The week before Christmas 2020, we received an email from the Italian Consulate with the good news that Elective Residency visas for Terry and me had been issued and were being mailed that very afternoon. While we had hoped for that outcome, we lived in doubt through the months of preparation that it would become a reality. Now, though, here we were with a new future promised–to live in Italy for extended periods, returning to the States occasionally, but not obligated to leave every ninety days.
“I can’t believe it!” resounded through our house the rest of that day and in the evening we celebrated with the dinner of King Crab Legs and glass of Prosecco that we had promised ourselves should we actually get the visas. For the couple of days across the weekend as the visas made their way to our front door, we simply exulted in the long hoped for turn in our lives that was about to take place. But along with that, I had an eye on the job ahead of us as we worked through the remaining step for gaining Italian residency, the Permesso di Sorggiorno.
While considered more certain to be awarded, the Permesso process generates complaints and frustration from those who have gone through it. It is in fact, a Minotarus Labyrinth of Italian bureaucracy, a system well known for its convoluted and incessant requirements, bemoaned even by Italians. The film in link below portrays a humorous but more or less accurate account of the experience:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKIE3IUkkp8
One of the first “how to” articles I read about applying for the Permesso starts with, “The paperwork in Italy is never done. No. Really. Never done. In five years, I have never written about how to get a permesso di soggiorno because just thinking about it gives me chest pains.” (How to Get a Permesso di Soggiorno in Italy; posted on Permesso di Soggiorno Elettronico; Natalie, author of the blog “An American in Rome.” )
Within eight business days of arriving in Italy, the Permesso challenge begins with a trip to the post office where one picks up a kit containing the initial form to be filled out, in Italian. The completed form then will be taken to one of the post offices identified by the sign Sportello Amico, translated as “friend door,” and one can only hope that it is. Along with the filled out form, applicants must bring a bollo, a stamp purchased at a local tobacconist shop. Why a tobacconist? Who knows, but these small businesses offer a variety of services beyond the selling of tobacco and have been considered essential during the pandemic.
For the visit to the Sportello Amico we will need not only the filled out form and bollo, but a complete copy of our passports, proof of health insurance, and all data pertaining to our reason for being in Italy. Once all papers are confirmed to be in order, an appointment date is set for the final step in the process, a visit to the chief governmental office for the region, the Questera. For us, that will be in Arezzo, a city some forty-five minutes from our home in Anghiari. At that appointment, we will present not only the paperwork generated by and for the post office visit, but all the same documentation required to obtain the Elective Residency visas, eg financial records, proof of a domicle, marriage or co-habitation agreements and so forth, along with four passport sized photos of each of us. If all goes well, we will be given a receipt verifying that an application has been filed, more or less sufficing to establish that we are a residents-in-waiting until the official document reaches us in three to six months. The Permesso must be renewed each year so by the time the residency permit arrives it is nearly time to begin the process all over again for the next year.
In addition to gathering the required documents for the Permesso, we have a plethora of tasks to be done before flying to Italy. Now knowing that we would be away for a considerable time, we decided to sell the car we had purchased only a few months before. In the past week I got quotes from CarMax and Carvanna with the actual sale and transfer to take place just a couple of days before departure, co-ordinated with picking up the rental car we will drive to the Atlanta airport.
We also adjusted plans to rent our townhouse to include the possibility of long term rentals in addition to the short term leases we had planned on. Given the longer period we would be in Italy, we revised our ideas of what to take with us and what to leave behind, weighing the exhorbitant cost of shipping to Italy with what we considered esssential to take to our Italian home. In particular we wanted to ship a few pieces of the art works that had been such a pleasure to create while in Hickory. While most can be simply bubble wrapped, boxed, and sent off, one of the Lakshmi collages challenged Terry to engineer a specially designed case to protect areas that were raised or extended beyond the edges of the canvas. It was a complicated and time consuming process and I’m sure Terry is grateful that the other two pieces of the triptych only need to be wrapped and laid on top of clothing in a suitcase.
Renting, like selling a home, means that potential tenants must take a look at the premises and even as all the sorting and packing goes on the house needs to be kept spotless and attractive in the hopes of appealing to a good and reliable renter. As you can see, our packing room does not meet that criteria so everything in it, except the furniture, will be shoved into a closet whenever we get an alert that someone has scheduled a viewing.
And then there is traveling with Django. Flying abroad with a pet requires that a health certificate be completed by our veterinarian within ten days of our departure and then sent off immediately to be signed by an official from APHIS, the ultimate governmental agency issuing permission to take a dog from the U S to Italy. The signed papers must be returned to us in time for our departing flight, requiring express mail in both directions.
A few other forms pertaining to Terry and me also have to be filled out, though thankfully without the additional verification required for Django. Most important of these is the Autocertification, describing the reasons for having arrived in and driving through Italy while pandemic restrictions are in place. For us, returning to our home in Italy and the need to apply for the Permesso within eight days of arrival satisfy the requirements.
Due to the Covid pandemic, additional certification is required to verify that we have received a negative Covid-19 non-rapid (PCR) test within 72 hours of our flight to Italy; without it new arrivals have to quarantine for ten to fourteen days. I was surprised to learn that, at least in our area, CVS pharmacies and Urgent Care centers only test people who are symptomatic or have been exposed to Covid-19 because the numbers of testing kits are limited. So we will rely on the health department, which offers tests for asymptomatic persons but does not take appointments. Instead one simply shows up for a drive through test, on one of the two days a week they are offered, to wait in line until your turn has come. And then hope that the results will be returned in time for our flight, though that is by no means guaranteed. We would also like to get a rapid test on our arrival at the airport in Florence but cannot be certain that will happen. With so much to do immediately after reaching Anghiari, quarantining is not a viable option so our fingers are crossed in hopes that we will receive timely documentation showing that we are Covid free.
In the past months Italy, like the U S, has been experiencing a surge of Covid cases. Across the holiday season the Italian government imposed a strict lockdown in an attempt to control the numbers of new cases. The lockdown, paired with predictions in the U S for a significant up-tick in victims, means we will be traveling in conditions even more dire than when we came to the U S in May. But Anghiari beckons. We long to be back within the sights and sounds of our home in Italy–the view across the Tiber Valley from our balcony, the ringing of church and clock chimes throughout the day, the weekly market in our piazza, seeing our friends again, and simply walking through our beautiful little village.
The challenge ahead is strenuous, but the reward is great.
Lurching towards Italy 