As I said at the end of the previous post in this series, we started to get cold feet about Italy. We’ve looked at some weather data, and it is hot there. “No duh” you might be thinking, but it’s one thing to think “ah yes, the beautiful, sunny Italian countryside” and another to think “holy hell it’s like that all year long, and they just had a summer that they named after THE DEVIL because of how historically broiling it was. Maybe not so much?” It’s gotten worse since we first wrote this. Hindsight is 20/20 etc… but yeah, good call Us. And hey, we also really like France. Sooooo… I begin the research on visas in France. Same story as Italy, basically. I mean, look: every country is different, that’s why we have different countries in the first place. They are all going to have their peculiarities in every process or system you look at. But fundamentally, practically every country (and I only use weasel words here because I haven’t personally investigated every single one of them) has a visa process for staying long-term, and they boil down to “are you not an evil supervillain and can you support yourself?” and if you pass that test you can stay. And in all of those countries, the problem is not, fundamentally, “will you be given permission?” but instead “how big is the lake of utter horseshit that I have to swim across to get that permission?” only, you know, paperwork instead of horseshit. So what’s the difference between Italy and France, process-wise? Near as I could figure out, the Italian bureaucrats are mercurial and finicky, and you had to be light on your feet to adapt to the desires of the bureaucrat you drew that day. Whereas, French bureaucrats are persnickity rules-lawyers who start from “no” and have to be cajoled into “yes”. In either case, though, scrupulous adherence to every stitch of their policies usually wins out.

So, France? There are definitely some pluses to the French route. First of all, the geography of the country yields some climate remarkably similar to what we’ve gotten used to in Seattle. And for all that people joke about the weather in Seattle (“Why is there a waiting period before people from Seattle enter Hell? At first they’re too wet to burn.”) it’s actually bloody amazing here. Sure, it mists a lot, but Houston, Texas gets more rain per year on average than Seattle and it’s not even close. There’s no humidity, we basically never see mosquitos, and summer is roughly 4 months of sunshine and 80 degrees. So, the fact that we can find at least somewhat similar conditions in parts of France is quite a draw. The museums are, of course, first rate. The food… well, yum. We might lean slightly towards Italian cuisine if we were forced to pick just one, but it’s not exactly a chore to eat in France. Still, we aren’t completely sold. The stories of bureaucratic hang-ups are more pervasive than what we’d heard about Italy, and then there was this weird phenomenon wherein Americans living in France just seemed way more uptight than Americans living in other places. Not exactly scientific, but it got our ears up.

That last bit was a crazy-but-true data point that has stuck with us to this day. When we looked at facebook groups for American immigrants in Italy, the people in them were, by and large, a chill bunch. Obviously individuals vary, but the vibe in those groups was relaxed and even friendly. In the two different France-related groups we poked into that had large-ish memberships, they were both just cold. Indifferent. Almost hostile to newcomers in a way that felt extra rude. It may have been a dumb criterion, but we couldn’t ignore it. On the other hand… as we prepare this update in 2024, the Portuguese group that we once found so helpful has been drifting more and more towards a snarky and indifferent tone that, if we had encountered it back in the day, might have similarly turned us off. So, you know… caveat emptor and all that.

France wasn’t a slam dunk and we were still unsure about Italy, so we kept digging around for options. And it was in this state that we took a vacation to Greece. Our trip to Greece is a tale unto itself (spoiler alert: we never seriously considered living in Greece), but one key point is relevant here. At the airport, I noticed the place was plastered with signs in multiple languages, and most frequently in Chinese, touting the “Golden Visa” program in Greece and directing prospective participants to certain real estate developments that were custom-designed to fulfill said visa’s requirements. “What the heck is a Golden Visa?”, I wondered. I vaguely knew the basics – in lieu of a complicated regime of requirements for a long-term visa, you could… well, not exactly BUY a visa, but by investing a significant amount in a country they would reward you with a fast-tracked visa with fewer restrictions/requirements, especially as regards time spent in-country. You see, one of the bits about the visa process I haven’t got into yet is that, well, countries don’t like to be taken advantage of. So, they tend to have requirements that say you have to live in the country for, say, 8 months out of every 12. Hardly onerous if you’re actually looking to live in that country, but it puts a real crimp in your plans if you were hoping to jet-set across Europe on the strength of your cool new EU visa. A Golden visa, on the other hand, typically has a requirement along the lines of two weeks every year, maybe even less. They try to make it sound dignified, but Golden Visas are very much a cash-for-services transaction that gets a country an influx of foreign investment in exchange for lax visa rules. Ok, great. We couldn’t afford to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars to get such a visa, but if it’s simply investing money that was going to be invested SOME-where in any case, maybe this could work for us. But we definitely didn’t want it to be Greece (again, another story for another time) so where might we try this? Not every country has a Golden Visa program, and the list changes up as the political climate shifts in a given country. Portugal, for example, closed it’s lucrative Golden Visa program at the end of 2023. The closing was absolutely politics — the program had brought something like 5 Billion Euros in investment monies over 10 years — not bad for a tiny country in a bad financial state. Anyways, . . . the following is 100% just our personal observations from back in the day. We look at the list. Spain… hefty investment that would crimp our cash flow too much. Ireland… way too hefty an investment. Germany… hefty investment, eight years before you can apply for permanent residency/citizenship. Portugal… huh, Portugal.

Portugal?

