FOG AND ITALIAN ID'S

November 20, 2003

Two interesting things:

Number one: THE FOG!!! We woke up yesterday to fog, which is not a total surprise, but since San Venanzo is so high up, it’s still a little unusual. As we drove down to Marsciano, the fog thickened, and stayed thick all the way to Perugia. What was really surprising was that it was foggy even up in Perugia! Amazingly, when we left school at 1:20, it was STILL foggy. And this was not wispy fog; this was thick, dense fog that required a lot more than our psuedo fog lights could handle. This fog required the REAL fog lights, the ones that are yellow. And the fog stayed, and stayed and stayed. We never saw the sun at all! Driving home was miserable! We were both extremely tense and tired when we got home! And this morning, more of the same…fog, thick fog, all day long, as high up as San Venanzo! We did get one amazing vista at sunset, when the fog cleared for a moment in San Venanzo, and we could look out over the surrounding hills just peeking out above the clouds. It was as if we were in an airplane! Mauro stopped by to show us the iron for the banister in the kitchen and the iron for the outside stairs. We asked him if this was normal, and he said yes, in the winter this was common, but up here in San Venanzo it shouldn’t last more that ten days or so!!! And that was the good news!

Number two: We got our Italian ID cards today!!! Since we are STILL waiting for the loan money to be deposited into our Postal bank account, we weren’t surprised to get a call from Fabio yesterday. The money was supposed to be in our account by Wednesday, FOR SURE, NO PROBLEM, ABSOLUTELY!!! Last Saturday, Wendy had asked Fabio if he was REALLY SURE this time, and he said yes. He then called us to tell us the good news. Being the doubting Thomas that I am, I suggested we call on to see if the money was really there. This was on Wednesday morning, and No, it wasn’t there yet. Then, a little later, Fabio called back and wanted to know if he could have something else. Since we weren’t quite sure what he wanted, we called Wendy for the translation. Turns out he wanted us to have four passport-type photographs taken and brought to the post office on Thursday. These photographs would be used for our Carta D’Identita. Okay, that wasn’t a problem. There are do-it-yourself photo booths everywhere…we had used one in Terni, for our Permesso di Sogiorno. I knew there was a photo booth is Marsciano, so we stopped there on our way home from Perugia and had the photos taken. This morning on the way to school we stopped by the Post Office and waited for Fabio to arrive. We gave him the photos and left. Around nine he called, and asked if we could possibly return to San Venanzo before one o’clock. Although I hated to miss our conversation class, we said yes. I figured they needed our signatures to complete the process. Once we got back to San Venanzo, we stopped by the Post Office, picked up the photos, and walked to the commune, or city hall. As soon as we arrived, it was obvious that Fabio had already told them what we wanted, and they were ready for us. The only question we weren’t prepared for was Art’s height in meters, but they were able to measure him on the spot. Okay, Hair? Gray. Eyes? Blue. Occupation? Retired. And so on, and within fifteen minutes, after signing on the dotted lines, we had our ID cards. We took them back to the Post Office where Fabio made photocopies, and that was it! He still ASSURES us that the loan is fine! We STILL haven’t seen the money, but at least we have our Italian ID’s!