ALLA BANCA

The machines are working again today. However, the experiences of the past two days have made me realise that I do need to open an Italian current account. Raffaele, the ever helpful and kind hairdresser, whom I'd told about the problem [what woman does not confide in her hairdresser?] took me to his bank and introduced me this morning, thinking that that might speed the process up a little.

To open an account I needed my passport, as you would expect, my codice fiscale [Italian national insurance] card, and my permesso di soggiorno or CARTA CEE [proof of residency in Italy]. The latter is the document that you are not supposed to need as an EU citizen but in effect you can do nothing without it. Even these weren't enough, though: I needed a certificate of residence for the town as well as the country. So a mad dash to the office in Via Risorgimento to obtain this. [I knew where it was as I had also needed one of these certificates to register with a doctor. No, you can't just photocopy it; you need a different one for each purpose.] "Ci vuole un bollo", I am told. This is a stamp for the document that you have to get from the tobacconist's - I had needed one for the gas contract last year, too - and this time it cost 14.62 euros. Once I had got it and returned they issued the document, adorning it with the stamp and rubber-stamping it several times so that it looked very pretty in the end. What a profit the State must be making from all these bolli! [And the town gets 52 c for issuing the certificate.] Then back to the bank with it and I appear to have half-opened an account. I have to go back tomorrow.

These "residency" certificates do not, of course, exist in Britain, so it all seems incredibly long-winded and bureaucratic to us. [ See also my post, "The Bureaucratic Trail" of June 13th.]