Bureaucracy and wandering

Applied to the state for a Permisso di Sogorno. Apparently one can receive a visa from the State Department that allows one to enter Italy for a period but then needs another one from the Dept. of the Interior to approve your stay. I don't know, it takes almost as long as my stay is likely to last but it is what it is.

Met Adele DeCruz who showed me her new Er:YAG laser, not only lower energy that one in common use but, because of the wavelength, has the capacity to ablate organics and OH molecules and not only dark materials. uses a 1 mm wand, kind of slow for monuments but ideal for murals.

Got lost looking for the art supply store so came back to planet AA Rome defeated but then met some more lovely interesting people, got oriented to the library which I will start to use tomorrow and submitted my application for the Permisso.  Went with Tom, the architectural historian working on Rapuanno, the Fellow who designed lots of Robert Moses era buildings at NYC parks. We had a lark at the post office, trying to file the forms.

At first I asked if we were in the right line to file the permisso forms and she looked at a copy of a paper I had and asked what was this? I said it was the form I thought, I don't know. It was a COPY of the form and she couldn't use it but, once she found the original in the folder it was ok. Fortunately my Italian was good enough to be nice to the clerk and smile and tante grazie. Tom then started with another clerk (both women) and she efficiently filled in everything. A client threw a fit that we were served immediately while he had waited a half hour. The supervisor was called. She explained that they were the clerks to handle this matter and the others were the ones to do what he wanted. But there are 20 people waiting and only 2 of those clerks but only the 2 of us and 2 clerks for us.  But we were in a different line with different service she explained. Oh, thank you! that makes it completely clear! he stormed out and I thought we would end up in an international incident.

 Although Tom's clerk started later he was done ahead of me. I gently chided my helper that the other was quicker. There is no prize for speed here she said, but not in a nasty way. it was very Italian, hunch your shoulders, roll your eyes and go on.

Pictures of Adele and the view from her 3rd floor studio.