“Australia was an amazing experience for me because I was at my lowest and highest. For the first time in my life I had to really count my money before buying something small at the Supermarket.”
Recently I sat down for a catch up with my friend Gianni who I met while traveling and working in Melbourne early last year. We both arrived in Australia on the same day and stayed in the same Hostel with two of our other friends. We all got on really well but all had slightly different experiences while living in the same city.
I wanted to chat to Gianni about his time in Melbourne and his travels in general and share it with you.
Q: Introduce yourself to us, who are you, where are you from and what do you do?
A: My name Is Giovanni Lovero, they call me Gianni for short, sometimes though I’ll get called Johnny by people in English speaking countries so call me whichever you’d like! I’m from Turin in the North of Italy, not too far from Milan… usually I just say it’s where Juventes F.C play and people will have a good idea of where I mean. I’m 23 years old and I work in my families Car dealership as a sales assistant.
Q: What was it like growing up in Turin? Did you enjoy living there and did you always feel you wanted to travel out of there?
A: I really like Italy and I really like Turin because it’s a big city, one of the biggest in Italy but it’s not so messy or busy like Rome or Milan. It’s pretty chill, the winters are a bit too cold but I have to say I really like it here. I get along with people and I like the lifestyle here too. However if you want to grow as a person or grow a career it’s not the easiest place to be, not like Australia.
I started to travel when I left my University. I didn’t know what to do with my life and I still don’t really, so I said Ok I will try and have an experience outside of Italy and I thought about taking a course as well as learn English. I decided to go to Brighton in the UK for 3 months and I had a great time there but I’ve always wanted to really grow as a person and go outside of my comfort zone.
Australia was always on my mind as a place I may want to go to in order to do that, the pay there is good, the lifestyle is good and it’s not too difficult to get a working holiday visa there. I decided to go there because I didn’t have many responsibilities like a house or child and I felt like I had to take a chance and just do it.
Q: Did you travel much as a child and if so where to?
A: Not that much really, we have a home in the South of Italy where my family come from so every Summer we would go there but we never really left Italy. Italy has a lot of beautiful places to go and I still have a lot to see here even now. I think because I didn’t go to that many places as a child It made me want to travel more as I got older.
Q: Was there a particular place you went to as a child that stands out and if so for what reason?
A: I went to a place called Monopoli where my family come from in the South of Italy. It’s a small place and we have a beautiful house in the countryside, it’s totally different from turin because you are totally surrounded by nature and far away from any shops or pubs or people. I still like to go there in the summer and reset for a week or so, mentally it’s such a great place to be.
Q: I know you’ve traveled to a few places in the world such as New York but when did you begin traveling without your family and what sort of places have you been to since then? Do any really stand out for you?
A: My first experience alone was when I went to Brighton, it was crazy because maybe it’s true that we Italians are too attached to our family. I always see online in videos that people in their mid 20’s leave their family home but here in Italy maybe because the pay is quite low my friends and I still live at home.
So the experience in Brighton really opened my eyes and allowed me to see what freedom and independence is and I think that set me up for going to Australia.
Q: What was is about Australia that drew you towards it to both live and work and why Melbourne in particular?
A: First of all I think that sometimes I want to do a more extreme things so if i’m leaving my country to work I want to go quite far. I also found the visa process very quick and easy. I think one of the main draws was that the language there is English which I feel I can speak and understand quite well!
Whenever I would look into people going to other countries to live and work I would always see Australia come up. I always heard about Australia being the place to be if you want to work abroad, especially if you want good weather and decent pay.
As I was planning my journey one of my friends was also due to arrive in Australia, but they were going to Melbourne and I thought if I could have someone there I can definitely communicate with then I wouldn’t feel too lonely. I think it’s important to have some kind of a safety net when you travel like that, such as a friend or a community of people from your own country.
Q: Did you feel there was a big Italian community in Melbourne and did you connect with them in any way?
A: I really didn’t expect to find such a big community of Italians there, I did search online before going and see if there were any people but I never thought there would be as many as there were. I would constantly walk down the street in Melbourne and hear people speaking Italian. It made me feel comfortable that I could have a point of reference and a community I could rely on if I needed help.
I remember when I couldn’t find a job the ‘Italians in Melbourne’ Facebook group would suggest places to try and get work like going to Italian restaurants or Gelato places. While that didn’t work out it was so nice to have people from my home country helping me.
Q: How did you find your initial days in Australia? I think you, me, Rose and Walter were really lucky to meet each other so early on in the same Hostel!
A: For sure we were really lucky! I mean my first few days in Australia I had a negative experience with a guy in the Hostel….
Q: Haha, do you want to talk a little bit about that?
A: Yeah I don’t mind it’s funny!
Q: So to give a bit of context I arrived in Australia the same day as you but stayed in a hotel the first night then joined the hostel the next day, entered the room and met you and you told me you had been in the hostel since the previous night but had to move rooms, why was that?
A: So I woke up the first night and a drunk guy from my room was standing up right near my luggage. I thought ‘What the hell’s this guy doing?’ I turned on the light to ask him what he was doing and I heard the sound of something dripping. The guy was so drunk that he was pissing on the side of my luggage! I grabbed him to stop him and he attacked me, we got into a situation and then the staff thought it was better to move my room after that!
