Made it out of US after only 25 years of work and effort

We have much in common it seems. I also have wanted for over a decade to leave the USA when possible for it appears many of the same reasons as you. Recently divorced and without children I find that the small city I used to love has also changed much in the past twenty years and becomes more like Florida with each passing week -- less substantive, less natural, more conservative -- rather like all my extended family in the US. My city has become a refuge for many women 30 to 70
in the past ten years. There are no jobs here and tourism, my prior career, is dying quickly with the recession. Yet I think we americans tend to be provincial in our choices as are most people everywhere.

I fell in love with Barcelona but do not believe I can afford to live there since the US economy is falling at about the same rate as that of Spain and I expect will exceed it within a few years due to the 49% of GPI continuing costs of war which are not talked about in our media but nonetheless are the death knell of our economic well being.

Sicily is the land of my fathers parents. I was there for a short time -- a few weeks -- about nine years ago and found it enchanting. Yet looking at his hometown south of Palermo I realized it would be much too undeveloped and "hilly" and difficult to age there. Hearing of Catania I thought I would love to check out Catania which I missed visiting the first time around. Eventually I would like to find a community of women to rent a large home to share but now that may take some time to create.
I have no skills in Italian but will work toward it -- my Spanish was good at one point -- I think with time I can make the switch although Sicilian dialect will probably always evade my reach.

I would like to hear from you. I hope to visit Catania between November and January of this year
and would love to look you up while there. Any advice would be appreciated -- I'm starting from zero. I think I travel well and am self-reliant. Nonetheless I, like you I believe, do not want to move to a country without community being possible when I arrive. A lonely life is not the Italian way -- it is American.