Moving house is already one of the most stressful experiences that a person can live through. Add a change in country to the mix, and the potential for stress increases exponentially.

Upping sticks and transferring to Italy is a hugely exciting project for anyone to undertake, but moments of self-doubt as to the wisdom of your choices are entirely to be expected.

Have I done the right thing?

Will I regret such an enormous life change?

Am I leaving too many precious things behind?

One of the triggers for such introspection may well be an overwhelming sense of nostalgia for any number of aspects of the life you have chosen to walk away from. In other words, you may well find yourself suffering from homesickness.

You miss your family, your friends or maybe even your workmates. You may be overtaken by a yearning for home comforts only to be found in the UK; specific types of food, particular television programs, nights at your local pub or club with dear friends, or hobbies that bring meaning and enjoyment to your periods of free time.

One of the first things to do, perhaps even before you set off, is to plan the first visit from your nearest and dearest. It will give both parties something to look forward to, and will lessen the initial shock of separation: saying goodbye to loved ones when you have no clear idea of when you will be seeing them again can be a nerve-racking prospect. For those closest to you, it often helps if you can pinpoint dates for the next get-together before you have even waved goodbye after this one.

Homesickness will also lessen as Italy slowly becomes your new home, and in order to make it into your home and not just the foreign country in which you happen to live, integration into your new community is of huge advantage.

In many corners of Italy, you will almost certainly have access to an already established British or English-speaking community; providing you with opportunities to form new friendships or to take up new activities. However, in order to make the most of the country in which you are now living and to make meaningful contact with the local community, learning enough Italian to facilitate basic communication will go a long way in the integration process. Even a basic level of the language will give you the necessary stepping stone to ensure gradual improvement as time goes by.

And those activities and hobbies that you so enjoyed in the UK; why not try and continue them once you have moved to Italy? If you enjoy tennis, there may well be a local tennis club you can join. Or perhaps hiking, painting, cycling or bird-watching are your passions. Whatever they are, if you can find a like-minded group of people who take pleasure in the same things, then it will almost certainly provide you with some sort of social network in exactly the same way it did when you were living in the UK.

There are ways of connecting to British Sky television, if that is an important way for you to retain a connection to your UK life, and UK newspapers are usually not too hard to track down in many Italian towns and cities.

And if it is familiar foods that comfort you, then make sure that you have some sympathetic UK dwellers on standby to send you packages when necessary – although there are many Italian supermarkets than now stock at least some British staples.

Most importantly, just try to enjoy all the new experiences that this vibrant and beautiful country has to offer. Adapting may not always be easy, but with enough careful forethought and planning, it will be utterly worth it.