I moved from Italy to London for the great life – however I obtained depressed
- Alfredo Mellone, 30, got here to London searching for a brand new life – however ended up hating it
- He says town labored him too onerous, ate up all of his time and ruined his weight-reduction plan
- Did your life change after leaving London? Email [email protected]
An Italian expat who moved to London trying to make it huge within the capital says it left him poor, chubby and overworked because the cost-of-living disaster and the coronavirus pandemic hit.
Alfredo Mellone, 30, from Naples, moved to England in 2019 with a head stuffed with desires, hoping to profit from what one of many world’s most various and busy cities has to supply.
Instead, after discovering a job as a waiter and a room in a Zone 2 flatshare for £550 a month, he discovered himself nearly destitute and dealing at the very least 45 hours every week simply attempting to interrupt even – dedicating much less time to his hobbies akin to sports activities.
The state of affairs worsened as Covid lockdown hit in 2020, with Mr Mellone furloughed from his hospitality job and compelled to tackle one other job with Ikea packing up click-and-collect orders simply to make ends meet.
But together with his lease rising by £100 a month, his weight ballooned 40kg (greater than six stone) as a result of he might solely afford to eat chips and had no time to go to the gymnasium, having beforehand been a CrossFit devotee.
Did your life change after leaving London? Email [email protected]
Alfredo Mellone says he moved to London to profit from town’s alternatives – however left after turning into depressed and chubby
He claims to have discovered town too costly to dwell in – with a big a part of his wages eaten up by his lease and common dwelling prices
Mr Mellone sitting in Covent Garden in 2020. He was furloughed from his ready job after lockdown hit and later needed to discover different work to maintain his head above water
He says costs in London are too costly for younger individuals – and since transferring to a different European nation the place transport and on a regular basis treats like a glass of wine are a fraction of the price, he says he’s happier.
‘The bills in London are exceptionally excessive, they weren’t reasonably priced with only one wage. I had this sense of continually looking for methods to earn money and it was a bit tense,’ he informed the i.
Alfredo spent three years in London, his ballooning weight and the British climate making him depressing.
He labored additional time shifts in his ready job and took on different momentary work after restrictions eased with a view to hold his head above water.
In July 2022, he moved to Valencia in Spain – the place he says the tempo of life, the perspective to work and the price of dwelling are a lot better.
He now works for Amazon in a gross sales job – incomes as a lot as he did within the UK however together with his cash going a lot additional.
In London, he purchased a bicycle to get about with a view to keep away from costly Tube fares – the place every day Oyster fares for Zones 1 and a pair of are at the moment capped at £8.10. In Valencia, 10 public transport journeys may be made with a €4 ticket.
And he says {that a} £12 glass of wine in London may be discovered for €3 in most Valencian cafes – with town encouraging ‘motion’, he says, as a result of there aren’t any fears of being unable to afford your journey.
He added of his time in London: ‘Because of my monetary wants, I labored six days every week and my day without work was spent in mattress. It meant neglecting sports activities, hobbies and well being to dedicate your self to serving plates.
‘(In Valencia), there’s much more respect for individuals’s working hours, there is no such thing as a expectation of additional time, which in London is extra of an imposition than an expectation.’
Despite Mr Mellone’s expertise, London continues to rank extremely as among the finest cities on the planet in a lot of polls and surveys.
Last 12 months, a examine assessing cities on ‘liveability, loveability and prosperity’ rated the UK capital as the primary metropolis on the planet ‘regardless of Brexit’.
And TimeOut’s record of the world’s prime metropoli, revealed in January and based mostly on each residents’ and its writers’ views, put town at quantity 4, simply forward of Liverpool and behind prime ranker New York.
