Carta d'identità ((I.D. card)

It's a rainy Tuesday afternoon and we have just returned from the Comune di Perugia Anagrafe (The Bureau of Vital Statistics for the City of Perugia) to apply for our Identity Card that identifies us as residents of Italy. With this card and our codice fiscale we can buy a car or a house (not that we think we will do this really) and travel throughout other EU countries without our passports (we'll probably carry them anyway just to be on the safe side). It just proves that we live in this country.

As with the codice fiscale I have written about, this was a pretty painless and positive experience. Yesterday Bob found out where the building was by wandering around and asking people. He thought he knew where to go, but with help from several people - one man worked in the building and actually walked with him to show him where it was. He wanted to find out what we had to bring with us in order to apply but when he got there it was closed! We decided to go back this morning and left our apartment around 9am. It's located down below the bus station, about a ten-minute walk from centro.

The office was located on the meno piano 2 (actually two floors below ground) and there was no one in line when we peeked in the door. There was a counter and two or three women behind it sitting at computers. One of them waved us in with "Avanti!" and we stood in front of her with our papers in an envelope and told her we wanted a "Certificato di Residenza" which we thought was the correct term for it. This woman seemed to be about my age with longish curly reddish hair and glasses. At first she acted very curt with us but the more we talked with her, trying to speak Italian and showing her our papers she really warmed up and even joked with us.

At first we thought she said we needed a different paper from our landlords to prove that we had a permanent residence here and she looked over everything we had and at some point decided we had what we needed and began filling in our information on her computer and we knew she was doing what we needed. She joked that it wasn't important for ME to apply, since Bob was the man and he was applying for both of us. "È cosi " she said "That's the way it is" and she rolled her eyes. I understood this. The feminist in me is irked by this situation but the truth is, he's the one with the pension. I'm along for the ride! At any rate, she filled in all his info: date of birth, place, parents' names etc and then did mine. She noticed of course, that my parents names were Italian and asked me where they were from and seemed surprised that the Bivettos were not from the north of Italy but I didn't really understand why she thought that even though I tried hard.

She saw Bob's date of birth and commented that he probably got cheated on gifts because of it being so close to Christmas and we all laughed that this seemed to be a universal situation. She told us that she and I were the same age, except that her birthday was in February. And all of this was completely in Italian! So, I think we are learning more than we realize, even though much of what she said went right over our heads!

The cool thing too was that we had our original Codice Fiscales with us and she stamped on them and initialed it. It all seemed very official and final!

We then decided to stop at a little café for a cappuccino and a brioche to celebrate having accomplished yet another official function successfully. We ordered our coffees and selected our pastries, told the guy behind the counter (in Italian) that we would have it "in fuori" which means outside and in perfect English he said "OK, I'll just bring it out to you." It turned out his parents were born in Italy and he and his wife own an apartment in Perugia. He told us that they were from the San Francisco area and have owned this apartment for years without living in it until recently. They have a young daughter who just started middle school here and they own this little café where they work in the early part of the day and then can take the rest of the day off. Of course we told him about our cousins in Los Gatos and how Nikkii works for the San Francisco Giants. We chatted a bit about what we are doing and decided we might have to go back there again for a little conversation.

Yesterday was a gorgeous warm sunny day and today it is cooler with rain. Very changeable climate here in Perugia I am still adjusting to. We didn't have umbrellas with us and so got wet in the rain. But it is a nice gentle rain and we sort of enjoyed walking in it.

Bob is having a bit of a stiff neck today and so is sitting here putting heat on it. I am about to go off to the Internet café to post a few things and to check my email. I hope to hear from all of you who are reading and hope you continue to find this interesting.

Buona giornata,
Rosemary