We were up at 6am. It was still as dark as the middle of the night and it was gently raining. The cats were curious....."what's you doin' up?" I had some tea and a piece of toast because there is a medication I MUST take with food, so they say. Ugh....I cannot STAND getting up in the dark and I can't stand eating as soon as I wake up. Bleh!
We left the cats dry food....and walked around the corner to wait for our friend who was driving us into Pescara. Today we go BACK to the Questura (police) for our permessi. Joy.
We got slightly stuck behind a slowpoke and then at one point up ahead the cars came to a stand still, so we got off onto a bit of "highway" that sort of zipped into the city. It was, after all, "rush hour in the big city."
We got there still with some time to spare, but the sight of about 10 to 12 people milling about outside did not inspire confidence.
It was still drizzly and chilly. We stood for a bit and finally I said "Scusa" to the young man in front of me and went inside. Both benches were vacant, so I sat and soon my husband walked in too.
Eventually, an officer came out from the back room and asked who we were, why we were there...looked at our IDs and appointment papers. He told a couple of young women who had wandered in to go back outside, along with my husband. He allowed me to stay.
After waiting nearly a half an hour, I was called up to the window....I signaled my husband. With that, the young police officer behind the window did a cursory flip through our papers. He asked for my passport and permesso. Then he said...."You have not been here 5 years." I stood there wide-eyed. My husband began to protest. He said it again....."No, no...it is not five years until November 3." At this point, I rolled my eyes.....two weeks from now? What is this???
Well, apparently, this is "police humor." Had we not been sleep deprived and nervous.....maybe...maybe we would have found some levity in this, but that was not the case. The officer went on to say, "You have to come back on November 3." I said, "Fine, what time?" With that it seemed the joke was over and he continued to process our papers. I suppose, because they screwed up the appointments the first time and this was our second attempt and HE was the very same young gentleman from the first time that he thought he was being funny. His attempt fizzled. (So funny I forgot to laugh)
His buddy at the other window (there are only two) had made a similarly bone head attempt two years ago when he said that our American bank account information wasn't in Italian. To which my response was "Sono numeri"....they are numbers. Ha ha....very funny....not Italian. 😖
At this point, the guy at the other window was free, so he took my husband. I was asked where I was born and what is my phone number. Then I had to provide my signature on an electronic gizmo thing. Then I had to have a couple of fingers printed...also electronic. And then he took the passport photo we had done recently and popped it into the computer and that was that. "Buongiorno!" Both of them with big smiles on their faces. Good thing there was glass between us. Sheesh. (I'm sure they are nice guys and I was just in a VERY bad mood)
We got home by 11am, as the skies were clearing. I fed the cats and gave Scruffy his asthma medicine.
By this time, we were both famished.....we walked up to Bar Centrale. It was early by pranzo standards, so there was a large selection. My husband had white lasagna, I had penne in tomato sauce with cheese and peas. I also had gelato. Then I fell asleep for two hours!
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