Maureen Jenkins left Chicago in 2004 to move to Italy. This April she returned to the U.S.
		Photo by Aminah Ricks

The dismal euro-dollar exchange rate has been particularly hard on the free-spirited people who wanted a better quality of life and to soak up Italian culture.

Last May, Maureen Jenkins quit her $75,000-a-year-job in Chicago at Boeing, where she wrote for the company's in-house magazine. She decided to become a freelance writer and work in Florence. Jenkins moved to Italy in September.

But she returned to the USA on April 1 because of the weak dollar. A dinner for two at 85 euros, or $102, last spring cost the equivalent of $113 in December. Potential bank fees and foreign currency conversion fees that can run up to 3% of the transaction take additional bites out of ATM withdrawals from dollar accounts.

"It's one thing to go on vacation for a week and you suck it up. But it's another thing for every single thing you buy to cost one third more," Jenkins said from her Florence apartment a few days before returning to Chicago to look for work. "You feel like you're digging yourself into a hole, and at some point you have to stop digging."

When the single European currency was introduced Jan. 1, 2002, the exchange rate went from nearly 2,000 lire to the dollar to 89 cents to the euro overnight. While relatively weak at the time, the euro has gained strength. Today, it costs $1.28 to buy a euro — a nearly 50% increase.

That's hurting many of the thousands of U.S. citizens living here. Nearly 50,000 Americans lived in Italy at the end of 2003, according to Italy's immigration office. The ministry requires foreigners planning to stay more than three months to obtain a permesso di soggiorno, or permit to stay. But the number of Americans living here is likely higher because some move to Italy and never go through the proper legal channels.

Shoe designer/consultant Barbara Seaver moved from New York to Milan 30 years ago to attend college. She settled in Florence, where she runs her American company Advanced Design. Seaver and her Kansas-born husband, Rob, an artist and antiques expert, met in Florence and married 13 years ago. They own a condominium that is steps from the Ponte Vecchio.

Seaver says, "My passport is American, my heart is Florentine." But she also says the couple is considering returning to the USA because of the high cost of living. "What is the point in staying here when you're getting clubbed every single day you wake up?" she asks.

She says it's not just the exchange rate but the euro itself that has caused problems for American expatriates. When the single European currency was introduced, prices doubled for those relying on U.S. dollars. The reason: Many shop owners purposely didn't divide the price by 1,936.27, the old lira rate. Instead, they merely knocked zeros off their prices. A pair of designer shoes that cost 350,000 lire was marked at 350 euros, or $311, on Jan. 1, 2002, not 180 euros, or $160. At today's rate, a 350 euro pair of shoes costs $448.

"We've cut back on everything," Seaver says. "I do what I never did before: I go in and bargain in the main stores, and if they don't meet me and give me a discount, I leave."

New York native Donna Sheratan cringes every time she looks at her bank statement to see what she withdrew in dollars. She switched from painting nudes to depicting angels after a 1992 near-death boating experience. In March 2002, Sheratan moved to Italy to study some of the great Italian artists.

She lived in Venice, Rome and Tuscany before renting a 500-euros-a-month, or $645, apartment in Positano in February 2004. The town on the Amalfi coast draws many artists and writers because of its picturesque beauty. But this month Sheratan plans to head to Los Angeles, where she once lived.

"I'm a little sad to go back," she says. "Between the art market not being strong and the dollar being so low, I can't justify it anymore."

One small tube of paint cost her 26 euros. The tube that cost $22.62 in 2002 now goes for $33.54. Some of her oil-on-canvas paintings stand 6 feet, 5 inches high. Sheratan says she has to spend about 800 euros, or $1,040, on paint for one of her paintings.

As the exchange rate plummeted, Jenkins said she adjusted her lifestyle. Instead of shopping at the overpriced markets near the Ponte Vecchio, she took the bus or walked 20 minutes to grocery stores where the same jar of Barilla pasta sauce that sold for $4.75 near her apartment cost $3.20. When going out for cocktails, she looked for places where hors d'oeuvres were served free. "I constantly think about the exchange rate with everything, even if it's small stuff," Jenkins said. "It could be bottle of soda. I say, 'Oh my God. I just paid $3 for a bottle of soda.' That's crazy!"

Marco Elser, who moved from New York to Rome more than 20 years ago, owns a small investment bank. His revenue are in dollars and expenses in euros. "I feel the pinch," he concedes. But Elser considers the situation cyclical. "In the mid-'80s, I felt really rich," says Elser, who was paid in dollars when he worked for Merrill Lynch from 1984 to 1994. "I'm very philosophical about it. There are so many people in worse condition than I am."