Bureaucracy never sleeps

Here are some of my latest stories regarding Italian bureaucracy.  I originally wrote these as emails to my sisters, but then decided they might be blog worthy.  Enjoy!

April 20, 2011 -
My latest trip to a local government office (this morning) resulted in me learning that the town had changed our address.  And apparently it happened before I applied for residency, so I should have known but my landlord didn't tell me (because he didn't know).  Technically because the town is changing all the addresses in our area (because our town won't stop building new apartments), my documentation should get changed automatically, but because of the timing of things I suspect it won't.  So now I'm technically a resident of an apartment up the street and all my documents indicate that.  I might have to apply for a new residency certificate at some point (which has taken me the last 2 months to get) with the new house number.  Seriously??  But, the funny thing is that everyone here thinks it pretty much doesn't matter.  All my documents are consistent, and the postman now knows where we live so technically he will deliver all our mail to us, regardless of whether it says number 10 or number 148.  But as I said to Tyler this morning, "What the sh*t?".  Ahh Italy, you never cease to amaze me.

April 21, 2011 -
Had another awesome experience today.  I had an appointment at the Questura Office of Immigration to obtain my permesso di soggiorno.  This is kind of like a residency permit, and the consulate tells you it's the first thing you should apply for when you arrive in Italy (note that I have been here for 2 months now).  I did actually apply for this back February, but my application resulted only in an automatically generated appointment at the Questura.  I couldn't go to my original automatically generated appointment because I was going to be in Brussels for work (earlier this month).  So I was able to change my appointment to today.  Appointment was supposed to be at 8:50am.  I arrived at 8:40am to find a line of at least 10 people outside a locked door to the Questura.  When the opened the door they just gave everybody a number in the order in which they entered (aka appointment time was essentially meaningless).  I got called back around 10:30.  They took my documents and photos, finger printed me, then sent me to a different room where I was finger printed again, and then told me I was done.  When I asked where my permesso di soggiorno was, they said I had to come back to get it when it was ready... which they suggested would be some time after the 10th of June.  Seriously????  This was supposed to be my last document, and I couldn't even get it today, I have to back to the stinkin' Questura in over a month.  And, to make this even more fun, my Visa is only good for a year.  Which means next year I will need a new Visa... and yes, after that a new permesso di soggiorno. Oh, and the address on my permesso is of course Via Giulio Cesare 10 :-)