Rita Graziano, an Italian-American California Bay Area native who has lived in Umbria, Italy for a little over a year now, told The Local how, of the many striking differences she’s found compared to life in the USA, it’s the little things – and the positive things – that stand out to her the most.

While it’s easy enough to complain about Italy’s famously slow bureaucracy, and the hiccups many of us experience after moving, Rita said: “I don’t dwell on those. Sometimes I am amused, sometimes frustrated, but always willing to let it be in the end.”