Urbino

October 23, 2006 I have been very lazy this week and have not taken the time to share our adventure at the questura (police) office last Tuesday. Before I take you on our journey I want to explain why we needed to go there. When you stay in Italy for more than 8 days you are supposed to get a "permesso di soggiorno" which is a permit to stay. This must be filed before the eighth day of your stay. We have no questura in Belforte so the school takes your papers (one form, proof of insurance, and a copy of a credit card) to the carabinieri in Piandimeleto. They give you a receipt that proves you have filed. The permesso is good for 3 months and usually the students are gone by the time the official permesso is ready. When we were here during the summer we applied for a permesso for tourists with the plans of changing it once we got a receipt for our citizenship papers (which is another story!). The week before we were due to head back to the states we were told that the questura had sent the papers back because of a problem. Never quite understanding what the problem was we left the country. Elvira promised to make us an appointment while we were gone so that we could apply for a permesso in attesa di cittadinanza (waiting for citizenship) when we returned. When we got back she had not made the appointment and then the first appointment she was able to get was for October 17th! So basically, we were here illegally our first month back!

The day started early in the morning because we decided to catch the 6:55 am bus to Urbino. We have gone there twice and both times we left Belforte at 7:35 and seemed to remember changing buses in Mercatale and again in Casinina. This time we had an appointment at 9:45 and didn't want to take the chance of missing a connection so we left earlier just to be sure. While we waited for the bus, we noticed there were a lot of people waiting, which was unusual. They were mostly teenagers. When the bus arrived we were even more surprised because it was a double-decker! Larry had seen a double-decker one other time in Belforte, but it was a first for me! We asked the driver where we change buses and he told us that there were no changes. We were happy about that, but figured we would get to Urbino with several hours to kill. As it turned out, we got there about the same time that we would have gotten there had we left at 7:30 because the bus stopped many times to pick up more kids! I think it stopped 3 times in Piandimeleto alone! By the time we had passed Lunano (about 8 km from here) the bus was full and there was even 1 student sitting on a pull down seat at the front of the bus. We were certainly glad that we got on at the first stop, but I wish we had gone up on top!

After arriving in Urbino we had "un caffè e una ciocolata calda" (coffee and a hot chocolate) while we waited. I was beginning to get nervous. The last time we came to the questura one man was very rude and basically just turned his back on us, instead of trying to explain why he couldn't help us. The office opens at 9:00 so we went in so we could hear our name when it was called. During that time, we didn't hear anyone's name being called so we tried asking the rude man about our appointment and he told us we had to wait. His job for that day was to collect the receipts from people who were coming back for their actual permesso and he wasn't going to do anything except that! When it was almost 9:45, Larry moved up to the window so that we would be the next person in line. He told the man at the counter that we had an appointment and handed him our papers. The man checked the list to see that we did have an appointment and then told us that we needed a visa to apply for the permit! Luckily, the rude man overheard and told him that we didn't. Then he showed us a list of things we needed to have--which was not the same as the list they told us on the phone. Fortunately, I had brought a few things "just in case" and they turned out to be what was needed. We needed copies of eveything and even though there was a copy machine right in the lobby he told us we needed to go to the "tabaccheria" to make copies. So off we went. When we came back he asked us to wait until a young family from Romania (with a baby) took a turn and that was fine. When he looked at our papers he said my name wasn't on the rental agreement and Larry tried to explain that I was his wife so of course I lived there. Nope. We had to fill out another rental agreement in my name (this was because each of us will have a file)--then he copied it for us! Then the rude man said we needed a credit card so when Larry was looking for his the man saw our BancoPosta card and said that would be good. Now this is our ATM card from our account here in Italy. We were given the card before we had even made our first deposit so I don't know what it would have proved! He then asked for 5 photos each even though we were told to bring 4, but again we were lucky because we had six! He took 3 of the photos and stapled them to the papers, gave us our receipt, and then gave us 2 of the photos back. We were beginning to think we had misunderstood when he told us we needed to go upstairs for fingerprints! I wish I had thought to take photos because it was pretty funny! instead of placing our fingers on a pad he rolled the ink onto each finger including the sides. He took each finger individually and then placed all 4 fingers together for one print and then the thumb. When he was done he then rolled ink onto our palms and took a print of the entire hand! The ink he used was not the kind you can just rub off--we used a soap that was granular, kind of like Comet! When he typed up our papers he stared at Larry for a long time and Larry said he was looking at him for a description. I told him to write handsome but old! When Larry checked over his papers for errors he noticed the man had written he had gray hair! He wasn't too happy about that. Then the man said he would put brown for me!! I forgot to check to see what he wrote, but as you know, my hair is much grayer than Larry's!

This man was very friendly and talked with us about Belforte and America and told us he lives in Lunano (the town we walked to that is 8 km away from here). We asked him if there was a computer store because we wanted to buy a wi-fi router. He didn't know what that was, but he called a computer store to see if they had one and drew us a map to find the store. (This was on Tuesday and the next morning I ran into him at the market in Piandimeleto!)

We made it to the store and back to the bus stop at 12:20 with 10 minutes to spare before the bus left for Belforte only to see it pull away as we got there! The schedule said another would arrive at 1:15 so we sat down to wait. The bus arrived about 1:10 and we went to get on (it was the double decker again) and the driver told us it would leave at 1:40, but in fact, didn't leave until 1:55! He let us get on about 1:30 and while we were waiting we saw three people walk by with 3 huge dogs and 2 medium dogs. The people in the next bus were taking pictures so one man posed with his dog. Is that not one of the biggest dogs you've ever seen? Not sure what kind it is, but it is sure cool!