Renewal and a road trip

Permits and Carnevale

In September of last year we started the process to renew our permessi di soggiorni for another two years. For those that are going through this process I highly recommend locating your local CISL office and taking advantage of their free services, we found their help to be priceless.

We submitted our packets of documents through the postal system on September 30, 2008 and on October 31 we went to the local Questure office to submit our photos and have our fingerprints taken again. I have been fingerprinted at least four different times in the process to move and stay in Italy.

We kept waiting for notice that our carte da soggiorni were ready but no notice ever came from the Ministero Interno and I read a thread on Expats in Italy that listed a website where you could check if your local Questura was “on-line”. I found the Ascoli Piceno site and searched through the list to find our names listed as of the end of January, mere days after we transferred south. We have a friend who works at the Questura there who checked and verified for us that our documents were indeed ready.

Monday we drove the six hours up to Ascoli Piceno; by way of Cassino, Sora, Avezzano and L’Aquila. Our former landlord was kind enough to offer a vacant apartment he has for a few nights so we stayed until Thursday. This gave us the opportunity to see some old friends and enjoy Carnevale in Ascoli and the unique Li Moccule on Martedi Grosso in Castignano.

Procession of Li Moccule

Bonfire at the top of town

This is the third time we have gone through the process for a permesso di siogorno (our initial ones in Roma, changed to Ascoli Piceno and this renewal) and each time has been similar and required much of the same information as when we applied for our visas three years ago. Unfortunately the renewals are still only valid for two years.