Paperwork

It was with great excitement that I tracked the progress of our nulla osta across the Altantic. They began from Rome, transited through Koeln, Germany and entered the US in Philadelphia. From there it was on to Windsor Locks, CT and then up to Springfield where they arrived yesterday. Unfortunately, Amy opened the package only to find that they had made a mistake on her city of birth on her paperwork. My paperwork is apparently OK although I am traveling for the US Physics Team and have yet to see it myself. Apparently they listed Derby, CT (my birthplace) for both of us. Amy was born in Putnam. We let them know at SYA-Italy and are waiting to hear what must be done to straighten things out. It is entirely possible that the entire process must be started over again for Amy. At least my paperwork was correct. Amy is a bit disappointed, to say the least, but bumps in the road like this must be expected when dealing with any governmental entity, Italian or otherwise.

Nulla Osta

We received an e-mail yesterday letting us know that they had successfully negotiated Viterbese officialdom and our nulla osta were in hand. Not only that, they let us know today that they have already shipped them to us by UPS. I just checked the tracking status and they have departed Rome! Who knew that keeping track of paperwork could be such a thrill.

Just Like That

Nothing was happening and then, whoosh, just like that we are rolling again. We just got word that they are visiting the local prefettura in Viterbo today to pick up the nulla osta. Once they have them in hand they will notify us and then send them along.

Also, we made an appointment with the Italian Consulate in Boston to process out visas. As it currently stands we will go on July 22. That is four days after the closing of the IPhO in Bangkok which should give me plenty of time to make it back from Thailand and over three weeks until our departure to Rome which should be long enough to fix whatever issues come up and still have 5-10 days for them to process the actual visa and get our passports back to us. However, if we have the nulla osta in hand early enough we might try to reschedule our visit for early June which will REALLY cut down on the stress level for the rest of the summer.

VERY Small Steps

With everything continuing to be on hold, any small bit of progress feels gigantic. With that in mind I should report that we finally got a European cable for our laptop computer which had been on back order for several months. The computer ac converter itself can function on European voltages and frequencies, but we needed the correct cable to plug into the wall. Apparently, now we have it.

Waiting For ...

... pretty much everything. We should get our nulla osta approved any time now and then it needs to be sent to us. After that we need to wait until 90 days out before we can make our appointments for our visas. That will happen in mid-May, right before I go to physics training camp. So, we wait for the school year to end, the summer to happen and for us to start our adventure.

We Have Visitors!

It's official. My mother and her husband Jim have purchased their tickets and will be visiting us for around two weeks in December! They arrive in the middle of the month and will be with us for Christmas. Amy and I hope this is just the first of many people who visit us in Italy.

Passport Photos

Yesterday Amy and I took care of another of the annoying pieces for our trip. Amy's driver's license was set to expire a few days before we left and mine was to expire in November. Both of us needed new picture so renewal by mail was not possible. Fortunately, we can renew up to a year before our license expires so yesterday we took care of that. While we were out and about we also had 14 passport pictures made for each of us. We need two each for our visas and were asked to bring a dozen each to Italy. Apparently we paper the city with them upon arrival. Unfortunatley, there is no discount for buying in bulk, even at Costco!

While I am on the subject, if you want to visit us you are going to need a valild passport. Don't wait until the last minute to apply.