Q: Not a great start!
A: No but he did pay for it to be cleaned in the end…
Q: So after our first few days we all started looking for work and I think we all found it quite difficult at first. How did you find the prospect of job hunting in Australia overall?
A: It was a challenge but I’m happy about it in retrospect. I think we were lucky as we all supported each other, you would look for jobs for me and I would for you. I think finding a hostel and you guys really helped the whole experience overall as we were all in the same situation so I’d suggest this to anyone traveling to go to a hostel at first.
But the job hunting was very hard. I would be searching all day everyday and get very frustrated. Before you arrive you look online and everyone says ‘Oh it’s so easy to get a job in Australia!’ but that was not the case. Maybe because it was February time I don’t know but it was hard even to find a basic job to survive.
Q: I found that with you and our friends it was like you were treated differently for not speaking English as your first language would you say that is true?
A: I think for me it wasn’t so bad because the job I did get in the end was a big company that’s well known in Melbourne. It was a Juice Bar and had all the right documentation, the paychecks were accurate and it was a legit business.
I do think people will try to take advantage of you though for sure, this is something you have to take into consideration as they may withhold pay for trial shifts or things like that. I understand that businesses will want people who can speak English well but that doesn’t mean they can take advantage of you if you don’t.
Q: Well speaking of English you mentioned you went to Brighton in England to study, was that to learn English?
I went for a Marketing course that was around 2 or 3 months long, I started to learn English by watching Youtube, Movies or playing Video Games when I was younger. I think I learnt so much from these things rather than the English lessons at school. I feel the Italian education system does not really have good English lessons. There are so many people who learnt it at school but still can’t speak well at all.
I think it’s great that these days with the internet you can learn anything so easily so I think more people should take the opportunity to learn something these days that they feel they didn’t do well in at school.
Q: I would say your English is really good though! I know you think it isn’t but I never have issues understanding you.
A: I think that’s because we know each other and I’m more comfortable speaking with you than someone I haven’t met before!
Q: So going back to Australia and struggling with finding work, was there a point where you felt like leaving early on?
A: Yes I definitely thought about it but I don’t think I would have actually done it. I think Australia was an amazing experience for me because I was at my lowest and highest. For the first time in my life I had to really count my money before buying something small at the Supermarket.
I literally watched my bank account go down and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to rely on my family for help, while they would have helped me this was my time to be independent and do the best I can on my own.
For the first time in my life I wanted to show I could be 100% independent. It’s not like now where I live with my family with no expenses so if I lose a job it’s not the end of the world but out there my money was going down all the time with no job. I was eating the super cheap ramen at least 4 times a week for dinner but I’m so happy I did all this as you grow so much when you find yourself struggling and you come to understand yourself.
You know I think about my Grandparents and how they came from the south of Italy at 16 years old looking for a job in the North, they would do anything for money at the time and really struggled. I think this generation these days can’t even tie their shoes at that age so I admire my Grandparents for doing that and wanted to be strong like them.
Q: What was the best part of Australia for you?
A: It was the feeling of freedom for me and waking up everyday being able to speak to new people, see new things and discover something. I loved that I could walk in the centre of Melbourne and be around people from all over the world.
I also loved when we all lived together in the AirBNB, we were all from around the world but we got on so well! We helped each other look for jobs, we cooked for each other and obviously I got to eat the chilli you made!
I really loved the area we lived in at first too, St Kilda. I know it had a homeless people problem but it was a really chill place near the ocean.
Q: When you eventually left Australia did you go straight home or to another country and how was that?
A: I went to Bali in Indonesia because it was such a long journey home! I remember our room mates Walter and Rose were telling me about Bali and how it was a cheap place to go and relax but also it was only around 5 hours from Melbourne by flight so I decided to go there.
I’m glad I went because I really needed to relax before returning home.
Q: You pretty much answered this earlier but being back home now do you think traveling helped you learn about yourself in some way and benefited your future?
A: Yes for sure, I’d recommend traveling to anyone. I learnt so much about the world and myself I really can’t recommend it enough. I feel like my mind was opened and that I feel there are so many more possibilities in life. Traveling to relax is amazing too but traveling to discover something and going out of your comfort zone is the best way to grow as a person.
Q: What is the next step for you in your life, do you see yourself working abroad again or are there any countries that really stand out to you as a place you wish to visit?
A: I have plenty of time to build a career so for now I am happy to stay in Italy for at least a year but I do like to look online at different places in the world to visit. I’d love to go back to the USA but also places like Sweden or Denmark, but for right now I will stay home and save money.
I do miss the freedom of travel so I am sure it won’t be too long before I travel again!
Q: Do you feel you appreciate your own country more now that you’ve returned and would you want to explore your own country more?
A: I absolutely need to see more places in my own country, there is so much beauty here that I didn’t really think about before I came back. I really do appreciate my country more now that I am back though, I certainly took a lot for granted here like how friendly Italians are. It’s so easy to meet someone here and go for a coffee or something but I found in some places in Melbourne many people were more shy than Italians so I did miss that.
Well that’s all the questions I had for you Gianni, it was so great to catch up with you and get your perspective on things. I hope to be able to do something like this again with you soon.
If you’d like to follow Gianni online and see what he is up to these days you can find him on Instagram here
Interviews With You! By Lewis Jane 
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