How to Successfully Obtain Fingerprinting in Italy as US Citizen Preparing for an Italian Citizenship Request

After over a decade of living and working in Italy, I decided to ask for Italian citizenship.  The beaucracy is not fast or easy to navigate, especially as a US citizen not visiting my country during this process.

Since I didn't find the exact information online I needed to help me with the step of getting fingerprints in Italy to send to the FBI for a criminal background check, I would like to share the solution I pioneered here in Padua to help others in the future.

There has been a problem with the fingerprinting being that the FBI requires US citizens to send their prints to an address in West Virginia on an individual basis.  The information and forms for this service, what the FBI calls the Identity History Summary Checks, can be found on the following page: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/identity-history-summary-checks

However the Italian questura (police station), at least in my city of Padua, was refusing to leave me, the US citizen, with her fingerprint card after they had been taken.  They insisted that they would only be able to send those fingerprints to the US consulate or embassy.  Meanwhile, I verified that the US consulate and embassy do not want to receive the fingerprints or be directly involved in this process since it relates to Italian citizenship and not US requirements.  They basically don't want the extra hassle of sending the fingerprints to the FBI, plus there is the problem of how to pay the FBI for the summary check separately from providing the fingerprints, in that case. I would have had to travel to Milan and visit the US consulate to get back what had been taken in person in Padua, for no good reason.  That would have been ridiculous.

After repeated failed attempts and weeks of phoning and visiting the questura (with a small baby in toe!!) the following solution was found:  I gave the questura a standard document that the US consulate usually provides which explains that the consulate cannot perform fingerprinting due to the lack of proper facilities, PLUS, an email which was sent directly between the US consulate and the questura in which the consulate gives a nulla osta for the questura to be able to give me the fingerprint card after performing the fingerprinting.  The Italians want to have the US government allow me, an individual US citizen, to handle this process on my own.  The explanation on the FBI website was not official enough for their purposes.

In the end the wording for the nulla osta sent by the consulate was the following in my case:

A richiesta dell'interessata, si comunica che in base alle normative del Dipartimento di Stato, il Consolato Generale degli Stati Uniti d'America di Milano non è autorizzato a ricevere o inoltrare corrispondenza per conto di cittadini americani.

Pertanto, nulla osta da parte di questo Consolato alla consegna a mano delle impronte in oggetto alla Signora (nome) da parte di codesta On. Questura.

Distinti saluti

American Citizens Services Unit

US Consulate General Milan, Italy

Standard document provided by US consulate wording:

To whom it may concern (A chi di competenza)

This is to declare that this Consulate General is not authorized to take fingerprints and does not have the necessary equipment.  

U.S. citizens in need of fingerprinting services should therefore contact Italian authorities for assistance.

[Si dichiara che questo Consolato Generale non e’ autorizzato a rilevare impronte digitali e non dispone dell'attrezzatura necessaria.

Pertanto, i cittadini americani che necessitano di tale servizio dovranno rivolgersi alle autorita' italiane.]

Once all this was gathered and brought to the questura, I was able to get my fingerprints and take them home the same day.  Of course, there was a problem at the questura about how to clean my inked hands since there was no soap available for the general public in the bathrooms - but we eventually solved that problem too!

The FBI processed the prints in the time written on their site.

Hopefully with this information, other Americans can more quickly and successfully get their fingerprints taken while in Italy to start this process of obtaining Italian citizenship.

New Baby - New Business

A year after having given birth to my lovely son, Adriano, I am launching a new line of art services. He inspired me.

I am offering my services in painting custom watercolor portraits of children and animals from photographs.  I currently have a shop listing for easy ordering and payment on ETSY.  Please take a look.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/IreneWoodburyWorks

Soon I will be back with new posts.  It's been an intense year!

 portrait of a child with background

portrait of a dog

Finishing my "Interesting State"

Sono in uno stato interessante.

Literally translated: I am in an interesting state.
Meaning: I am pregnant.

Yes, my baby was due to be born yesterday. I am waiting to end this interesting state called pregnancy and meet my first child.  It is interesting because it's so unique in the life of a woman, where her belly is inhabited.

This can also explain my total absence from the blog over the last several months.

I have found this Italian expression quite curious, when especially Italian men refer to my growing belly this way as in, "Sei in uno stato interessante?"

