Quartz at Work. Sarah Todd. 5 April 2022
Picture this: You’ve just finished your fourth Zoom call of the day, with three more to go. Normally, your spirits would be flagging. But a glance outside your window shows the sun shining down on the terracotta rooftops of the Italian village where you’ll be working for the next nine months. You decide to step outside for a break, ambling down the cobblestone streets for a quick pick-me-up of an espresso. When you return to your laptop, your boss compliments you on the air of sprezzatura that shines through your every pore. You are a digital nomad in Italy, but you are so much more than that: You are joyful, and alive.
Perhaps this is a lot to pin on the news that Italy is planning to roll out visas available to remote workers outside the European Union. But the one-year, renewable visas, signed into law as part of the government’s new “decreto sostegni ter” decree last week, are sure to spark plenty such travel fantasies among work-from-anywhere types.
