AUTHOR’s REVIEW and COMMENTS on “Ah! Tuscany”: the Enlightenment of an Expatraite
Five years ago my wife - Silvia - and I purchased a condominium in San Gimignano. This book is my story of what followed. Unlike most books, there is no obvious story line throughout - and this presented me with the challenge of leaving the reader with what at the end coalesces into a complete story. There are however, two shorter story lines. The first is: locating, purchasing, improving, and furnishing an apartment near San Gimignano and the second - woven throughtout the book - concerns obtaining our permission to live in Italy, official residency, car ownership and registration, Carta di Soggiorno, citizenship, and documents for a stolen car. Otherwise the book is a mosaic of personal experiences and observations that encompass our living experience and in the end it becomes clear that the real story is about getting to know the customs and people sufficiently that we felt truly at home in San Gimignano. For example, I describe shops, restaurants, a visit to the mayor’s office, the grape harvest and wine making, olive harvest and mushroom hunt and interactions with workmen (our artisans). I take the reader traveling to Volterra, Florence, Siena, Certaldo and Poggibonsi and Tuscan villages. We go cycling, take country walks and become acquainted with ancient books, the art scene, sunsets and winter in San Gimignano. I describe money laundering, medical sevices, doctor visits, pharmacies and the payment or avoidance of taxes. We learn several difficult lessons concerning government-controlled services: utilities, banks, telephone, post, computer connection, water and traffic violations. We learn the importance of notaries and town registrar (anagrafe), I make observations on politics, TV, strikes and the press, on All Saints Day, barbers, how a condominium functions, and festivals. During the entire process, we develop valued friendships and transition from outsiders to residents who truly belong to San Gimignano. There is a separate chapter on the special issue of Tuscan Way of Life, [the strange dichotomy of aggressive governance vs beautiful life style and wonderfully warm, friendly people] and another on the history of San Gimignano. My Target Audience comprises two groups: those who enjoy reading about life in Italy – particularly Tuscany - and those adventurers who are either considering living in Italy or actually doing so. Both groups, and indeed all readers who enjoy travel will be entertained by many humorous and sometimes hilarious events surrounding the mysterious bureaucratic machinations of government, while those thinking of living there may better prepare themselves for the adventure. But all readers are sure to enjoy the pleasures of Tuscan friendliness, culture and customs. The living of this story has been an experience of a lifetime. From friends and unknown readers alike, I receive reports of pleasure, enjoyment and amazement. I therefore recommend the book to you and wish that many more will decide to share in my story. Don McPherson click to get published: http://outskirtspress.com/cgi/agent.cgi?key=22944
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THE PERFECT GIFT FOR LOVERS OF TUSCANY and a MUST-READ for those contemplating living there.
EXCERPTS from “Ah! Tuscany” Selected by the Author
The Introduction, given below in its Entirety, serves to provide an excellent perspective of what ‘Ah! Tuscany’ is all about.
Ask anyone who has visited Tuscany if they would live there and they are sure to respond, “I would love to”. And if they had the opportunity? ... “in a heartbeat”. Well, when we retired we made the opportunity and we took it in a heartbeat. As tourists we had known the beautiful side of Tuscany, that of scenic landscapes, architecture and history, picturesque hill towns, renaissance, the diversity of foods and wines, and the joyful people. This is the “Ah! Tuscany,” exclaimed with surprise, pleasure or even ecstacy. On the other hand, a person who comes to Tuscany to stay for some time must go about the daily business of living and invariably becomes involved in many aspects that are invisible to the tourist. This unseen side of life may not be as enjoyable as that experienced by the tourist and there are occasions when the “Ah! Tuscany” exclaimed by this person may be an expression of disappointment, disallusionment or even dispair. This is the Tuscany with which we were about to become intimately familiar. Five years would pass before we would discover just what feelings we would express by this phrase. I began my relationship with Italy as most foreigners do - a connoisseur and lover of the beautiful side. Indeed over a period exceeding 30 years, I experienced all the marvels of Italy: food, wine, culture, history, breath-taking countryside, caring relationships and relatives, the love of life and living. True, I had heard from our Italian relatives many discouraging stories, particularly involving bureaucractic tangles, reluctant government services, punitive taxation and difficult house renovations. But I hoped our plans for retired part-time living would distance us from these storm centers that the normal working citizen experiences in daily life, and further, that our past experiences with foreign living had prepared us for those problems that would arise. In retrospect (with the exception of travel misadventures) it is clear that I never knew the “Ah! Tuscany” in a negative sense. In what follows I describe the experiences of my wife, me and sometimes visiting family, as we purchase, finish and furnish our apartment while learning how to arrange and pay for public utilities, government services and the inevitable taxes. From