It has been a wonderful 9 months, until just recently.  I was really lucky to have had very little morning sickness or problems associated with pregnancy. Only now at the very end am I suffering some bad consequences.  My liver has started to have problems working for the both of us: mother and son.  My recent blood tests and severe itching all over my body have signaled the malaise over the past three weeks.  I am very much looking forward to giving birth - not only to end the physical problems but also to meet this new human being who will be my son.

This waiting is trying. I am ready. Work is finished. The nursery is set-up and decorated. Everyone is on alert. We just need Mr. Bimbo to make his big move.

Dai, forza bimbo! Vieni fuori!

Cittadella Inaugurates the Full Wall Walkabout

In Italian, Cittadella's medieval wall walkabout is called Camminamento di Ronda delle Mura.

After twenty years of slow-and-steady restoration, the full circle is ready to open to the public the first week of June. Festivities will begin on the first of the month for nine days.

For a list of events (in Italian), click here.


This wall dates back to about 1220 and wraps around 1460 meters (0.90 mile) to circle the city. The walking area on the wall is 13 meters (42 ft.) high and offers a fantastic glimpse of this small and well-kept city from above. You can peek down and see gardens, the amphitheater and marvel at the girth of the city's cathedral rising from the center of Cittadella. There are 5 doors to the city and the moat still exists. There is an archeological museum to visit as part of your ticket to walk around the walls and the display of medieval weaponry at the entrance to the museum is fun for the whole family to look at.

Cittadella is located 36 km (22 mi.) north of Padua and can be reached using the SITA buses, if you don't have a car. Free car parking is located just outside of the walls at Porta Padova.  For SITA hours, click here.

 Last week, I was able to walk the current 3/4 of the camminamento that is open now on a glorious spring day.

near Porta Bassano

 Amphitheater

 view from Porta Padova

Dante Alighieri made reference to the terrible dungeon built in Porta Padova by Ezzelino da Romano in 1251 in his trilogy of the Divina Commedia.

the most obvious section of the restoration which recovered the missing area of wall west of Porta Bassano

Tickets cost Euro 7 per person

Hours vary summer and winter:
1 November - 31 March
Mon-Fri 9 a.m. - 1 p.m./ 2 - 4 p.m. (last entrance 45 minutes before closing)
Tuesdays closed
Sat-Sun 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
1 April - 31 October

Mon-Fri 9 a.m. - 1 p.m./ 2 - 6 p.m. (last entrance 45 minutes before closing)
Tuesdays closed
Sat-Sun 9 a.m. - 1p.m./ 3 - 7 p.m.

Ufficio IAT Cittadella

Porte Bassanesi, 2

35015 Cittadella

Tel. 049-9404485
Fax. 049-5972754

http://turismo.comune.cittadella.pd.it/it

turismo@comune.cittadella.pd.it

My Artist's Book, IN COMUNE, Dedicated to Padua's City Hall

You may have already read about and looked at my artist's book to be experienced on a gondola in Venice, Gondola Ride Kit, but there's another edition I've dedicated to Padua: IN COMUNE.

Description:

The site-specific artist's book focuses on some points in Palazzo Moroni (Padua's City Hall) and invites visitors to perceive each place differently. The artist's three card stock pages encourage visitors to avoid a hurried or careless passing, and instead experience some of the Palazzo's places, focusing on them to discover their purpose, identiy a new meaning or simply learn something about a typical routine there. The passing-by can therefore be a moment of reflection or a pause - a time which is given a new quality. The benches or windows in the Palazzo can offer both visitors - and resident workers - a different point of view to observe the space they are experiencing.

 Front cover

The book instructs the reader to go to specific locations, illustrated by the pencil drawings, and read the corresponding written material on the back side of each card. The themes range from humorous, to romantic and historical.

 First page, drawing and text on back

 Second page, drawing and text on back

Third page, drawing and text on back

The work was commissioned for the exhibition, Gemine Muse, in 2007. Curated by Guido Bartorelli and Teresa Iannotta. Bilingual edition of 1000 copies.

Back cover

IN COMUNE is on sale on ETSY. Click here to get your copy.  Not many copies are left!

Mosaics to the Limit!

The entrance to this curious residence

There is a town exactly halfway between Padua and Venice called Dolo. It's mostly famous for its prime location along the Brenta river, which boasts some of the most beautiful Veneto villas such as Malcontenta and Villa Pisani. Yet tucked away and on the other side of the Brenta, I have come across a different kind of fantastic home. It's superlative in another way: for its mosaic work.

