Tiptoes

The above mentioned citizen is invited to appear, with his passport, in Questura di Bergamo Ufficio Immigrazione on 11/7/2012 at 11:00 for a check of the regularity of his stay in Italy. In case of non-appearance without a justified reason, he will be subject to the administrative sanction of the payment of an amount of money from Euro 154,93 ad Euro 516,45.

I showed up to the Immigration Office a little before 11:00am. There are signs posted everywhere: Wait until your name is called. I wonder if they have my name... There is no open window so I sit and wait. If my head had been clearer I would've asked someone sooner. But I haven't eaten or slept well, so I wait. An hour goes by and my name isn't called. But I overhear a guy whose appointment was at 10:45 and he still hasn't been called... So I wait 15 more minutes. Monica decides to ask. She is informed that we were supposed to go upstairs. We have been waiting for nothing. Great.

So we go upstairs. A woman takes my passport and the "invitation." Monica explains that I have an outbound ticket back to the US. With a shrug of the shoulders and a nod of the head, a man says, "Va bene..." And stamps my invitation to show that I was present at the immigration office.

Now, I have to lay low until my outbound flight back to LA. There is a possibility I could be fined or temporarily banned from Europe once I try to leave Italy again, but I'll deal with that when it comes. Feeling happy to be American today.... And definitely not trying to go to London again any time soon.

Criminal

Stop me if you've heard this one: 2 Americans and a Mexican walk into a holding cell....

So yesterday morning I woke up excited to spend a night in London and visit some good friends. I boarded my flight to London-Stansted through Ryan Air. Everything was going smoothly until I arrived at the Visa control counter. The conversation started as most do:

Man: What is the purpose of your visit?
Me: To visit friends...
Man: And when do you leave?
Me: Tomorrow evening...
Man: Where will you be staying?
Me: With a friend, near Stratford
Man: We need and address
Me: Ok, one second (check iPod) Here!
Man: When did you arrive in Italy?
Me: In mid-April
Man: And before that, where were you?
Me: I went to Turkey
Man: For how long?
Me: About 3 days
Man: And before that?
Me: I was in Italy
Man: And do you know how long you're allowed to remain in Europe?
Me: Ummm....
Man: You are allowed to stay 90 days
Me: Oh... I thought... I must be confused. You can stay 90 days, but if you leave Europe you can stay another 90 days, right?
Man: Right, but "leave Europe" means go back to your home country. [This isn't actually true... Americans can stay 90 days in any given 6 month period]
Me: Oh...
Man: So you're leaving the Shengen area to evade the 90 day rule?
Me: Umm... that wasn't my intention.
Man: Are you employed in Los Angeles?
Me: No
Man: What's waiting for you when you go back to LA?
Me: My entire family and friends
Man: Husband?
Me: No
Man: Boyfriend?
Me: No
Man: Have a seat, please.

This guy asked way more questions that I can't remember right now. By the end of it I'm pretty sure he knew my whole life story. I go to sit down and he hands me a piece of paper. It says:

You are liable to be examined/further examined by me or another immigration officer. I am detaining you. I have also detained your passport, identification card or travel document. Reasons for detention: I have further enquiries to make and more questions to ask you.

So, I'm not sure at this point what will happen. About 30 minutes later, two women came and guided me to a room to take my fingerprints. Then they sat me in a room by myself and told me I could help myself to any food or drinks they had. There was a TV showing some horrid morning talk show...

About an hour later a man walks in with a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and a friendly smile. He introduces himself and we share stories. Poncho is a Mexican man traveling to spread the word of an indigenous people. These people are struggling to save their sacred land at risk of becoming a gold-mining site. He says, "Have you seen the TV show Lost?" "Yes," I say. "Do you remember when they find the guy in the capsule and he's pushing the button, or else the world ends?" "Yes," I say. "Well, that's real." I'm puzzled. "The indigenous people, the first people on planet Earth have been making pilgrimages to sacred lands... I've seen them go to a place with... how do you call the place that hasn't had rain in a long time?" "A drought?" "I've seen them go to a place with a long drought, and the night they arrive to pray... it rains. They need to go to these sacred lands and pray, or there will be no rain. But all the companies care about is gold. In 50 years when there's no more rain, will the gold help us to eat? Will we eat the gold?" Then he tells me about his shaman who he's traveling with. "We have peyote ceremonies... have you heard of peyote?" "Yes," I say. And he begins to tell me about his experience with ayahuasca. "Have you ever tried it?" "No," I say. Then another detainee walks in. Another American! We share stories again. We eat some free sandwiches and soon we put on a movie, "True Romance."