there we progress to discovering our home-town San Gimignano, nearby towns, friends and neighbors. We discover the way banks, shops, doctors, telephone cards and notaries function, in fact most everything about the Tuscan living. Meanwhile, we become mired in the bureaucracy that surrounds our ‘permission to stay’, ‘residency permit’ and car ownership. While all these experiences are spirited, enlightening and – particularly in retrospect - very humorous, there are times when we wonder if we have made a major life-time mistake. With time, we discovered new ways of going about the business of living, and eventually, the beautiful and the unseen sides begin to merge to form a whole that was fuller, more human and more interesting than the Tuscany we first knew as tourists. * * * Anxious to hand over the tiresome cash that had been lingering at the bank for almost a week, we and the bank manager were astonished to learn that our sellers no longer wanted it. Luigi and Fabio unveiled a new plan. First they had me write a check payable to myself for the full amount of 120 million now due, and hand it to the manager. Then they presented to the manager a list of account numbers into which the cash was to be distributed and he complied. With this simple process, I made my payment by withdrawing cash that I never saw, the cash was distributed to people I didn’t know, and most important, the transaction was made with no record of large deposits to be reported to the meddlesome tax authorities. We had been introduced to money laundering - Italian style. Brilliant, I thought, and so much neater than dealing with large stacks of noisome cash and inquisitive government investigators. * * * To a man, our artisans were gentlemen, professional, pleasant and courteous. They arrived and departed graciously always asking ‘permesso’ before entering and wishing us a good day or evening on leaving. During their workday we exchanged information about families and they showed a genuine interest on where we came from and why we were here. Each of them marveled at the beauty of our location and the good proportions of our apartment. Perhaps most importantly, they all did excellent work, cleaned up quite well, and they discussed their work with us, checking that we were satisfied with the results. Indeed we were. * * * Expecting to return to find the principal construction work completed, we were faced with this scene: The construction of the two storage areas and a chimney, and an attempt to install the wood stove had resulted in a thick cover of plaster and stone dust over everything. But in addition, the floor was strewn with sundry building materials, scaffolding and stove parts mixed in with the folding chairs and step-ladders that we had left there. And in the ceiling, there was a gaping hole open to the sky. Clearly, if we could ever resolve this mess, it was going to take much more that the two days we planned on. It was a major blow to both our plan and our spirits. In spite of the reassuring communications we had had with the mason and BRICO they had somehow overlooked the fact that a large section of the stove had been broken during installation and was now lying on the floor of our living room. Instead of reordering the broken part and completing the work four months before as promised, they had simply stopped work and left our living area in shambles. At this point, il Gioiello was a sad imitation of the jewel we had been looking forward to. * * * Medical doctors in these parts do not give appointments, nor do they have receptionists. It follows that patients begin arriving long before the doctor. As each new patient arrives he asks who was the last to arrive (chi è l’ultimo?) and one of the waiting patients acknowledges. The new arrival therefore knows who he will follow into the doctor’s office, and tells the next arrival so that he in turn knows whom to follow. This efficient procedure is usual in most offices and banks, where several people may be waiting and there is no sign of a queue. * * * This excerpt follows a list of art museums and pieces to see in Florence: As in many of the old cities of Europe, the buildings housing the museum collections are themselves museum pieces, many of them having served as the palaces and villas of the leading citizens and politicians. Thus even if one does not have a strong interest in the contents, a visit to these museums is a visit to the palaces of those who knew and sponsored the greatest artists of the western world, people with the power to subjugate or promote, people who made decisions that contributed to form the civilization that we have today, while leaving behind the greatest store of art known to western civilization. Whether you are interested in the focus of the museum or not, take the time to visit every museum possible in Florence. You will surely enjoy them. * * * The offices of the comune are located in the beautiful 13th C. Palazzo del Comune on the south side of the Piazza del Duomo – the heart of town. The offices of the mayor and the two vice mayors overlook the Piazza in medieval splendor – all quite busy as they must have been for the last thousand years. Outside the Mayor’s office was a beehive of activity, with people rushing in and out, while others of lesser rank or importance waited their turns. We informed the Mayor’s secretary of our arrival, and waited as the activity continued unabated. Finally the secretary exited the mayor’s office and informed us that the he had spoken with the vigili and they had agreed to visit our residence early this week! Perhaps the mayor was the key to our residency and identity cards and thus the ownership of our car. * * * From the very beginning of my Tuscan