AT FIRST BLUSH....week one

We were armed, well-armed, with information, research, back up documentation---we were ready to take on the Italian bureaucracy and win!! 

Soooo, we arrive on Christmas day, exhausted after a 24-hour trip (US Airways, by the way, doesn’t have individual screens or name films; AND, they charge for WINE for heaven’s sake, and for EARPHONES on a transcontinental flight---I’ve never heard of such a thing!  BUT, the flight was 1/3 full, so we were able to stretch out---luxury!  NOTE TO SELF:  travel on Christmas Eve does have its advantages.)  And, of course, the family has a big meal planned, hooray, so, comatose as we were, we did manage to eat some fabulous food.  The conversation, however, was in Italian….which normally isn’t a huuuuuge problem, but when we’re sleep-deprived, it presented some miscommunications.

So the plan was simple:  pick up the application for the Permesso di Soggiorno, the permit to stay in Italy for an extended period of time on Monday, fill it out, turn it in the same day, begin shopping for a car on Tuesday, and drive it off the lot the next day.  Simple, huh?

The Perfect Permesso:  Monday we went to the post office, uh, that would be 4 post offices, to get the application form.  The first one didn’t carry them, the second and third post offices carried them, but, hmmmm, they were out, (A GOVERNMENT AGENCY, WAS JUST OUT….!!) the fourth, success!!  4 hours to pick up the paperwork….we dragged home to cousin Tina’s like beaten dogs with jet lag.  Nothing a good meal and a 3 hour nap couldn’t fix!

Filled out the apps that night and bright and early Tuesday morning off we go to get copies of the documentation before turning in the completed apps……looked for a 24-hour Kinko’s in Italy recently??  Non c’e….  Sooooo, we ended up at a bookstore, a lovely “Store around the Corner”-type place where each page was fed into the machine individually and we collated 70 pages by hand….but it was warm and the proprietor made us coffee!  Armed with copies and apps and spirits high, off to the Lavinio Post Office we went…to wait for our number to come up.  Out we were sent, to copy our ENTIRE passport, not just page one----nowhere was this mentioned!  Back again, spirits still high--nope, got to get the Marche di Bollo-- a stamp of sorts-at the Tobacco shop—who knew?  Back again for a third time, fingers crossed….SUCCESS!!   we walked out with the receipt for our permesso which, we’d read and been told, was our key to buying a car!

The Macchina Madness: We easily found the car we wanted, a Hyundai i10 for 7796 euro, new---end of year sale, ya know!  Simple!  We needed to get a Cashier’s check, not so simple, but in 3 hours we can accomplish anything.  So, paperwork was filled out, money delivered, and we needed to wait 2 days for the tags, etc….Simple!  Then insurance…Italian law requires evidence of insurance before any car will be released to a new owner…Cousin Stefano turned us on to an online Insurance company….it was magic!  No visits needed to be made, no miscommunications, easy as pie!  Things were moving right along…Then came the call….Mario, the car salesman said they can’t sell us a car without an Italian identity card…wouldn’t you think he would know that before having all of us spend a lot of time and money???  BUT, he had a plan to work it out which required us coming back home to Le Marche, our Province, getting an id card from the Ufficio di Anagrafe, the census office, which has a record of us being homeowners.  Everything is on hold until tomorrow when we visit the County Seat in Monte San Martino to see what the Anagrafe has to say….

If we can’t get the id card, we’ll need to make arrangements to rent a car until we do; hmmm, not in our budget.   Not to mention cousins Rino, David, Antonella, Santino, and Victoria are all worried we may have trouble getting our money back from Mario, the car dealer---but, they are quick to assure us, they know a good lawyer!

Home again, home again:  we were so excited to be coming home; January first, symbolically beginning our new lives….and our brand new heater doesn’t work….the house was colder inside than outside.  AND…it was Festa…nothing is open on a Festa day, AND, the next day is Sunday, AND, nothing is open on Sundays.  So we took ourselves off to a heated hotel where we are awaiting Monday for shops to open, Anagrafe to help us, the heating system to be fixed and work…and our new life.