We have a car! 9.16.05

This morning we gathered our documenti (basically our identity cards and our visas/passports) and met Sergio down in the garden. We had arranged the day before for him to drive us to meet Fernando, the guy we were buying the car from at the Fiat dealership where there is an office that handles the paperwork for buying and selling used vehicles. Thank goodness for Sergio who helped answer any questions we did not understand. It turned out we also needed our Permesso di Soggiorno, which we had not brought with us, thinking all the necessary information was on the identity card. We were wrong in this assumption and ended up having to return later in the day for them to record the numbers from this document. Not a big deal, but something that could have been avoided had we brought the Permesso with us on the first go round.

At any rate, we had the money for the car and enough for the taxes/fees involved. When we learned of the amount of the fees, Sergio reached into his pocket to help us out, not expecting that we would have enough to cover it, but we did and so he didn't have to rescue us. It was a nice feeling though, that he would do that for us.

After the car purchase and hands shaken all around, the next step was to make sure we had insurance before we drove off in our car. Again, Sergio spoke with the woman there at the dealership/car sale office and they gave us a quote for insurance. Sergio wanted to check with his insurance company to see if they would give us a better rate and he drove us there and we got a quote on the spot. It turned out the first one was better, less money for more coverage; so back we went to sign those papers. There was another fee involved here - the first 6 months coverage and for this we did not have quite enough, but Bob went down the street to find an ATM machine and came back shortly to tie up all the ends

The sale and insurance in place, Sergio left us and we were on our way, driving through Perugia in our brand new 5-year-old forest green Toyota Yaris and it felt pretty good! Later, we met him in the garden where he showed us our own private parking place and put our little car there for safekeeping. Now we have keys to the big door and the gate to the garden and a really great place to keep our car, with no parking fees and we couldn't be happier about that. Sergio has been amazing throughout this entire process and we will be forever grateful to him for his generosity and his graciousness. The amount of time he spent helping us find and buy our car was monumental to us and we once again feel completely fortunate to have met him.

Now, the possibilities for where we can go are endless and we can't wait to tell you all about the adventures we'll be having driving around Italy and off the beaten path!

Buona notte,
Rosemary e Robert