life my name had been a burden. To begin with, it is a very foreign name, then to find four consonants together is as strange to an Italian as it is for me to find four or five vowels together in many Italian words. And how do you get the ‘mic’ sound from ‘mc’, to say nothing of an ‘eff’ sound from ‘ph’? Moreover, Italians write it as two words: Mc and Pherson, and are more comfortable filing it under the P’s. I felt sure my permit was irretrievably misfiled. * * * I had acquired a severe ear infection from our swimming pool water and Dr. Bruni prescibed a series of penicillin injections: The pharmacy had only enough penicillin for three of the 14 injections. The pharmacist sold us this and told us to return tomorrow for the remainder. As for today’s injection she did not know where we might find a nurse and suggested the Misericordia – a national volunteer medical emergency group whose San Gimignano center of operations is on the main street. But there were no medical staff on duty, so we went home and put off the first injection until the next day. The pharmacist had also suggested that the ex-hospital Santa Fina might administer the injections. Once the town hospital, it now provides limited medical services, so this was our first stop of the morning. Unfortunately, they refused to give me an injection without a written doctor’s authorization, and Dr. Bruni had not given me one. By now I really felt abandoned. A nurse told us to return to the Misericordia and they would do the injection because they dealt with emergencies that don’t require a doctor’s authorization. We did so and there found a medic. She opened her van and prepared to inject, I lowered my trousers and she did the job right there on San Gimignano’s main street. Finally, the first of 14 injections had been administered!………(and once I was cured)…………….In retrospect however, the entire affair had been such an ordeal, that it deserves highlighting: Over a four week period, this single painful illness had required three visits to Dr Terni in San Gimignano (total waiting time of 2 ½ hours), one visit to a dentist in Poggibonsi, three visits to Dr Bruni in Colle di Val d’Elsa, two visits to the medical lab in Poggibonsi, one visit to San Gimignano’s ex-hospital Santa Fina, eight visits to pharmacies, and two visits to the Misericordia. This is a total of 20 visits spread over a three-week period, not to mention 13 visits by Nurse Ricciardi over the following week. How does one who holds a job deal with this system? Friends tell us that sadly, experiences like this are quite common. Knowing that they can do nothing to change it, they laugh at each story like this; otherwise they should cry (è da ridere, altrimenti dobbiamo piangere) and that’s not the Italian way. * * * After describing heritage as one unifying force of Tuscan life: The other unifying force that influences the nature of life and its living in Tuscany is the Italian government. After Garibaldi pulled Italians together, little over a century ago the central government created unified systems of transport, law and taxation, railroad, radio, post, telephone and television. But it is ironic that one of the most unifying features of all is the people’s disgust and distrust of their government. As the result of its electoral system, Italy has such a splintered government that it is almost incapable of making decisions for the good of Italian citizens. Instead most of its efforts appear to be devoted to passing laws benefiting the politicians and their parties and laws protecting incumbents from prosecution for their corrupt practices. Intermitently, this behaviour is puctuated by elected officials publicly denouncing one another for actions of self-interest and corruption…The organization of Italian industries, Confindustria meets frequently with the politicians at well attended conferences where they are free to work out sweetheart deals favoring both groups while ignoring public interests. When their interests are ignored the public is faced with higher costs, unnecessary confusion and uncertainties. Yet remarkably, alongside this scandalous situation, Italians live in their own cheerful world consisting of family, friends and culture. Undoubtedly, there are other factors that also influence the life and character of the Tuscan people, but a discussion of them would exceed the scope of this book and my knowledge of their culture. It is enough to say that in these two major conflicting influences, heritage versus politics, I find my explanation for what I see going on around me and for the many strange and wondrous incidents that have befallen us during our sortie into the business of living in Tuscany. I admire the Tuscan capacity to live their lives with joy, and my admiration grows when I observe their art of rising above the blows and machinations of their government. * * * Normally banks send a statement to customers every three months by which time one has lost all control over one’s records. Under the best of circumstances it would be difficult to keep track of months of automatic utility payments, checks, cash withdrawals and bancomat (debit) payments. However the quarterly bank statement is seldom clear as to what the deduction is for, identifying several items with numbers of up to 12 digits, or with such edifying descriptions as ‘divers and internal operations’, ‘exempted operations’, ‘administrative account fees, in trust, and/or discovered’. Even the government’s tax on your savings is not identified. This leaves the identity of many entries to the customer’s imagination. The best one can do in trying to penetrate these mysteries is to match dates and values. By the summer of 2003 I had not received a bank statement since