We’ll be talking about this in a little more detail coming up, but since we didn’t end up going the Golden Visa route we don’t delve too deeply. Pro tip – be very wary of Golden Visa programs in Portugal. The political climate has gotten …. feisty on the subject. As far as bringing investment capital into the country one cannot dispute the success. However, like a lot of places in the world the cost of housing has been going up, so even if the absolute numbers of GVs is pretty small, it looks bad that Portugal has rolled out a welcome mat for wealthy people to buy up property. More restrictions have been put in place and the timing is apparently molasses-slow. I’d make very few assumptions and consult a knowledgeable professional at the very beginning of your investigation if it’s something that you’re thinking about, just to get the facts straight.

J. and I are pretty proud of how minimally we pack for long trips. Keeping our baggage to a roll-on and a backpack means we do lots of planning, but then have very little to mess with on our trip. At this point our toiletries and gewgaws take up almost more space than our clothes!

As this post goes live, we are in Greece. This trip includes a day in Frankfurt and several in Paris, so we have some tricky bits to navigate: it’s not just all sun and sand, but also some city walking and dining.

Here’s how we do it.

The most important choice we make is to not worry about wearing the same clothes several times. I know that sounds basic, but when you can take one less pair of pants or shirts you can free up a lot of space. Relatedly, each trip we’ve taken has had special issues to take into account. (More on that later.)

The second choice we make is to wear only clothes that will go well together — no ‘one off’ outfits. Every top goes with all the bottoms, and vice versa. Even our shoes are very carefully chosen (and kept to a minimum!) to work with as many outfits as possible. A sub-choice of this one is that we choose to look as much like locals as possible. We don’t wear sneakers, or jogging suits, or branded/ themed t-shirts. In most of Europe, this meant that people presumed we were from the UK — a compliment! Our third strategy is to wear the heaviest items on the plane. The fourth decision is to use compression packing cubes. (That’s not a sneaky affiliate link, just a page in case you need an explanation.)

My luggage has:

• (2) blouses
• (2) sleeveless tops
• two dresses
• shorts
• pajama set (doubles as ‘at home’ shorts and t-shirt)
• 5ea panties and bras
• 5 pr socks (Smart Wool)
• bathing suit
• beach coverup
• swim shirt
• sandals
• (city)walking shoes
• makeup
• hanging toiletry kit
• compact umbrella
• sun hat
• cribbage board and cards

And my backpack has:

• travel books & maps
• kindle
• mp3 player
• onboard amenities kit (my own design: includes nasal spray, eye drops, moisturizer, chewing gum, comb, and deodorant)
• roll-up water bottle
• journal and pens

I’ll be wearing:

• long skirt
• blouse
• cardigan
• hiking shoes

My sneakers are the All out Blaze Aero from Merrell. With a body made of mesh (which helps air circulation) and a very sturdy bottom they are great for clambering over dusty hillsides. I won’t wear them in Paris — too touristy, but for Athens and elsewhere, they are perfect.

In Paris I’ll be wearing Merrell’s Dassie Slide. A little dressier, but with a low profile that keeps them walking friendly. Note the sturdy bottom (which will help protect me from cobblestones).  I can wear them with low cut, no slip socks from SmartWool and be comfortable all day.

My nice sandals are the Leisa Annual from Clarks. These are a new purchase and I love love love these sandals. Like all of Clarks’ shoes they are well made and comfortable.  I first wore them for our 2014 Italy trip and have been wearing them ever since. For this trip I bought a new pair.

Once the shoes are figured out, I find everything else falls into place as we just make a list of scenarios:

• dinner out
• around the house
• sightseeing (walking/ metro/ city)
• sightseeing (car/ country)
• ocean/ pool time
• sleeping
• traveling (plane, bus, and car)

Of course each of those scenarios doesn’t require entirely new clothes; quite the opposite. We pick clothes that overlap in as many ways as possible, factoring in the weather.  I’m planning on it being in the high low 80s to mid 80s during the days, dipping to the low 70s at night, which means I’ll want to be wearing dresses and skirts most of the time. The addition of nicer jewelry, my cardigan, and make up will turn my daytime dress into a dinner-worthy outfit. Paris might be chillier since we’ll be arriving there at the end of September, so I’ll use my travel outfit of the long skirt there.  Pool outfits are the swimsuit and a coverup, easy enough. Sightseeing will likely be the sleeveless tops with shorts or a dress. Nice enough to look good over a long lunch, but cool in the heat.

Everything will fit into a a carry on — we love love love our TravelPro Crew 22″ suitcase. It has a 2.5″ expansion zipper which means you can count on having space in suitcase for your return . . . as long as you check your bag. It’s also super sturdy. We got ours for our honeymoon in 2012 and they’ve done a lot of traveling since then. They still look good and the zippers are perfect.  Here’s a pic of a similar model (ours are teal, not purple):

We also have ‘personal’ carry ons which we try to use to maximum effect. Mine is a laptop backpack that I use everyday. It easily holds my camera and other electronics, as well as bottled water and a change of underclothes. (Let me tell you, being able to change your undies after a cross-ocean trip makes for a much better transition into the world.) My bag looks like this:

We are prepared for any meal: simple to five star. Any reasonable environment: sun, rain, cool, or hot. It’s true that if it pours (like it did in Rome!) we won’t do well, nor if it gets below 60* (I’ll be a bit cold if that happens, J. would be alright). But whether we are hiking around a dig, or sitting in a cafe in Paris, we will look appropriate.