Citizenship achieved!

I've been holding off on discussing my quest for Italian citizenship because things seemed a bit up in the air for a while. Lina, Max, and I were officially recognized as Italian citizens by the Italian government back in October. But that's just one step of many. Next our documents had to be transcribed into the system of the little Southern Italian town where we stayed last summer and made our application; the town, Montagano, is officially our comune of Italian residence.

The transcription was completed in December...but then Montagano suffered some kind of computer disaster and lost the transcriptions of our documents and lots of other people's data. The comune staff had to redo it all, while also dealing with all their other tasks, including the extra work created by Italy's March elections. There was talk that our redone transcription would get done in February, but then...it wasn't. We'd hoped it might be completed in March, but then...it wasn't. 

Well, now it's done, again and finally, which means we are in the last stage of this process: getting our official documents. Lina and Max are applying for Italian passports through their local Italian consulates (in Bangkok and New York, respectively). I came back to Montagano yesterday with Danny to present myself at the comune and get my Italian carta d'identita. I'm also going to police headquarters in the nearest city, Campobasso, to apply for a passport--that's where you go to get one in Italy. (You can only get the ID card if you're in the country; Lina and Max will have to come back here at some point to get theirs.)

Today I went in to the comune office, handed in three copies of an unflattering photo of my grim-looking face (no smiling allowed in official ID photos), and Lucia, the town clerk, sat down at an old manual typewriter and filled out the identity card. Then she fastened one of the photos to it with a big official seal, I signed it, and...I'm now officially an Italian.

That's Lucia in the middle and Nicoletta, who's with the company that helped arrange all this, on the left. All three of us look relieved it's finally done.

It was great to be back in Montagano, which is such a pretty little village.

And very old world. 

This was one of several old ladies we've seen here who could have stepped out of a time machine beaming in from the 1940s. 

After our visit to the comune office Danny and I were invited for lunch at the home of Rita, who was our landlady when we stayed here last summer and has become a great friend, even though she speaks no English and my Italian is still pretty limited. As expected, she prepared a feast, which she served up while insisting that she's not much of a cook and that this was all very simple, not very interesting food.

First came spaghetti with a deliciously silky sauce of pancetta and cima di rape (and, Danny later pointed out, lots and lots of olive oil), topped with grated cheese. Then there was capacolla that Rita and her husband, Fernando, had made and cured themselves; little fried anchovies; marinated eggplant with garlic and hot pepper; some cheese; fruit; and a few pieces of the leftovers from a big chocolate Pasqua egg. Throughout the meal Rita kept urging us to have a little more. She really did say, "Mangia!" like a caricature of an Italian mama. It was all perfectly simple and absolutely delicious. 

Her kids, Francesco and Luciana, joined us for the meal (Fernando had to work) and gave us an earful about the dire state of their--our--country. Jobs are very hard to find and many employers hire people for temporary three- or six-month contracts. "And if you get paid, you're lucky," Francesco said. He claims not paying people for their work happens all too often, including to companies that do work for the government; they often have to wait years to get the money they're owed. Corruption is the problem, he said, And they don't think any of the country's political parties are serious about changing anything. "Five Star are the same as Berlusconi and Renzi," Francesco said, referring to the insurgent populists, the famously corrupt leader of a few years back, and the most recent center-left head of government. "Once they get in power, they all do the same--they steal." 

Francesco's apparently not alone. Later today we saw this graffito in Campobasso.

"Vote here"

Francesco had to leave for his job--part-time at a supermarket--before I thought to take photos. Here's Rita and Luciana with Danny. Luciana is in school to be a hairdresser (a three-year course!) and working part-time at a salon as an apprentice.

After lunch (which went until 4 p.m.) Danny and I went to Campobasso to do a little shopping and stroll around. We ended up celebrating my new status some more by going to our favorite restaurant in town, La Grotta da Concetta (Concetta's cave) and having some more excellent vegetable dishes. One was pizza e minestre (greens with cornbread crumbles, discussed more fully in this post from last summer).

Another was a dish of tagliatelle with broccoli rabe and nuts. Plus a salad of lettuce, fennel, oranges, and olives and, for Danny, pig liver cooked with bay leaves.

We are definitely back in the gluttony mode that we established when we were here last summer. And my complaints about Italian vegetable cookery now seem a bit misguided.

Meanwhile, I am thrilled and slightly amazed that this whole citizenship project is turning out to be a success. I realize I haven't yet spent very much time on is thinking about what it actually means to me. At the moment I'm really not sure.