I am a German native speaker, born in Germany but living in Italy (Milan) ever since the age of 8 (1971).
In Milan I've been attending the local German school ("Scuola Germanica di Milano") where I graduated (German "Abitur" as well as Italian "maturità scientifica") in 1982, then enrolling at "Università degli Studi di Milano" , faculty of "Modern Languages and Literature" (specialization: German, English) though not completing these studies (mainly because of poor quality of teaching...).
In the meantime I had begun working as translator and interpreter (German, English,French + Italian), mainly in occasion of the many trade fairs and exhibitions that take place here in Milan; later on (years 1986-1995) I have been working on a regular basis for the Milan Mayor's Office, in particular for one of its foreign branches, a so called "Centre for Cooperation among World's Cities", for example organizing several "Conferences of Mayors of World's Major Cities" (where I not only took care of the many translations with regard to the speeches and contributions but where I was also responsible for all of the worldwide correspondence relating to these conferences), as well as for the "Fondazione Stelline" (a foundation sponsored by the City of Milan and by the Region Lombardy) which owns the convention centre "Palazzo delle Stelline" in Milan and where I worked as assistant to the General Manager.
Nowadays I'm running my own activity (a new and -hopefully!- charming apartment-hotel in the city centre of Milan) and I like to keep my language skills up-to-date not only by writing and speaking to our foreign guests but also by performing various translations, at least from time to time.