At Via Brenta Bassa 43, a man has toiled his whole life to cover the inside and outside of his house with tiles, mosaics, and odd and even kitsch sculptures. Here is a glimpse of the fruits of his labor.

Street view

Detail of mosaics and sculptures

A Flurry of Work

Everyone knocks Italy as the place where little business gets done, but just wait for the holidays to end and you've got more than your share of job requests and urgent emails. It's January 7th, the day after the Epiphany which officially ends the Italian holiday season that begins with Christmas, and I have two new jobs confirmed. They want me to start this week, as in request on Monday morning and start work on Friday afternoon.

Maybe it's a bit of the "Northern" attitude. Italians are always comparing the North to the South.

What I love about the holiday season in the bel paese is that it's long. Two weeks. In the US, that's a luxury to say the least - anytime of year - except for teachers in the public school system. In that time, I was able to spend time with relatives, eat my fair share of all kinds of holiday food, drink plenty of wine and prosecco and devour cakes, cookies and chocolate. In between decadent sessions with food, I went snowshoeing, ice climbing, did some photography and read deep into my current book: The Pale King by David Foster Wallace. The last activity is more of a challenge than a pleasure considering its girth and sometimes its subject matter, but I am thrilled with my progress and the book's contents. I am actually a slow reader, which makes it all the more laborsome sometimes.

A big cheer for new job opportunities after a leisurely and extended series of feste.

Buon lavoro!

Buone Feste

WISHING YOU ALL
a drop of orange
a whiff of clove
a dusting of snow
a dash of joy
and
a sparkling holiday season

Making It Hot for Winter

As even Padua gets its dose of snow and the Christmas season rolls in, I have decided to combat the cold and make some super HOT pepper spread.

From this summer's batch of plants that thrived on my very hot southern-exposure terrace, I harvested the little red peppers and made crema di peperoncino.

Plucked plants - peppers - kitchen supplies to get started

It will keep me warm as the winter progresses. Just a dab of this stuff and your mouth is aflame! Red pepper,  garlic and salt smeared on bread. Simple. Effective. Great.

Peperoncini which also provide the perfect colors of Christmas

The finished and jarred spread of... edible fire!

Just how much piccante can you stand?

As for me - a lot.

Bring it on!

Just Before the Snow

This was dawn before our second snow of the season. 

The orange cast made interesting lines in the landscape before everything turned gray and white again.

Smile! Cheese!

CHEESE!

What even Italians can muster this exclamation when shooting a photograph of friends. They learned that somewhere along the line in their English lessons and/or movie listening.

But here we want to salivate in front of this marvelous cheese window in the Salone market area in Palazzo della Ragione in the center of Padua. Just look at those great big hunks of formaggio. I can assure you that they taste even better than they look. When I buy from this shop, cheese becomes an experience. What you find in the supermarket just isn't the same.

Presidential Cheer even in Italy

Upon the news that Barack Obama won a second term as President of the United States, Italy started overflowing with joy and relief. I was stopped by several colleagues yesterday, asking about my opinion and sharing their own about the outcome. Text messages arrived on my cell phone. The TV was ablaze with news. The Italians really follow our election campaigns, especially in the last few months.

In the few days leading up to the big US vote, I had to do my usual explanation about the electoral college vote. Honestly, I never understood the system myself until I started living abroad and had to explain it to others. Funny how that goes.

There are several voting differences between USA and Italy:

1) In Italy, they can vote for a party, but cannot directly vote for the specific candidate representing that party.

2) They only recently introduced the "primaries" and it is currently being performed by just one party: Partito Democratico. And anybody can vote for in that primary election - including people who would be "registered" as voters of a different party, if that were required in voting registration (which it is not).

3) There is no absentee ballot if you live in Italy. If you are registered in Calabria but working in Milan, too bad. You need to get your butt down to Calabria if you want to vote.

4) Referendums are performed as separate votes on different days from general elections. It can cause a hassle to get to your home town to vote, since you do not have an absentee option. It is also a considerable expense to organize the voting centers so every time they are opened, for elections or referendums, it comes at extra cost to the nation.

5) You vote here on Sunday and Monday

6) The vote is a popular vote.

