Patience/La pazienza

Today I continued to settle into my new home. I got an internet key from Wind last night since there isn't any WiFi in my building. Unfortunately my internet is very much like the rest of Italy: unreliable. When it works, it's great, but ci vuole la pazienza (patience is needed). It stops sending and receiving data every few minutes, which makes Skype conversations very disjointed and blogging a prolonged process.

I shouldn't complain though. When I first started using my internet key, it took 20 minutes to check a couple emails because I used GSM/GPRS rather than HSDPA/UMTS format. Whatever that means. I'm just glad I figured it out.

After class, I came home and "cooked" my first meal in Italy. I say "cooked" because it comprised of ravioli and pre-made funghi porcini sauce. It was good though and I was left full and satisfied.

Then my roommate accompanied me to the Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria, where the town hall (il comune) is located. I told them I was an Italian citizen who wanted to declare residence. They told me I had to go somewhere else--an immigration office that happened to be just five minutes from my house (compared to the Palazzo Vecchio which is 15 minutes away). We walked there and when I talked to them, they said I had to go back to the Palazzo Vecchio since I was an Italian citizen. So we walked back (thank Jebus Florence is a walkable city) and I talked to the same lady who first answered my question. She seemed frustrated with me and told me I was supposed to go back to the other place. I explained multiple times that I was an Italian citizen and the other office said to come here, and she handed me a phone number to call to make an appointment and then walked away, saying she'd talk to her colleagues about my situation. She never came back, but a colleague who had witnessed everything kindly returned and said that I needed to phone the number.

Blargh.

I quickly phoned the number and made an appointment for Thursday afternoon (back at the Palazzo Vecchio). The man asked me to spell my name, which proved to be a more difficult task than I had anticipated. You see, my first name contains 2 letters that do not exist in the Italian alphabet, plus I am still really rusty on my basic Italian, so for all I know, what he wrote down is a completely different spelling than what I meant. He also asked for my phone number...which I hadn't memorized yet. So while I was trying to find it I guess he decided to just check his caller ID.

After all that, we went home and I skyped with Pleuve. Our conversation was interrupted several times by my internet, which I have now nicknamed "hindernet", but at least we could talk before she comes to visit me on Friday! Then I skyped with my parents (a quasi-nightly ritual) and cooked my second meal ever in Italy -- pasta fresca (farfalle with tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil). It's my staple dish.

More and more, I am coming to realize that Italy is teaching me la pazienza. There are lineups everywhere you go, obstructions at every turn, and pointless rules that bar every decision you make. The only thing you can do is wait with the rest of them and take things in stride, because there is nothing you can do to change their ways. It's a side effect of la dolce vita. For me, it's a constant headache you grow to ignore.