Frequently Asked Questions
Why are you leaving the United States?
1. Things are a bit crazy in the U.S. and we have an opportunity to try living somewhere else - so we're going to try it for a year and see if we want to stay longer.
2. Tony has only ever lived in Tampa (not counting his 5 months at Disney on the college program).
He doesn't want to assume he'll make it to (or past retirement) to have an adventure like this.
3. Tony's late mother, Lindy, spent some of her early years growing up in The Philippines and Japan. This immersion in other countries stuck with her throughout her life and gave her an interest in other cultures, a passion for travel, and gratitude for the life she enjoyed in the United States. We feel that one of the best ways we can share Lindy's legacy is to offer "lil O" this same opportunity before she's older & more rooted in our community in Tampa.
Why Europe? Heather is from Australia - why not move there?
Great question. Thanks to efforts made by Tony's parents 10 years ago (and our awesomely brilliant friend, Jill) they and Tony achieved citizenship through descent - "Jure Sanguinis". Unfortunately, this law overburdened the Italian consular resources and they recently changed the laws making it more difficult to achieve citizenship.
As for Australia...Tony & Heather f#(&ing love Australia and their family and friends there. Unfortunately, Australia is quite isolated geographically and we see an opportunity to leverage Tony's Italian citizenship to open up and explore Europe. Added benefit - no Drop Bears in Europe.
So what are you going to do about jobs?
We don't know. We're putting faith into figuring it out.
Maybe Heather does remote work for the U.S.
Maybe we work at a local retail shop.
Maybe Tony goes back to school to get his Master's degree at the local university because it's ridiculously cheap by American standards.
More to come!
Why the Netherlands?
1. Once we started to seriously entertain the idea of moving to Europe, Heather suggested the Netherlands because, as a second language, the Dutch have the highest level of proficiency and percentage of population that speaks English. Since Tony doesn't speak Italian, this seemed like a great place to start our research.
2. The Netherlands consistently ranks high on lists of countries that are considered the "happiest places to live". This is largely due to their work-life balance, healthy modes of transportation such as cycling and walking, robust education system, and universal health care to name a few.
3. It's a gorgeous country and one of the safest in the world with violent crime being incredibly rare.
We're coming from the land that has more firearms that citizens to the country that has more bicycles than citizens.
4. Multicultural Coexistence. As many as 25% of the population in the Netherlands migrated from other countries.
When are you leaving? Will there be a party?
We're planning to leave in mid-August 2026.
We'd like to have a farewell party but haven't solidified any plans yet.
What will "lil O" do about school?
We're in the application process for her to attend an International School. It utilizes the same International Baccalaureate curriculum she'd been learning from in the U.S. and lessons are taught in English. However, she will also get to spend a couple days each week in Dutch lessons.
Did you know? The globally renowned IB program was invented in the Switzerland, but it's headquarters is located in The Hague in the Netherlands.