Six years in Montevideo. One flight back to Italy. I thought I knew what to expect. I was wrong.
I left Seravezza Pozzi — small city in Toscana, northwest Italy — in 2014. The plan was two years abroad. Then the world had other ideas, I met someone, found a routine, and suddenly 11 years disappeared. Coming back was always on the list. Actually booking the flight took forever.
The Flight Logistics ( What Nobody Tells You )
Flying from Montevideo to Italy is not a simple hop. There are no direct flights. Every route goes through either São Paulo, Buenos Aires, or Madrid. I went Buenos Aires → Rome on Aerolíneas Argentinas because the schedule was less terrible than the alternatives.
A few things I learned the hard way:
1. EZE airport is a mess. Arrive three hours early, not two. The check-in lines for European flights move at the speed of bureaucracy.
2. Window seat on the left side if you want to see the Alps on approach to Fiumicino. The right side gives you ocean. Both are good. Left is better.
3. Italian customs at FCO is fast. Like, surprisingly fast. You walk through a door and suddenly you're in Rome. No forms, no questions. Uruguay could learn from this.
4. Total travel time from my apartment in Pocitos to my parents' door in Seravezza Pozzi: 22 hours. That's with one layover.
What Hit Me First
The smell. I am not being dramatic. The air in Versilia smells different. Olive trees, dry earth, sea salt, and diesel from broken-down Piaggios. I stepped out of the taxi at Seravezza and my brain just... recalibrated.
The second thing: how small everything is. After six years of wide streets and rambla in Montevideo, the old town center felt like a diorama. Beautiful, but tiny. I kept expecting another block and it was always a church instead.
The third thing: I still know where everything is. Muscle memory is wild. I walked from the station to my mother's house without thinking about the route. Six years and my feet still knew.
The Food Thing ( Yes, This Section Was Inevitable )
I cook Italian in Montevideo. I found the one shop that sells proper pecorino. I make pasta from scratch. I even grew basil on the balcony until the Montevideo wind killed it.
None of that prepares you for the real thing. ( The tomatoes alone. Just... the tomatoes. )
First meal back: orecchiette con cime di rapa at a place I've been going to since I was twelve. The owner recognized me. She didn't say anything emotional. She just said ' finalmente sei tornato' and put the plate down. That's the Italian way.
Second meal: pizza al volo in Rome because I had four hours between trains. Roman pizza is thin and crispy and comes with a paper bag and zero ceremony. You fold it and eat while walking. Perfection.
Third meal: my mother's lasagna. I'm not reviewing my mother's cooking on a scale of one to ten. It's a ten. It's always been a ten. Don't ask me to be objective about this.
What Traveling Back Revealed About Living Abroad
Three things became obvious very fast:
My Italian has an accent now. Not a strong one. But it's there. My old friends noticed before I did. Something shifted in my mouth after six years of switching between Spanish, Italian, and English every day.
My tolerance for chaos changed. Italian bureaucracy that used to feel normal now feels inefficient. Living in Uruguay didn't make me patient — it made me pragmatic. Two-hour line at the post office? Not shocked. But also not accepting it gracefully anymore.
I missed mate. This is the most honest sentence in this entire post. I brought mate and a thermos to Italy. My cousins looked at me like I was performing a ritual. I kind of was.
The Practical Stuff
If you're doing Uruguay → Italy, here's what actually matters:
Flights: Book 2-3 months out. Prices spike in June-August ( European summer ). I paid about 900 USD round trip via Aerolíneas. Could have been 650 if I was less picky about dates.
Money: Italy is expensive compared to Uruguay. A coffee that costs 80 pesos in Montevideo is €1.50 in Seravezza Pozzi. That's about 1500 pesos. Yeah. But the coffee is better.
SIM card: Get a Vodafone tourist SIM at Fiumicino. €20 for 30 days with 50GB. Works everywhere. Don't bother with roaming from Uruguay — it's absurdly expensive.
Transport: Trenitalia for long distances. Italo for slightly faster and cleaner trains. Local trains in Toscana are functional but slow. Rent a car if you're doing the Versilia coast — buses are unreliable the mountains above Seravezza Pozzi.
Lodging: Agriturismos outside the city are cheaper and better than hotels. You get a room, breakfast with things that grew twenty meters from where you're sitting, and silence. Worth every cent.
Leaving Again
The hardest part wasn't the visit. It was leaving. Again. The first time I left Italy I was running toward something. This time I was leaving something I knew I'd miss.
But Montevideo is home now. The rambla, the mate, the afternoon heat, the way nobody rushes anything. I found my rhythm there. Italy sharpened the contrast, but it didn't change the answer.
I'll be back. Maybe next year. Maybe sooner. The flight is long but the orecchiette are worth it. :)