It all started when I moved to Florence in December 2002 and was lost. I had a 1-year-old and was determined to find some friends for him. I found out from an Italian friend that there was a playgroup at the St. James Church, an Episcopal Church. Even though I was not Episcopalian and didn’t speak Italian, I decided to attend the Wednesday morning playgroup anyway. At times, this group ranged from 2 moms to sometimes 10. The playgroup was a great meeting place until the church decided to close the playgroup. While we struggled to have the playgroup rotating at our homes, I used my free website account that came with my email and created the Monday Morning Moms and Tot Playgroup website. This was great for keeping things organized and scheduling where the next playgroup would be.
In 2004, pregnant with my second child, I wanted to move beyond the playgroup and start giving information to the network of moms listing all the exciting events around Florence. When I moved here from the US, I had to do a lot of paperwork, find doctors, etc. I realized how hard it was to do all these things, especially since it was all in Italian. I felt this was a good thing to put on a website for any mom moving here who had to adapt to the culture and new environment. It was also when I set up and paid for a domain name and created the Firenze Moms 4 Moms Network. I immediately got to work developing pages of lots of helpful information. At first, my posts started with searching the web, translating valuable pages, and adding information from my experiences. As the group grew, I asked members to share their helpful ex-pat stories.
Networking was not like it is today with Facebook, but I knew the web was a great way to reach out with web-based forms. I could collect the names of the interested moms and set them up with other moms in their areas. I wanted to increase the size of the members in the playgroup from 10 because I knew there were more moms out there to help. I would also post local events and other FMs4Ms Network activities. I got busy and set up the webform to collect names and their areas. The moms started to roll in, and my small Network was beginning to evolve; moms were coming out of the woodwork. Some had already lived here for many years, while others were worldwide newcomers.
Two years after creation, I became really ill with a life-threatening disease. In 2006, I was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease. From spring 2007 to winter 2009, things in the group slowed up and almost came to a stop. I was about to close the website and Network down because I struggled to keep it all going. I had a change of heart when many moms stated that the group was the best thing to happen to them. So, I kept the site and struggled to keep the Network going.
In 2009, after years of therapy, I was starting to feel like I was able to focus on getting this group to where I knew it could be. Because of all the publicizing I did, the Network started to get a burst of new members. We were hitting the 200-member mark. I was surprised and overwhelmed. We were getting members from Firenze and all over Italy, so I divided the group into Firenze and its sister sites in Siena, Perugia, and Lucca. Later, these groups branched off on their own.
Today, we have an extensive network of followers, a few events, and playgroups initiated by member moms. I created Firenze Moms 4 Moms Network to assist English-speaking mothers in Florence and the surrounding areas, and that is what I am doing.
FMs4Ms would not exist without your help! So, thank you to all the members who have, throughout the years, been an integral part of making this network an asset to moms coming to Italy to live with their families.
Written by Kimberly Vanzi
FMs4Ms Founder/Creator
Firenze Moms 4 Moms Network 