Finally, a woman comes and interviews me. After a bunch of questions she says, "You've overstayed your visit to the Shengen area, so we are unsure if Italy will let you back in. That's why we must put you on the next flight to Italy. I'm not sure what will happen once you get there. You will definitely be questioned and decide what to do from there. Your flight is at 7:05pm."

I go back to the room and continue to eat free food, watch movies, and chat with my fellow detainees. By now we have more company: an Albanian guy and a few Brazilians... Finally, after 8 hours I go to board my flight to Bergamo. I'm waiting at the gate with me chaperon and the flight is delayed one hour. Talk about Murphy's Law. Finally I get on my plane, and it was fairly uneventful.

As I step off the plane, I'm met by two Italian cops who have my passport. After a while of waiting they sit me in a room and ask questions. He apologizes for his poor English but he gets his point across. "You are an overstayer. This is a BIG PROBLEM." And he starts talking on the phone in Italian. When he gets off the phone he says, "Did you understand what I said?" I did, mostly. "I must go to the Office of Immigration?" "Yes, and you must stay at the airport tonight."

Now up until this point I have been calm, cool and collected. I waited over 9 hours in London, but when I heard this news I began to cry. I started wondering what I was going to do? Would I be arrested? Fined? Deported? What about all my stuff in Scanzorosciate? I quietly nodded and waited while he filled out paperwork.

It's about midnight now, and news of the American girl is slowly gaining attention among the cops. Soon, 4 Italian cops are all arguing over what to do with me. "Isn't there something you can do? You can't make this pretty American girl stay here all night like a criminal..." Two different officers are searching the rule book for any loophole to let me go. The main officer looks strict and doesn't want to change his mind. I hear them say, "Article 10!" But I don't want to get my hopes up. Finally he puts two sheets of paper in front of me and says, "Sign here, and you can leave." Gasp. It's almost 1am, I've been stuck in airports for over 12 hours. The paper I sign tells me to go to the immigration office in the morning at 11am. Suddenly, a weight has been lifted. At least tonight I can sleep in a warm bed until my fate is decided.

Camping!

I just got back from camping 7 days with Monica and the kids in Aprica, Italy. This is a tourist town, mostly popular for winter activities such as skiing. I kept a sort of diary while we were camping, here it is:

Day 1: Sunday. There's a lot to prepare! We have laundry to do, and food to pack. We may never make it. Hours later we finally leave the house. We drive about 90 minutes and see the sign, "Camping Aprica." Siamo arrivati! We open our giant tent and try to understand how it works. I'm confident that we can eventually have a perfectly set up tent, but Monica jokes that we may need to sleep in the car. After consulting the unhelpful directions, and a little help from Nicky, we finally had livable quarters. That night we ate leftovers from Micha's birthday party (hummus, shrimp and avocado salad, and asparagus pie).



Day 2: We are awoken by Nicky, who insists on trying to open our side of the tent, even though Zoi and I have made it clear, "NO BOYS ALLOWED!" He finally manages to unzip our side (the instant I let go of the zipper!) and all I see is Nicky and Theo excitedly rushing toward our door, so I put up my hands to block them from getting inside our area. The next thing I know, applesauce EVERYwhere. I didn't see that Theo had applesauce as he was charging at me, and he didn't expect me to block them from entering. Yellow goo.... splattered... need... paper towels... ASAP...

The culprit. Less '"mousse" more applesauce...

So then it's time for breakfast, but we have no bowls. So we ate cereal in shallow plates, no biggie. We shower, get dressed, and I read a little as the kids worked on some vacation homework. We were all quietly working in the warm sun when suddenly we hear rustling in the bushes-- loud rustling. We all stare in the direction of the noise when out walks a giant brown bear growling and heading straight for us! Just kidding, it was a mole. A small, black, and very cute mole-- perhaps the first one I've ever seen in nature.