November 2002…. Thus, I could not come close to tallying the balance that the bank clerks reported to me, and there was a discrepancy of about €1000. I decided to request a full print out. The bank clerk was not at all surprised with my situation, consoling me in the thought that I was not alone in this predicament. He printed out listings of all operations over the last 8 months and I took these home to study. But because of the difficulty in identifying many entries, I was still unable to match these with many in my records. In the end, I simply accepted the last balance, added the latest activities and reindexed my balance to this new value. * * * For our first attempt to pay our real estate tax (ICI) we went to the commune’s ‘Tributi’ office: Recalling the maxim that ‘nothing in Italy is straightforward’, I was not surprised to learn that our situation was problematical. To begin: although we owned the apartment, we were not yet residents and therefore would have to pay the higher rate. But, since we had already applied for residency we should pay the much lower residents’ rate. However, since we would not have our residency before the ICI was due, perhaps we would have to pay the higher rate anyway. An additional complication was that we would return to the USA before December and therefore would not be present to make our biannual December payment. Following considerable discussion of our situation, which even Silvia could not follow, the Tributi staff concluded that we might be permitted to make both payments now, in June, and perhaps at the reduced residents’ rate. And by the way, because we each owned 50% of the apartment, we would each have to pay 50% of each payment separately. Also, we should prorate our payments to pay only for that portion of the year we were owners. We were beginning to understand why it is customary to employ a ‘commercialista’ (an accountant who deals with all sorts of tax payments) to calculate this payment. * * * Our first water bill, dated “for the 2001 period” arrived 20 months after we bought the apartment:……… but it failed to mention the curiously long hiatus between then and mid 2003. It stated that it could be paid at my bank but the bank clerk did not agree and informed me that I must pay it at the dreaded post office business window (well he didn’t really say ‘dreaded’). I hastened across the piazza to find it packed with residents waiting to pay their 2003 ICI tax – now due. From my experience with this in 2002 I knew that the wait might carry me through until closing time, so I gave up that exercise and retired to the pool at Montolivo. There, a discussion with neighbors concluded that the bill stated that it could be paid at a bank so I must be persistent. Stiffening my resolve, I approached the bank for another assault. I talked to Norma who expressed the opinion that the company that now distributes the water bills is a (hand cupped over the mouth to avoid being overheard) casino (brothel), a term frequently used to suggest monumental chaos. She could not handle the payment and insisted that I must make this first payment at the post office, but she would try to arrange for future automatic payments by the bank. Two weeks later we received another water bill “for the 2001 period” but for a slightly higher meter reading. This was particularly puzzling because in 2001 we had spent only one month at the apartment, getting the water turned on and the kitchen installed, but not living there. This was hardly enough time to explain two separate meter readings and the use of 29 Euros worth of water. What was even more puzzling was that this bill included an unexplained ‘adjustment’ that was ten times greater than the value of the water used. Since the large notice on the bill notified us that ‘the goal of the billing agency is the customer’s satisfaction’, we called their phone number in hopes of an explanation. Some 50 attempts over two days – and similar experiences reported by neighbours – always found their line occupied and we concluded that either this casino was hiding from clients, or a huge number of them were seeking ‘customer satisfaction’. It was time to give up and we paid the bill again at the post office. One of the important lessons that Italy teaches you is to be alert to recognize when it’s time to give up, and to devote your time to the positive aspects of life. * * * We had our resident kitten spayed to make her more acceptable as a gift: …….to make amends for the pain of her operation and for her recovery at home we bought an enclosed, cushioned bed. As soon as she arrived home she staggered into it and fell soundly asleep. Five days passed before Toppa recovered her lively and inquisitive self, and then no time at all before she met a younger neighbor kitty that captured her kitten heart. This led to her spending the nights out and ignoring the beautiful new bed, except for afternoon snoozes. We concluded this from watching them play together during the day and from our neighbors who reported that their young male had also been missing over night. I marveled at the similarity in behaviors of kittens and teenage humans. * * * After apprenticing under Cesare in grape and olive harvests it was time to experience the mushroom harvest. Cesare began hunting mushrooms when he was only 5 years old, so I completely trust his judgement as to which ones are edible. We set out on a pleasant fall day for Colle Culivardi, the hill that rises a thousand feet above and to the southwest of San Gimigano. We carried our wicker baskets into a vast forest, with many fallen branches, but little undergrowth - making walking easy. The air smelled of pure, refreshing forest and there was no noise but of our footsteps