spanish and with the option to chat with representatives in any of these languages. Finding a place to live is hard enough without having to worry about miscommunication.
Nestpick is a site that partners with a handful of other established sites such as Spotahome and Urban Apartment, in a Skyscanner, Kayak, or Trivago-like manner, essentially aggregating all the options in one place, minimizing the time you spend clicking from one website to the next (and inevitably avoiding that moment when you find the perfect place and forget where you saw it!). It's beautifully designed on both desktop and mobile, to streamline your search efforts and save a ton of time that you could dedicate to aperitivo with new friends (or cute Italians) or to exploring your new neighborhood and city (with aforementioned cute Italian as a tour guide, of course).
Nestpick is currently available in most of Europe's most happening and student-friendly cities, including Italian hotspots like Milan, Rome, and Florence. The minimalistic interface lets you search by housing type and what's even more handy, by move-in-date. There is an app as well, in case Nestpick isn't already fabulous enough as is. In the photograph above, I could literally be on Nestpick in the middle of the streets of Rome, finding my future apartment! It's that easy. Once you choose a specific property to take a closer look at, you'll be re-directed to the partner website which pops up automatically.
A quick search for an apartment in Rome for a move-in-date of December 1st, just less than month away, yielded almost 500 results ranging in price from €275 per month to a whopping €12 240, the latter of which is obviously my ideal apartment in Rome and can someone buy it for me, please and thank you? Although out of reach for many student budgets, a girl can dream right?! Despite the fact that I'm not in the market for a rental, I thoroughly enjoyed perusing the myriad of options and imagining what my parallel Roman life might be like (or Milanese or Florentine life for that matter). If I've piqued your curiosity, here's a direct link to the Rome Nestpick page where you'll find plenty of furnished apartments so you too can start dreaming of waking up with views of Piazza Navona and slow Sunday walks through Campo de' Fiori minus the nightmare of hauling a mattress through the streets and up a fifth-floor walkup.
Stay tuned for more posts in this series entitled "Moving to Italy" and make sure to PIN this post if you're on Pinterest.
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like to "dare un'occhiata" at these ones or the Category "Moving to Italy":
The Most Important Thing I've Learned After Living in Italy for 4 Months
Five Things to Do Before Selling All Your Belongings and Moving to Italy
Quiz Time: Will You be a Happy Expat in Italy?
A Memorable Expat Moment, from the Book "Once Upon an Expat"
How to (Legally) Move and Live in Italy Oh You're an EU Expat in Italy? That's cute.
Immigration Update: Italy, I'm BACK!
Should You Move to Italy?
Living in Italy, Speaking in English
PIN IT:
Stay tuned for more posts in this series entitled "Moving to Italy" and make sure to PIN this post if you're on Pinterest.
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like to "dare un'occhiata" at these ones or the Category "Moving to Italy":
The Most Important Thing I've Learned After Living in Italy for 4 Months
Five Things to Do Before Selling All Your Belongings and Moving to Italy
Quiz Time: Will You be a Happy Expat in Italy?
A Memorable Expat Moment, from the Book "Once Upon an Expat"
How to (Legally) Move and Live in Italy Oh You're an EU Expat in Italy? That's cute.
Immigration Update: Italy, I'm BACK!
Should You Move to Italy?
Living in Italy, Speaking in English
PIN IT:
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