After a while it was time for lunch. We ate more leftovers, this time pasta with pesto sauce-- yum! Then we went for a walk around the little tourist town of Aprica, known mostly for winter activities. We went to a tourist info center and got a bunch of pamphlets of all the cool stuff we could do this week. Then we did some grocery shopping, and had to buy some pots (yep, forgot those, too). Came home to organize a little, and get shelter from the rain. Zoi took a nap, as she hadn't been feeling well all day. We sat in awe thinking, 'How is it raining so hard!?' Thunder, lightning, and the deafening raindrops hit our tent... I gave Theo a lesson on our Solar System, and Monica decided to pick up some pizza and bring it back to the tent, so we wouldn't have to go out in the rain. When she got back, we all ate except for Zoi, who was still too sick to get out of bed. I read my book a little and played card games with Zoi, who is exceptionally good at card games! We went to bed.... my back is slowly getting used to the hard ground. At almost 3am Zio needs to go to the bathroom, I realize I need to go, too. I was a little annoyed to be awake at 3am, walking in the rain to the bathroom, but then I saw the moon. The full moon, just over the Alps looked incredible... Goodnight!

Day 3: I wake up a little later today, as Nicky isn't tormenting us to get up. I have yogurt and toast for breakfast, and we shower. The rain has cleared for now. The kids and I play some card games, which they pick up instantly. I tried to teach them how to shuffle, but their hands were too small.

We had lunch and the boys played in the stream a little while I gave Zoi a lesson on being sick. We made some tea and I went over the vocabulary of body parts and their corresponding maladies. Poor Zoi could barely swallow her lunch, so she went to the doctor with mom. The boys and I read until they came back, then we all went for a drive to a nearby town. The church was closed, so we continued on to the train station in Tirano. We saw the train we booked for the next day to St. Moritz, Switzerland.

When we got home we had "cena-merenda" which basically translates to "snack dinner." There's a lot of finger-food laid out and everyone piles what they want on their own plate. After that we had makeshift s'mores. It was nearly impossible to find marshmallows. Finally, we found colorful ones, with a hint of some artificial flavoring and a label that made me scared to look at the ingredients. With no hope of finding Graham Crackers, we settled for some biscotti and some too-thick chocolate. We heated the marshmallows on sticks over the propane stoves we brought.. They weren't the best, but it's the tradition that counts!





Day 4: Today we had to wake up early to catch the Bernina Express train from Tirano, Italy to St. Mortitz, Switzerland. This is definitely the most beautiful train rides I have ever taken. We saw the most amazing lakes and majestic mountains as we rode through the Swiss Alps. We arrived in St. Moritz and the first area we walked through was like Rodeo Drive on steroids. Every designer store you could think of... we saw a Rolls Royce, a Ferrari, and a Porsche all within the first hour. Once we passed the chic area, we decided to get lunch and have a picnic near a lake. After walking for a while we found a giant chess set and played with that until we were ready to board our train and get out of the cold. After a long day out we decided to have a warm meal at a local restaurant near the campsite. We had the local specialty: pizzoccheri. The chef came out and explained to us that the restaurant still uses his great grandmother's recipe from over 100 years ago. The dish is made with special buckwheat pasta (handmade at this particular restaurant), cooked with sage, garlic, butter, potatoes, and cheese. Although very heavy, this is probably one of the best dishes I've tried in Italy, at a restaurant, so far. At night it rained so much. If it stayed like this we might have to go back to Bergamo a few days early...


























Day 5: I woke up to find a sunny, blue sky and not a cloud around. I guess we're staying! Today was a lazy day of reading and sunbathing, while the kids did their vacation homework and played in the creek. We ate a really good lunch with vegetable pesto, garbanzo beans, and rice. For dinner we had scrambled eggs with broccoli... more reading before bed and we have to get up early to hike!

Day 6: We woke up early to go on a hike we had booked with the tourist office. A few minutes before we going to leave, we got a call that the hike was canceled due to weather conditions. So we decided to do our own hike. We packed a lunch of sandwiches and walked around for a few hours.This afternoon we went for a drive around the mountains in Aprica, and we stopped at a nature preserve with a marsh.














Day 7: Today we took a cable car up to have a little hike in the mountains of Aprica. This was truly a lovely walk. Their were creeks every few minutes and the walk winded around, making it quite interesting! We hiked about 90 minutes to Malga Magnolia. We were all famished when we finally arrived at the top of the mountain to see a restaurant. It was like a mirage in the desert!

Day 8: Today we packed up and drove back to Bergamo! Time for a super mega shower! Now, to enjoy my last 10 days living in Bergamo. :)