In this section I explain why I like Finland, why I started planning to live there, why I definitely moved to the place I consider one of the best in the World.

Tuhansien järvien maa.The land of thousands of lakes”

How?

Everything started on december 2001 when I got to know a finnish girl called Laura.
We used to write letters often. Yes..letters! it was a nice emotion to open a letter and receive some little gifts sometimes. Laura came to visit me in Italy and I went to Finland as well. I was in Finland on Christmas, which means a lot of snow and temperature like -24°C!! I felt the emotion of touching real snow for the first time in my life walking on an iced lake with siberian wind blowing on my face!

So we had a relationship for about two years but right now we are very good friends and we always meet and spend some time together when possible. Laura actually introduced me into the finnish world and I couldn't stop travelling to Finland anymore!

Another great friend of mine is Siiri, she spended few months studying at my university in Napoli and thanks to her I got to visit wonderful places in Finland and get to learn many other things about the culture and language!

Why?

Here we are...why do I want to live in Helsinki? Here are some of the reasons:

Helsinki - It's a great place!You get all the good things of a big city and leave out all the bad.No traffic,no pollution,no chaos. Great transportation system, good night life and lot's of green.

The education system - it is the best in Europe, and probably in the World. The PISA test has proved the Finnish students to be the best all over the globe.

The working condition - we can't deny that Finland is one of the best countries developing a deep high tech knowledge, if we only think about Nokia everything becomes more clear! still I believe that living in Finland is such a pleasure that I probably would be happy doing any kind of job there!

The nature - Finland has 187'888 lakes! there are many forests as well..nature is everywhere, also in a city like Helsinki. You can read more here.

Low criminality - this needs no explainations.

Low pollution - this needs no explainations.

Why not?

So actually the question turns to be "Why not?" rather than "Why?". Let me please demystifying here some cliches:

The weather is not that cold - If you are reading this and are discouraged to move to Finland by the weather, then forget it: there is no issue. In Finland -20C feels as cold as about 0C in Italy. Maybe because of humidity, I don't know. You just wear hat and gloves, and you are done.

People are not cold - this is what people in Europe think and, ironically, also what Finns like to think about themselves! Well in my opinion Finns are quite warm. At least everybody has always been that to me. Obviously I found out that even a pretty big city like Helsinki is a lot more quiet and silent than the little town where I live in Italy. I absolutely prefer quiet places!

Finnish language is not difficult - I really mean it! "Suomi ei ole vaikea kieli! Suomi on vain erilainen kieli!" Finnish is not a difficult language.. Finnish is only a different language! I believe that if you have something governed by some rules.. whatever it is.. a language..the algebra..a programming language.. you just have to study the rules and you can't fail. Then obviously you have to practise a lot and you need some intuition and creativity if you want to be the best!

Conclusion

Finland is definitely the place where I want to live. I come from a place where life is a lot more complicated than in Finland, in every aspect. After all to live in Italy, with criminality, corruption, pollution, unemployment, is a lot more stressing, so the only thing you can do is to get used at it or move, for example to middle / north Italy where things are a bit better. So I actually preferred to move to Helsinki rather then Milano or Roma! After all I like the challenges! that's why I like to say: "It's kind of fun to do the impossible!"