A New Chapter: Leaving Milan and Moving to Zurich

After several years in Milan and a meaningful chapter as a Staff iOS Engineer at Yassir, I am closing one phase of my career and starting another. I am excited to share that I will be joining GetYourGuide in Zurich as a Senior iOS Engineer.

This move is not only professional. It is deeply personal. Many people asked why I decided to leave Italy after investing so much in building a life and a career here. This is my attempt to explain it honestly.

The financial ceiling for engineers in Italy

Italy is a beautiful place to live, but if you work in tech you run into a financial ceiling very early. A Senior iOS Engineer usually lands around €70K gross and in the rarest cases someone might get €90K. These roles exist but they are extremely limited. Most companies still consider a candidate asking for more than €60K “fuori mercato” simply because the salary culture has not caught up with the value that experienced engineers provide.

In 2023 I earned €79K which, came out to about €3.8K net per month over 12 months. On paper this looks good. And to be clear, it does allow a comfortable daily life. I could afford my own place in Milan, even though a decent apartment starts at €1.1K per month and often more. For many people in their thirties it is still normal to share a flat because the cost of living alone is heavy.

With €3.8K I could go out when I wanted, have dinners, travel sometimes. The lifestyle itself was fine. The problem is the future. You can maintain a nice routine, but you cannot build long term stability. Saving for milestones like a home, a family or any serious financial goal becomes painfully slow.

This is why seeing people claim that €2K is a great salary for Milan feels surreal. At €2K you are forced into sharing a flat, counting every major purchase and delaying any long term plan indefinitely. Even €3.8K, which is already significantly above average, still does not give you a realistic path to building something solid.

The daily life is fine. The future is blocked. That is the real ceiling.

Entrepreneurship looks promising until the math hits

Going independent in Italy seems like the logical next step once you hit the salary ceiling. The “regime forfettario” looks great on paper because you pay about 17 percent tax up to €85K. At that level you take home roughly €5.7K net per month which finally gives you breathing room. For the first time you can save with intention instead of leftover scraps. You can invest. You can plan.

When I was in that bracket I started putting money into stocks and into a private pension because at 33 I have little faith that INPS will still function properly by the time I retire. That extra margin every month gave me actual financial freedom instead of just surviving comfortably.

The problem is that €85K is a hard ceiling. The moment you earn €85,001 you lose the forfettario benefit and fall into the ordinary regime. That single euro pushes you into a completely different tax structure where your net collapses so much that you would need to earn around €120K just to match the net you had at €85K. Imagine working more, earning more on paper, then taking home less than the year before. It is absurd, but that is how the system works.

I experienced it directly. I spent two years as an independent engineer and even signed my first six figure contract at $100K per year. Everything else here is in euros. That contract looked like a major milestone, but crossing the €85K line guaranteed that the following year I would take home less net despite working at the same level. With the dollar weakening the numbers became even worse.

On top of that you deal with client unpredictability, shifting priorities and this growing belief that complex engineering can be “vibe coded”. Combine those with a tax cliff designed to punish growth and freelancing in Italy stops being a path forward. It becomes a trap where the system penalizes you for succeeding.

Stability, quality of life and the reality of Milan today

Even if you accept the salary ceiling, Milan presents a bigger problem that affects your entire quality of life. On €3.8K net you can live comfortably day to day. On €5.7K net under forfettario you can live even better. But long term stability is a completely different story.

A decent apartment for one person easily starts at €1.1K per month. A mortgage requires a down payment of at least €50K. That number grows fast depending on the area. Unless you make serious sacrifices for years, saving that money is extremely difficult. And when you do not have family support the challenge is even heavier. I have none here. Coming from Lebanon I have been supporting my own family for the past five years entirely on my shoulders. Every euro I save is a euro I had to defend from rising costs and responsibilities. Under those conditions buying a home starts to feel more like a fantasy than a plan.

At the same time the city itself has changed in ways that affect how you experience daily life. Safety has become inconsistent and unpredictable. Certain areas now require a level of vigilance that drains you over time. I had a gold necklace taken from under my hoodie on a train. It was not visible at all, yet it was gone in seconds. Violent robberies and knife related incidents over tiny sums appear in the news with uncomfortable frequency. Even recently we had several gun related incidents. Situations like this chip away at your sense of freedom in your own city.

I want to be clear when talking about this. I am an immigrant myself. I came to Italy legally to study engineering and spent years building my career the proper way. I know how sensitive the immigration conversation is. Many people arrive because of wars, instability or exploitation. The issue is not their existence. The issue is the system they fall into. Italy offers very weak integration, very little support and a legal framework that leaves thousands of people in limbo. When people have no access to work, no residency clarity and no social structure, the risk of turning to illegal activity increases. That is a predictable outcome of neglect, not a statement about individuals. But the effect on the streets is real and everyone living in the city feels it.

On top of that law enforcement feels powerless. Not because they are incapable, but because the rules they operate under make them hesitant to intervene. Between procedural limits, fear of backlash and slow prosecution, it often feels like the police cannot act decisively even when the situation clearly requires it. The result is a city where offenders have little deterrent and residents feel unprotected.

When you combine rising costs, no realistic path to owning a home, and a daily environment where you need to watch your back far more than you should, the overall quality of life drops. You can earn a good salary, go out, enjoy your routine, but it does not feel like a place where you can build a stable future.

Politics is not the focus, the reality of living here is

I never voted in Italy and I never felt strongly aligned with any political side. If anything I tend to lean center right because I care about lower taxes and public safety, but the truth is that none of it matters anymore. Over the last ten years this country has seen governments from every corner of the spectrum, from far left to far right, and the result has been the same. Costs keep rising. Bureaucracy keeps expanding. Security keeps slipping. Every election comes with new slogans, new promises, new narratives, and then the same problems continue or get worse.

After watching one government replace another with no meaningful improvement, it becomes hard to believe that any political shift is going to change daily life in a real way. At some point you stop expecting solutions from people who have shown for a decade that they cannot deliver them. You stop hoping that the next election will magically fix anything. There is no light at the end of the tunnel if the tunnel keeps getting rebuilt by the same hands.

I left Lebanon because I wanted to build something great for myself and my future. As it stands, Milan is not the place where that vision can grow, no matter how hard I try.

Choosing a new home

When I began looking abroad, I focused on places known for strong tech ecosystems and high quality of life. Amsterdam and Zurich were at the top of the list. Barcelona was also appealing because of Beckham’s Law and because if you choose a place that is not perfectly safe, at least let it give you good weather and a beach. Milan gives you neither of those, only smog.

Zurich eventually felt like the right match. I appreciate punctuality. I believe in a healthy competitive economy. I also happen to love watches and own a dozen myself. More importantly, Zurich offers stability, strong engineering culture, and a higher ceiling for both professional and personal growth.

Looking forward

Joining GetYourGuide marks the start of an exciting new phase. I am grateful for what Milan gave me. I spent the majority of my life here. I built a career, friendships and a life here. But right now Zurich is where I see the future I want to build.