It was only a matter of time

One very common complaint about living in Italy is that the postal system sucks. I have read many accounts of other expats dealings,actually they sound more like run- ins, with the postal system. Having to pay mysterious taxes on packages, having things sent back because a prescription is needed for toothpaste I think it was. So as you can imagine I was feeling pretty lucky. I had received everything that had been sent to me and not had to deal with anything unusual. Cards, a calendar, soap, books and photos all made their way here. Even one card that had cash in it.  That was until yesterday.

Luck as we all know will eventually run out and my postal luck ran out this week. So far I am missing at least one birthday card and a gift. The gift (a book in English and an address book-thanks JG) is interesting because its definitely been stolen. How do I know? The unstamped card that was inside of the package arrived. Yup, that is right they opened the package liked it and then left the card to be delivered. M and I went to the main post office to see if by chance they had the package and the guy at the window said  no they didn’t have or know where it was and  that it wasn’t his fault. If I had a euro for every time someone said to me its not my fault here. Apparently accountability isn’t big deal at the post office.  M then asked if there was a boss/ supervisor to talk to and he said that there was not a supervisor or boss and that they all just do their own thing.  Are you kidding me?! Ugh.

 So I thought that I would ask the woman who delivers our mail. According to her it was just in her bag unstamped but she delivered it out of the kindness of her heart. I asked her where the package was and she said she didn’t know. Then she said wait for it… “Non e colpa mia”  translation: It’s not my fault. To which I said  of course not.  Next time, she told me, she won’t deliver it at all.  It times like this that I really wish that my Italian was more fluent. I would have really liked to have given her a tongue lashing. I guess that its just more motivation to study. Anyway, Italian postal system I am just not that into you and we are over.

It’s not my fault it’s yours.

Residency

Now that M and I are married we have started the residency process for me. I really thought that it was going to be super painful and I’d want to pull my hair out. But…so far so good. We got the certified copy of our marriage certificate, M had to get a residency certificate and we filled out the paperwork. We went to the societal that M’s family belongs to get help with the paperwork. He also told me that he gives me a year before I am running back to the States. Um what? Gotta love unsolicited advise, would you even call that advise? Thanks for the help anyway. The only thing left to do is get my photo taken and head to the Questura.  I am still bracing myself for some full on madness.  Did I mention that we still have to go to the Questura?

The first time.

Everyone one who has ever moved it Italy I am sure remembers their first time dealing with the public offices. Well, my first time was on Monday.  M and I are planning on getting married in September and in preparation for that while I was in the States I made multiple trips to the Italian consulate to be sure that I had everything that I would need. M even visited the commune here in Italy to make sure that I would have everything that we/I would need. So I felt pretty confident on Monday morning.

 We arrive at the office and walk up to the window. About 30 seconds later a woman comes to the window. I think this is great! This must be a good sign. Um. No. This woman has no idea if we have all the correct documents so she finds someone else and about 10 minutes later ( I am still feeling lucky) another woman comes over and tells us that they need another form that states that I am single.  What? I think I am going to cry.  I have a form that says that I have never been married that I had to get signed at the Milan Consulate. No, there is another form she tells us, but not to worry we just have to go to one other office with a witness where I swear that I am not married. Alright we can do that.

She gives us the address of the office building and we walk over it’s about a 15 minute walk. We get there and there is a sign that says the office has been closed for about a year and gives us the new address. At this point I just have to laugh.  We walk over to that office building another 15 minutes later and we are at the security desk ready to sign in and the officer tells us that the office that we are looking for is not in this building that they know that the sign at the other location is incorrect. Really?!  Fine, so he kindly gives us the address of where we need to go. Turns out that it’s about 1 minute walk from where we started.  M says to me welcome to Italy!  

So we get to the correct building (finally) and ask for our office. Turns out it’s the mystery office and no one really knows where it is, another 10 minutes of walking around the building, up down the stairs, and asking people where this office is we find it. We are at the window and after about another 10 minutes of negotiation we finally come to the agreement with the two people behind the window that yes this is the right office and that yes they do the form that we need but we will need an appointment…next available appointment September. 

Compared to some of the other stories that I have read on other blogs my experience was a breeze. I would compare this experience with just about any experience that I have had with PGW; tolerable, but something to be avoided if possible. We will see how things go in September. 

Did I mention that I had new shoes on? Let’s just say that I will be wearing only flip flops for a while. Thankfully M took me to one of my favorite lunch places to ease the pain of the day.