Last week, on the 15th, the Italian mid-August holiday of Ferragosto was celebrated. Just a few days before that, I arrived back in Lucca after a long visit to the USA. With all the angst that accompanies international travel these days, I must say I am feeling quite fortunate. Not only am I back in Italy, but all my flights were on time and problem free. My luggage even arrived in Florence at the same time as I did. These days that feels like a minor miracle.

In another stroke of luck, I was able to turn in my “permesso kit” - the big stack of documents required to renew my permit to stay legally in Italy - without any of the problems that many people have recently experienced. There has been a major backup in the Italian Immigration pipeline this summer. Some people applying for renewals were given appointments at the Questura (the next step in the permesso process) many months into the future, long after their current permesso expires. Worse, some were told no appointments were available at all and they would receive a text or a letter when one became available. Yikes - talk about stressful. While this delay doesn’t preclude staying in Italy during the waiting period, it does make it nearly impossible to travel to, or through, any other Schengen country while waiting for the new permesso di soggiorno card to arrive. Somehow, luck was on my side and I walked out of the post office last Monday with an appointment just 5 1/2 weeks later. I have to assume that my luck coincided with the fact that the immigration backlog is now beginning to clear.

I am happy to be back in Lucca. The heat is a bit overwhelming but I’ve been able to walk through town in the early mornings or early evenings, keeping to the shady side streets. And now that I’ve unpacked and turned in the all important permesso paperwork I am headed off for a real vacation at one of my favorite spots - Lago di Como (Lake Como). I’m leaving my computer at home, so there will be no blog post next Monday.

I’ll put some photos from Lake Como on the Two Parts Italy Facebook page over the next 10 days, otherwise look for me to be back on Monday September 4th with a new post and lots of photos from my time at the lake! In the meantime, enjoy these photos from my first days back in Lucca.