Score one for Lucy; she has a new (and improved) permesso di soggiorno!

The game of people versus the Italian bureaucracy is an interesting matchup, and we entered a new round of the competition last April, when we applied to renew Lucy’s permesso di soggiorno (PDS) at the Questura in Lucca. We scored a partial victory when they accepted our documents and said they would process her application and renew her PDS for five years. Click here if you want to read part 1 of this adventure.

We had hoped for a 10-year renewal, but we weren’t able to provide the proper documentation for our reddito, or income. We were told that without adequate proof of income, they would still give her a permesso good for five years. We learned that there was a website we could check by using our case number. However, we had to leave Italy in mid-May, and the PDS was still not ready.

We returned to Montecarlo a few days ago and went to the Questura right away, on a Friday. The website showed that the PDS was ready, but we couldn’t get inside the Questura. We joined a small crowd outside around 10:30 a.m., but the doors were locked. Occasionally, an officer would come out and call some names of people who must have somehow made appointments. By working my way close to the door, I was able to tell him we had just come to pick up a permesso di soggiorno. Come tomorrow, on Saturday, he said. I asked if I would need an appointment, and he said no, just come between 9:00 and 13:00.

The next day, we decided to come around 11, when the lines would hopefully be shorter, and we only had to wait about 15 minutes. During that time, we had a nice conversation with two men who lived in the Garafagnana valley and were waiting just behind us. They were also there to pick up a PDS for one of them. Lucy mentioned that years ago, we had made six trips to the Questura in Padova while trying unsuccessfully to get a PDS.

“Oh, that’s nothing,” one of them said. “Usually it takes a lot more trips.” We weren’t sure if he was joking, but it seemed he wasn’t. Out of curiosity, I asked if they had made an appointment when they started the process. Yes, he said, you have to go to the post office to get a packet of instructions and make an appointment. We had somehow bypassed this step back in April and obtained an appointment directly at the Questura.

Later we recalled that this actually was our sixth trip to the Questura in Lucca. Furthermore, to get the documents needed, we had to go to the municipal buildings of Pescia and then Montecarlo, and then to the post office and tabaccaio to pay the fees, followed by a visit to a copisteria for copies of our documents—11 separate outings.

When our turn at the sportello came, it took only about five minutes. We had to turn in Lucy’s old permesso, and she had to put her index fingers on the little pad for positive identification. The clerk looked in the filing box and pulled out a card, made a few entries in her computer, and then handed over the card.

We made our way out the door and paused to snap a celebratory photo. At that moment, the two guys who were behind us came out as well.  Sadly, the man did not receive his PDS. They had neglected to bring his expired document, and they would have to drive home almost an hour to get it. By that time, the Questura would be closed, so they would have to come again in another week.

On our way back to Montecarlo, we found we had actually hit the ball out of the park! They had renewed Lucy’s PDS for 10 years instead of five. We can only guess why this happened, but it called for further celebration. We stopped at the pasticceria in Marginone, and we each ordered a cappuccino and our favorite pastry, a chocolate beignet—and occasionally one of us would look at the other and say, “10 YEARS!”