British Historian Michael Knapton Reflects on Life and Integration in Italy’s Veneto Region

We had the opportunity to converse with Michael Knapton, a distinguished historian and a member of the Accademia Olimpica of Vicenza. A British-born scholar who also holds Italian citizenship, Knapton has spent half a century making the Veneto his home, as well as researching the centuries-long relationship between Venice and its erstwhile dominion in Northern Italy. In this rare interview, he shared his insights on how life in Italy has changed over the decades. Below, we summarise some of his thoughts. 

A Life Between The UK and Italy

Michael Knapton was born in London in 1950 and moved to Italy in 1973. A distinguished historian, he completed his studies at Oxford University, earning a BA, MA, and PhD, focusing initially on the relationship between Padua and Venice in the late 15th century. Over a career spanning decades, he taught at the University of Udine and collaborated with academic institutions across Europe, specialising in the history of the Venetian Republic. Now retired, he resides in Creazzo, Veneto, where he has immersed himself in local life, and also reflected on how the region has evolved over the past fifty years.

Building a Life in the Veneto

Settling in Italy in the 1970s was a different experience from today. Before the Maastricht Treaty gave birth to the EU and freedom of movement for EU nationals, immigrating to Italy from the UK was far more challenging, and professional mobility between countries was limited. “It was just so much harder back then,” Knapton recalls. “While my UK colleagues progressed in their careers with relative ease, I had to fight my way ahead. Both formally and informally: shifting mountains of paperwork to get qualifications recognized and obtain citizenship (both of these then needed to apply for university jobs); and gaining enough respect for my work to actually land an appointment.” Despite these hurdles, he remained committed to his academic work and also to the cultural life of the Veneto, appreciating the lifestyle benefits that came with living in a region steeped in history.

Integration and Identity in the Veneto

Integration into Italian society came with both rewards and challenges. Language played a crucial role—people native to Veneto instinctively trust those who can speak the local dialect. “You could be here for decades, but if you don’t speak some of the local lingo, you’ll always be a bit of an outsider,” he notes. Over time, the Veneto has become more cosmopolitan, but remnants of its ‘insular’ past persist. “I can speak dialect reasonably well. And I find that even with people I’ve known for years, if I push the conversation from Italian into dialect, they somehow relax.”

His personal experience with integration was further shaped by adopting two children from India in 1986 and 1990. At a time when all foreigners were rare in Italy, his family stood out, and his children faced both curiosity and discrimination. “People weren’t used to seeing non-white children back then. My daughter and son were treated as exotic novelties when they were small,” he says. “Then adolescence brought them new challenges, as they were no longer just ‘cute kids’ but perceived as outsiders in a different way, especially since from the late ’90s there was a growing presence of darker-skinned immigrants.” Today, while Italian society has become more diverse, Knapton notes that attitudes toward outsiders remain complex, oscillating between acceptance and resistance.

Healthcare, Climate, and Quality of Life in the Veneto

Now in his seventies, Michael Knapton has come to appreciate certain advantages of living in the Veneto compared to other parts of Italy. “The public healthcare system isn’t perfect anywhere,” he admits, “but here at least it’s not bad at all, I feel like it has my back.” The Veneto’s combination of urban infrastructure and natural beauty provides an ideal setting for an active lifestyle—he has a long history as cyclist, runner and walker, and the surrounding landscape offers endless opportunities to keep fit in visually beautiful settings.

However, the Veneto’s geography also presents challenges. “The Po Valley has intrinsic disadvantages in terms of air quality. The combination of high emissions and stagnant air means that pollution sometimes just lingers in the plain area where I live,” he explains. Moreover, climate change has reshaped daily life in unexpected ways. “When I retrofitted my house in 2016 (super-insulation, solar electricity and hot water, heat pump, etc.), I thought it would help mainly with winters. Turns out, the real benefit to our comfort is in keeping the house cool during the increasingly hot summers.” He has a small electric car and his home has become nearly energy-passive, a shift he sees as essential for the future.

Politics, Civic Engagement, and Changing Social Attitudes

Knapton has never been a passive observer. Over the years, he became deeply involved in local politics, even serving nine years on the municipal council in Creazzo and then two as the president of the Pro Loco, the town’s main cultural association. He also worked on community initiatives, particularly those aimed at helping immigrant families integrate into society. “I got involved in local volunteer work and politics because it felt like the logical next step. If you make a home somewhere, for yourself and your children, you should be part of helping the community thrive and shaping its future.”

He has observed first-hand how the Veneto’s political and social landscape has shifted, from the clash between the mainstay Christian Conservative party and strong left-wing movements in the 1970s, when religion and the Church  still played a major role in everyday life, to a more secular society today. The regional ethos still continues to prize hard work and making money, sometimes obsessively. “People had two religions: one was fairly narrow-minded Catholicism, and the other was money. Now the first is mostly dying. The second is not.”

One of the most striking societal changes he has witnessed is the shift in attitudes toward race and immigration. However, private opinions still sometimes veer back to the old ways. “Public discourse may seem more tolerant now, but if you listen to private conversations, it’s a different story,” he remarks.

The Demographic Challenge Facing Italy

Beyond politics, he sees broader shifts in Italian society. One of the most pressing concerns is the demographic crisis. Italians are having children later in life, if at all, and the multigenerational support system that once defined Italian family life is eroding. “When I was growing up, it was normal to marry and have children in your twenties. Now, the expectation is to delay parenthood as much as possible,” he says. In contrast to Northern Europe, where people still tend to have children in their twenties or early thirties, many Italians now wait until much later. “I see a real risk of social breakdown over the next few decades. The numbers just don’t add up.”

Final Reflections

Looking back on his decades in Italy, Michael Knapton acknowledges the trade-offs. Professionally, he sacrificed opportunities that he might have had in the UK, particularly in the pre-EU era when cross-border mobility was cumbersome. “When an American colleague heard me grumbling n the 1980s that I wasn’t advancing in academia, she said, ‘Michael, you decided to have a life.’ And she was right—I got married, we had children, we bought a house. And gradually my career sorted itself out. That’s something most precariously employed Italian academics today can’t do, nor a good many people in other lines of work.”

The Veneto he first encountered in the 1970s was a very different place—less diverse, less internationally connected, and more rigid in its traditions. Today, while many of those traditions endure, the region is evolving. “Italy can be frustrating, but it has a way of keeping you here,” he says. “People often ask me, ‘Do you feel more British or more Italian?’ And I say, ‘It depends a bit on where I am.’ But the bottom line is that I belong to both countries, and feel richer as a result, even though I know I’ve partly missed out on a lot of changes in Britain.”

Knapton’s own life stands as a testament to the long, sometimes complicated, but in many ways rewarding journey of making a home in Italy.

(This article has been summarised and structured from a conversation with Michael Knapton, edited for clarity and readability.)