04.05.06
Paying the Rent
My first rent payment was due today. To pay it, I go to my landlord’s bank and make a special kind of deposit into her account. My rent in Perugia was paid a little differently, so this was the first time I’ve had to do it this way. There really aren’t “checks” here. It’s cash only for the most part, and many places now take debit/credit cards.
So I stand in line and give the clerk all the paperwork. He needed my passport, the form for the deposit, and my codice fiscale - a special number that you get here that everyone asks for. Recent law changes don’t allow just anyone to make a deposit anonymously - they have to know who you are. Sometimes getting an American’s information into an Italian computer system is a challenge. Italians don’t usually have middle names, for example, and so they are often confused about my name. And they always need to know the city of birth, which isn’t really important to an American. We ask for city and state - there’s a whole lot of Springfields out there, but each city name in Italy is completely unique.
At one point, there were three workers huddled around the screen trying to figure out why the deposit wouldn’t go though. I just kind of stood there while they tried different combinations. But finally, one of them clicked on something and they got kind of a surprised look on their faces and the printer spit out my receipt.
As I walked out the door I realized they spelled my last name wrong. I didn’t dare go back and have them correct it.