I was fearing the worse about the process to get the social security number. But everything turned out all right. I forgot to bring the address of the apartment with me so we had to return to the hotel and get that. But once that was done I had my social security number in a matter of minutes. But this whole episode took up the entire morning (walking back and forth, finding the right building the first time, etc.).
With social security number in hand we went to our favorite gelataria and had a gelato. Then we headed back to the hotel and ate lunch. I also checked with the hotel manager about changing some money. I needed to exchange the money I brought with me from the states into Lira to pay for the apartment tonight. They gave me a great rate for my dollars and I also didn't get charged a fee. It was a good thing I brought the money with me. Otherwise I would have had a hard time getting enough money out of the bank machines to come up with the down payment.
We hung out a little in our hotel room waiting for the super mercati to open again at 15h15. We bought some more groceries for tonight's dinner. Then we headed out to the park to play chess. After that it was time to head back to the hotel for dinner. We ate that and after dessert of some chocolate wafers we headed out to Sodalia for our apartment meeting.
We got to Sodalia at 18h20 which was a bit early for the meeting. Angelo met us at a little before 19h00 and the owner of the apartment arrived. The agent was late by 8 minutes so our meeting had a bit of a delay. Angelo went over the contracts which were both in Italian. We filled out all the paperwork which also included a notification to the police of who would be living in the apartments. Apparently there is a fear of terrorism here so I have to be registered with the police wherever I am living. With all that done the owner gave me a huge set of keys. There are two sets of keys so that's why there were so many keys. It is good that I have two sets so the baby-sitter will have her own.
The electricity and water is already turned on in the apartment so we can move in whenever we want. I think we will put it off for Saturday. We won't have television, much less satellite, and tomorrow is the day the space craft lands on Mars and the kids really want to see that. I suppose we could see it on the internet too but I don't know when I will have phone service turned on. It should be sometime next week. Also, we won't have gas until Monday or so so we won't be able to cook there. Not that we can here in the hotel either.
Our meeting came to a close around 20h00 and we went back to the bus stop. It is a good thing it didn't go much longer or we would've missed all the busses. The last one is at 22h22 and the one prior to that is at 20h39 so we would've been pretty stuck. It is not a busy part of town and I didn't see any taxis in the area. As it was we caught the 20h18 bus.
Back in the city center we walked by our gelataria but it was closed. So we made our way back to the hotel. The kids had a couple of chocolate cookies and are now in bed. Hopefully they will be asleep soon.
So the exact location we will be living in is called Gardolo Trento. Its a bit out of the way. I don't even know if there is bus service out there. The brief time we spent there looking over the place I didn't see any. There was a super mercati near by and I hope there is a laundromat nearby. I'm going to have to look around and find out where people do their laundry. We will also have to stock up on the necessities of life for the apartment. Stuff like toilet paper, paper towels, a broom, dishwashing liquid, etc. Hopefully we will be able to move on Saturday early enough to still get a chance to hit the super mercati. We might go over tomorrow to start getting the place ready. The one problem is they don't take Visa cards at the super mercati's so I have to make sure I have enough cash on hand to make sure we can buy everything we need. Fortunately, prices here in Trento are cheap compared to what I am used to even back in Durham. And bank machines taking Visa are everywhere.
So everything is in place. I will start work on Monday, kids will have their baby-sitter, and we will be in our new apartment. Not bad for only four days of preparation. Things have gone considerably smoother than they did in Paris.
I did find out some more about the reason for the number of large companies in the Trentino region that we saw on the train ride. Starting at Verona we passed a Subaru plant, Michelin, Grundig has an office adjacent to Sodalia, and a number of other large corporations have a sizable presence here. Apparently the region Trentino has very advantageous tax plans to have companies set up shop here. You can tell that the tax breaks are helping the region expand. There are construction cranes all over Trento and Gardolo building new buildings. I just hope it isn't biting into the grape growing areas [-grin]. Don't want to see this delicious wine region going under due to industrialization!
The cellular phone works well up here. I was a bit worried about that before I came over. I wasn't sure how widespread GSM was in this area. Well, I had little to worry about once I saw all the cell phones all over the place. It seems everyone has a cell phone here. Their prices must be very reasonable. I will look into replacing this rented cell phone with an Italian one after I take the kids back to the states and return the rented phone.
It's time I turned in myself. It was a long day where a lot was
accomplished and my stress level has fallen considerably. I think
I'm going to celebrate with a glass or two of some Trentino wine!
Nite!
Copyright @ 1997, Alexandre POLOZOFF. All Rights Reserved.