Expatinmilan.com is the ultimate guide to expat living in Milan.

The founder, Giulia Rattazzi, a native Italian, returned to Italy in 2021 after 13 years abroad and she felt like an expat in her own country. She had never lived in Milan before and she needed help navigating the city and guidance in every field to get her family of four, plus a dog, settled in the city.

Questions spanned from the basics like how to choose a family-friendly neighborhood and what the options in terms of international schools and sport activities for her kids were, to a bit of etiquette: not having been around Italians for so long, she did not know what was customary in handling things like tipping and the unwritten rules of dog parks. They might sound like irrelevant issues, but nevertheless helpful in making you feel like you belong to a place.

She also longed to hang out with people with a similar background as hers: people who could empathize with the hassle of moving overseas, starting all over again and adjusting to a new culture and lifestyle.

After a not so smooth set up of her Milanese life, she started wondering how easier the transition would have been if instead of scrambling to gather information here and there she could have accessed a website that had answers to most of her questions. She dreamed of a one-stop-shop to ease transitioning to life in Milan and of a community where expats could meet, exchange experiences, ask questions and make settling down in the city easy and stress-free.

Milan brands itself as the most international among the Italian cities, it is the leader in the design and fashion industries and it attracts talents and professionals from around the world. How could it lack an online resource to help this community settle down in the city?

Once Giulia dreamed it, she had to do it, and the rest is history.