2 HEROES, THE HEAT, and the TIES THAT BIND--week two

The acquisition of the permesso di soggiorno—or the process thereby—continues….

Hero #1:  An expansive, heart-warming “Ciao!” greeted us as we lumbered out of the car, our arms laden with valuable, valuable Xerox copies.  Claudio, our next door neighbor, was in Monte San Martino (the county seat) for some business and happened to be coming up the hill as we drove in---can anyone say kismet???

Claudio (insert picture here---) is a contadino, a 70-year-old farmer, and has been in Le Marche his entire life.  He owns/runs the chicken farm next door (17,000 free range chickens) and he may be one of the kindest people I know…he is robust (‘cause he’s worked outside his entire life), gregarious, curious, sheltered (he once asked me what the dining room was like on airplanes), bigger than life, well-versed in country ways, and lonely (his wife died about 10 years ago and he has an empty place in his heart and in his life).  

Claudio has adopted us:  every time we see him, he offers a coffee, a glass of wine, his garage to park our car, advice.   So today, when we told him we were off to the Ufficio di Anagrafe, he offered to take us there, after coffee.  Paolo was working, and  Claudio introduced us as his vicini Americani, American neighbors, who need help.  Wowee zowee, Paolo stepped up….he was kind, helpful, and encouraging.  He said he didn’t see a problem, however, he needed to study the paperwork con calme, to be sure everything was in order.  He’d call when we needed to sign the paperwork….however, he didn’t say when that might be….a week, a month, two months?  Yeah, maybe. 

Claudio offered his help without any reservations—I think that is the heart of our interactions, people helping without thinking….Claudio, Hero #1.

Hero #2:  Obviously, with no Italian ID, we couldn’t continue with the buying of the car….so there ensued several conversations with Mario, the car salesman….he ever-trying to find a solution.  I finally said we needed to ferma tutto, stop everything, and il mio marito ed io, my husband and I (because in this country, man-to-man still speaks more strongly than woman-to-man-----I need to address this cultural anomaly in a future blog, for it requires me to actively be passive and let “the man” handle things…..hmmmm, I’ve managed pretty well handling things, so to consciously choose to be less-than-active goes against my grain.  But, if I keep the goal firmly in mind, it helps….more, much more on this later) will be back on Wednesday to collect a check for the full amount.  You’ve never seen/heard such dancing, he’s put so much time into our sale, he got the tags for the car, he’s committed to us getting it…..I held firm… and then called Tina.

I wanted to be sure he understood everything I had said—so I asked Tina to call and reiterate.  She called Cousin Stefano (Hero #2) to make that call for us (the man-to-man thang again).  Stefano is a salesman, and a good one; he’s calm, smooth, sophisticated, empathetic (picture here).  Mario finally agreed when Stefano mentioned we had spoken with the American Embassy and were working on their advice.  We were able to pick up the check with nary-a-problem!  Phew…problem averted.

The heat and the ties need to wait until tomorrow….we’ve been partying in Rome for 5 days….geez, someone has to do it!!!

we were 6 hours into an 8 hour meal....phew!!!