Permesso, Permesso, oh where are you??

I just need to vent a little on some of our small frustrations in Italy. This morning we got up early on our Saturday off to head to the Questura (office for foreigners). It opened at 9:15. We were in high hopes of getting our permesso (a permit to stay in Italy) after 6 months of waiting. The doors were opened and piles of people already waited in line ahead of use when we arrived. Oddly they were moving rather quickly this morning which is super unusual here. A large sign is placed above one of the windows stating that only permessos before Sept. 12, 2006 are ready to be picked up. Amanda and I submitted our paperwork in the middle of August so were ready. Our turn at the window comes up and the lady loudly and with hand motions directs me to read the sign above her. I said I had read it and then she draws a big sign in the air with her hands and gives me a look. The look basically said "are you stupid, Look at your receipt the date is Sept. 29th. There was some miscommunication on the dates actually they told us the wrong thing. All that to say we have to wait two more weeks and hopefully they will be ready and one day this year we will get internet. We need this permesso to apply for residency which will allow us to get internet with the company we have chosen. The company told us before we couldn’t have internet with them because we were foreigners and didn’t have enough paperwork to be trusted. We would have to pay all two years worth of internet bills up front. Sounds fun huh. Funny thing about this is you are required by law to apply for a permesso within your first 7 days in country. You can only stay 3 months without a permesso. But you have to wait 6 months to get your permesso after you have applied. Something about these time lines doesn’t add up. I think a computer system might help the process tremendously. They do everything by hand and use an 11”x17” 1950’s log book to write appointments in. I think we’re a little behind the times here when my friends in Africa have DSL internet and it takes us 6 months to even get close to applying for internet services. I’ll end my ranting for now and say living Under the Tuscan Sun is not always so glorious.