and the odd snap of a branch. * * * My next sortie into San Gimignanese cultural life was attendance of a meeting to commenmorate the 130th anniversary of the founding of the public library. Most treasures of San Gimignano are well known, and this is because they are so visible. You see its towers from the distance and its medieval wall as you arrive. Enter any gate and you find narrow streets that lead to the beautiful central squares - laid out as they were a thousand years ago. Its museums, duomo and churches - its ancient fountains and fortress ruins are all well marked for the tourist to discover. But hidden away in the library’s collection of 50 thousand books (unusually large for a town of 5,700 residents) is a little known treasure: a sub-collection of 4,600 books printed in the 16th Century. * * * …the adventure that I set out on has come to an end. But on the way it transformed to a broader adventure on a higher plane. From one that focused on understanding how things work in Italian life and finding my way through bureaucratic jungles, my adventure evolved into a study of how Tuscans live their beautiful lives amidst the chaos raining down on them from government and big business……… With all my affairs now under control, there is no reason to be troubled by the inconsiderate practices of government, industry and utilities (well there still is the loss of water pressure). But even if things do trouble me just a little, I consider the benefits and conclude (like a true Tuscan) that they are well worth the minor inconveniences. Then I settle back in my chair by the pool, gaze at the crown that is San Gimignano and murmur, “Ah! Tuscany”. CLICK to get PUBLISHED: http://outskirtspress.com/cgi/agent.cgi?key=22944
About Don McPherson
From the age of 14-years Don worked his way around the world in search of adventure: from ships in the Great Lakes to ships at sea, from a Northern Ontario lumber camp to flying with the Canadian Air Force, and through it all squeezed in an engineering eduation at the University of Toronto. He then worked as a geophysicist, logging oil wells in Canada’s west, and as an instrumentation designer for developmental jet engines before taking a Masters degree in Nuclear Engineering. While serving as Assistant Professor of Physics on the faculty of the University of Waterloo, he won a French government scholarship that took him to France to obtain a Diplome en Génie Atomique. Based on his research and teaching of Nuclear Engineering at Waterloo, he was sent by the International Atomic Energy Agency to the Philippines as an expert in Industrial Applications of Radio Isotopes and from there went on to obtain a Ph.D. from the University of London in thermal-hydraulic aspects of nuclear reactor safety. Finally Don settled down to work as a reactor safety research engineer and then a nuclear fuel designer with Atomic Energy of Canada. In 1973, he was invited to Washington to work with the US Atomic Energy Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) doing reactor license reviews and in various reactor safety projects. Until 1988 he managed two major safety research programs: the Loss-of-Fluid-Test and the Three-Mile-Island Accident Evaluation Program, which attracted participation from nuclear power countries in Western Europe and Asia. He also headed the US Department of Energy’s study of the Chernobyl accident. In 1989 he undertook a 4-year assignment in Paris, as Director of the Nuclear Energy Agency’s Division of Nuclear Safety. Returning to the NRC, he served as its expert on tests of safety systems of advanced reactor designs, the majority being performed in Europe and Japan, and then as NRC’s senior Scientist for Russia’s Plutonium Reactors Core Conversion Project which took him to Russia frequently. Throughout his career Don published over 50 technical papers and presentations on his research in radioisotope applications, thermohydraulics applied to nuclear fuel heat transfer, fuel design and particularly on reactor safety. Since retiring in 2000 he and his Italian-born wife, Silvia purchased a small apartment in San Gimignano, Tuscany, Italy where he focused his writing interests on their Italian adventures, the inscrutable Italian bureaucracy and the delights of Italian living. He publishes a monthly letter from San Gimignano in Poche Parole, newsletter of the Washington Italian Cultural Society, and has published articles in Elan Magazine, of Northern Virginia. Silvia is a retired piano concert artist and piano teacher. Together, they enjoy a family of five girls, five grandchildren and one great grand-daughter, living in Canada, the US and Brazil. to get published click: http://outskirtspress.com/cgi/agent.cgi?key=22944
From the age of 14-years Don worked his way around the world in search of adventure: from ships in the Great Lakes to ships at sea, from a Northern Ontario lumber camp to flying with the Canadian Air Force, and through it all squeezed in an engineering eduation at the University of Toronto. He then worked as a geophysicist, logging oil wells in Canada’s west, and as an instrumentation designer for developmental jet engines before taking a Masters degree in Nuclear Engineering. While serving as Assistant Professor of Physics on the faculty of the University of Waterloo, he won a French government scholarship that took him to France to obtain a Diplome en Génie Atomique. Based on his research and teaching of Nuclear Engineering at Waterloo, he was sent by the International Atomic Energy Agency to the Philippines as an expert in Industrial Applications of Radio Isotopes and from there went on to obtain a Ph.D. from the University of London in thermal-hydraulic aspects of nuclear reactor safety.