Gondola Ride Kit: Instructions for a Heightened Experience

I'd like to introduce you to my little-but-powerful artist's book called Gondola Ride Kit: Instructions for a Heightened Experience. It's an ironic guide for living one of Venice's quintessential experiences: the gondola ride. There's a map, instructions and a trouble shooting guide at the end as I take you through the lagoon city in a whole new way. To start, I recommend the experience during the winter months of November to February, not your typical touristic season in the lagoon city.

Some the sections are dedicated to the five senses. You must concentrate on each one as you ride along in the gondola.

Canal Grande, original illustration by artist

Route taken by artist and recommended departure site to find your gondolier. 

For those who have read Dante Alighieri's Inferno, there is Experience B with references to Virgil and Minos, among others.

It's a guide. It's a book. It's art.
Enjoy this fabulous and unique read! Get your own copy. Buy one for a friend for Christmas! It will make for  an amazing gift for anyone leaving for Venice this winter. It can also be considered a special memento or just lets you dream about Venice with a new point-of-view. Not to mention that this little book is part of major public collections like Tate Gallery. You'll have a piece of art that is the "stuff" of museums.

This is the first time I have directly written about a piece of my art on this blog. I feel it is the right time and very relevant to your interests in Italy and my neighboring city of Venice, where I used to live. This artist's book is on sale for a great small price via Internet now. For more information, please go to my ETSY shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/irenewoodburyworks

Thank you for supporting me as an artist and spreading the word about Gondola Ride Kit.

Let me know what you think once you've gone for your own ride with manual in-hand.

Handmade Scaffolding Cover

The people in Agordo, a town near Belluno, decided to approach the current idea of imagery on their scaffolding cover in the most artigianale of ways. Instead of using a sponsor's image to print over the entire surface of the facade area being restored, as is often done in big cities like Venice these days, or printing a photographic replica of what the facade normally looks like to place on the covering, someone got some paint and brushes and did their painterly and naif version of the original facade. I find this completely adorable. You can find this scaffolding painting across from the church in the center of town.

For some images of what the photo slick versions usually look like:

The recently restored Bridge of Sighs, Venice, with the sponsor Bulgari on display

Photo credit: flickr name: travellerlisa

For a picture reference of a Paduan version of a scaffolding cover, go to my post. 

At least Padua in 2009 advertised the City of Hope, part of the Padua Hospital system. It a hospital program for kids with physical problems.

Ingenious Suburban Italian Gardening

Such a terrific solution to this gardener's dilemma: how to grow squash in a relatively small space. Just use your fence to let the vine grow vertically. And when the squash gets big and heavy, seat it on its own custom-made wooden shelf attached to the fence and hovering over the sidewalk. In no time, you'll have some great chow for some autumn risotto di zucca.

I am very proud of my neighbor's ingenuity.

For a recipe for Pumpkin risotto, click here.

Extraordinary Packages

After living abroad for any real length of time, the need to send and bring items from the US to Italy becomes necessary. We all have this story. My first special one was a box full of expensive watercolor paints that I sent myself from home to my new temporary home in Rome for my study year abroad. I had sent the box to my former Italian teacher to make sure that if it arrived earlier than me, there wouldn't be a problem receiving it. At that time, we sent via ship and it took 2/3 months for a package to get to its destination this way. We did it to save about 2/3 of the cost of express courrier. But I mistakenly declared on the mailing slip what I thought was the authentic value of the paints, which was a high value. Why was that a problem? Because when they got to Italy, the addressee had to pay taxes and handling fees based on that large sum of money. When she alluded to having paid something, she refused to let me know how much so I couldn't reimburse her. It was a typical Italian "host" gesture. And as a 20-year-old American, I had no idea how to insist or understand what the money paid could actually have been. I just didn't have the experience yet.

Then there was the time I needed to travel from Italy to the US with a wooden box with lighting and plexiglass slabs, 2 of which were filled with water. It was a sculpture/artist book that I was getting ready to present to US gallerists and collectors. It weighed a lot and required an excellent packaging job to make the flight in-tact and undamaged. It was also 2003. When I stopped over in Vienna, the Austrian police had me come out to their handling area on the other side of the airport, holding up the flight, while they made me unwrap everything to show them that it wasn't a bomb. It was a miracle that they believed I was an innocent American travelling with a strange sculpture and they also had the patience to help me carefully rewrap each piece of my sculpture, further holding up the flight, so that it could travel safely to its destination.

