Gabriele Frattaroli (38) and a friend moved from their native Rome to Dublin 12 years ago.
The pair had graduated from university a few months before and were looking to move somewhere for a few months, maybe a year at most, to perfect their English.
“We first thought about London, but that was too expensive. Then we saw Dublin, which back in those days, and even now, is a technology hub with a vivid music scene. There were loads of bands here and it was cheaper than London, at least back in those days,” Frattaroli says.
His friend ended up only lasting three weeks in Ireland, his two main complaints about life in Dublin: the food and the weather.
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“We grew up with this idea that the food over in northern Europe was inedible. That there was absolutely nothing to eat if you don’t like very specific stuff like hairy sausages or bacon. I was expecting a lot worse than actually what I found.”
Arriving in October 2013, Frattaroli and his friend tried to acclimatise to lower temperatures and increased rainfall during what was then the wettest winter on record.
Though his friend’s time in Ireland was brief, it was through him that Frattaroli initially secured accommodation in Dublin.
“Thanks to my friend I found this room in Blanchardstown, and I lived with a Romanian family – it was quite crowded. It was a duplex apartment with, like, eight people. Fortunately, I had my own room. I was paying absolutely nothing compared to what people are paying at the moment.”
Though Frattaroli struggled to find work in his first few months, he emphasised how easy he found dealing with Irish bureaucracy compared with the Italian systems he was used to.
“Coming from Italy, I was also genuinely surprised by how quickly bureaucracy worked. I had my PPS number and the essentials sorted within a few weeks, and I was ready to start working without the long delays you might expect elsewhere.”
Frattaroli spent much of his first six months in Ireland teaching himself the basics of data analytics. His father had been an early software developer in the 1980s.
His proficiency in English came from his mother, who had worked as an au pair in London for a few years and spoke English to him at home. Having an interest in computers at the time also necessitated good English, as most of the programming was done in that language.
Aside from being a software developer, Frattaroli’s father is also a musician. Growing up, he says, “My house was always full of instruments and computers.”
Inheriting his father’s love for music, Frattaroli had been fixing computers by day and playing bass and singing with a few bands on the side before moving to Dublin.
Frattaroli believes that Ireland has a much better music scene than Rome.
“Especially in Rome, we don’t really have as many concerts. I mean we have concerts for the big main bands, but we never have concerts of the bands that are on the verge of being successful. That’s what I wanted to have.”
With his friend gone and knowing only a handful of people in the country, Frattaroli decided to turn to the internet to find love. He considered leaving Ireland too as he was still unemployed after five months of job searching.
“I never tried dating websites before, but since I was in Ireland and in 2013, it wasn’t like Tinder or all these very easy apps.”
Quite soon after making his profile, he matched with a woman called Nicola.
“She was actually the one who sent me the first message. It was just a simple ‘hi’. It turned out that we had a lot in common. We have a big passion for music of course. Actually she had seen a lot more bands than I had.”
After a few weeks of exchanging messages online, Frattaroli and Nicola went on their first date.
“We met up in front of Trinity College and that night was just magical. We talked all night. We talked about music, we talked about philosophy. It was just great. I saw something in her immediately.”
The pair started dating immediately but after a few months Frattaroli was offered a job as an analyst for Amazon in Cork. He moved to Kinsale, and a few months after that Nicola, who he later married, followed.
“My wife’s family were incredibly welcoming.”
Frattaroli also says he has joined Nicola’s old group of friends and met other friends through work.
In 2021, the couple welcomed their son Elio and started looking to buy a house. The couple decided to look in Tullamore, where Nicola is from. Frattaroli says they got lucky, as a house on a sold-out newly built estate suddenly became available after a family decided to pull out of a purchase at the last minute.
When asked whether he ever sees himself moving back to Italy, Frattaroli laughs and says: “Oh believe me, the more I read about Italy, the more I don’t want to go back.
“I don’t think I would have the same lifestyle, the same quality of life in Italy that I’m having at the moment here in Ireland. It wouldn’t be as easy for me to find a job, build a family and buy a house in Italy. Of course, there is a housing crisis in Ireland, we all know that, but at least here made it possible for me.”
We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past 10 years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or tweet @newtotheparish