Fast forward to 2012. Recently a new art project has demanded another important package to get to Italy. This time it's large sheets of handmade paper with deckled edges. I had to figure out a way to package the paper so that it would travel and not damage its edges, which are one of the best parts about the handmade paper making process. I was able to accomplish this with the help of a UPS shipping shop. But I already had too much to carry to bring it to Italy myself. So my father was given the assignment of travelling with the package when he recently visited. In order to do that successfully, there was still one piece missing to the packaging process. A handle had to be attached to the large, fairly heavy and awkward package. UPS couldn't help us when I was in their shop and time ran out for my own stay in the US. I left without making a handle, which I had learned to make out of string as a person living in Venice. In that city, you must carry everything so you learn how to make handles for all kinds of boxes.

In the end my mother made a handle. But not just a handle. She made a sort of vest out of denim for the package and then inserted a real plastic handle into the sheath.

I didn't want to open the package until absolutely necessary because everything was so "safe" inside the denim wrap, tape and cardboard. So the package sat in its "clothes" for months. I only opened it 3 weeks ago to get to a drawing I wanted to hang on a wall - finally.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my mother's masterpiece of practical creativity and sewing diligence which was that package before I cut it up. (I was in a rush that day.) Here are the outer remnants that still remain:

handmade denim outer structure for large package, including plastic handle, 12" ruler to show size

The important thing was that the package travelled beautifully.

Thanks Mother.

The Yellow Box Disappears

It's incredible but true-the yellow box will soon vanish from Italy's train stations. You know, the one you need to use to stamp your ticket before you get on the train. And sometimes you forgot or you didn't even know you were supposed to use it because you are a foreign traveller and assume by buying a ticket, that is enough to travel without a hassle on an Italian train.
Well, it's being replaced by a more modern variety of stamping machine which is neither yellow nor boxy anymore. Here's introducing Trenitalia's new slick machine.

Yayoi Kusama on Display Downtown

In the heart of Padua, Louis Vuitton has brought the art of the famous Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Her world  consists of obsessive dots.

What I like about this window display is that there isn't a single bag or Vuitton product in the composition. Just Yayoi.

The company is trying to bring this art to a new public that might not otherwise see it. For more about this mission, watch this video.

Reflecting on my Posts

Why did I dedicate 2 posts to my recovery, back to back? This is the question I asked myself.

While the Olympic games are being played, it has made me think. Many people are receiving medals for their  great efforts. All I have to show after a year of "work" and diligence is the possibility to get back to my former activity, although that's a lot more than some people can do. Not everyone literally climbs mountains. And some never get back what they lost.

I knew I would get back into my alpine activities but it amazed me that I really had to wait about a full year for that to happen, like the doctor told me from the onset. You always think it's going to faster for you: the young, active person. I also needed to keep up my physical therapy with a regular schedule of work, a house  to care for and other activities of everday life. Finding time for everything wasn't always easy.

It took me longer to get my tendon in order than my friends to give birth to babies, which they are in the process of doing now but got pregnant months after my surgery. It's ironic because most of us consider the waiting period during pregnancy to be long. My achilles tendon recovery was longer.

This is not the first time I have had surgery and had to go through therapy. It's actually the third over the last 15 years. I am probably a bit frustrated that I have had so much of surgery and injuries and recovery. Yet I know there are other people who have been through more. But that's in my head. My gut doesn't always care about those cases. Maybe  that's why getting over this operation is such a big deal for me.

I have to admit that my tendon still isn't perfect. It still feels raw when I push it. I am still doing physical therapy to help it along. I think I'll need to do that until I can truly lift up my body onto the tips of my left toes, a movement that I only do partially at the moment. August 4th was a year after surgery but I think I need another 3 months to get everything back in shape.

And then one day, I won't have to think about it anymore. The tendon will just perform exactly as it should.

1 Year Later

Sorapìs, Dolomites

The joy rises along with the hiking distance as I celebrate 1 year after surgery on my achilles tendon. I know I am repeating myself slightly after my last post, but bear with me.

 It was August 4, 2011 that I rolled into surgery on a hospital bed. Yesterday I trekked up the Sorapìs in Cadore, Dolomites, as a reminder of how far I have come. I walked up about 1400 meters and my tendon rallied with me. This was my longest single rise this year, even longer than the day-journey in the high Alps recently.

Just fantastic.

Ottimo!