We haven't mentioned recently any news of our visas. Well yesterday was to be (finally) the last step and conclusion for approval to stay beyond 3 months. But, lets not be ridiculous. The visa saga continues. To recap:

In Canada in may we applied for visas. Printed off bank statements,  insurance, resumes, passport photos... after several strict requests from the embassy, we submitted the applications. Sometime later, we got them, confusingly even after we failed to show documentation of where we are first staying.

Arrival in italy, we had to "check in" at the police headquarters of the region we were in (Molise), and even with the visas we had, final approval to stay comes by applying for a permit to stay. Welcome to the nonsensical and over the top system that is italian bureaucracy.

The first trip to the police resulted in us being told in fact we have to apply for the permit at the post office, and then they give us an appointment at the police station (this was communicated slowly with lots of pointing, since the officer didn't speak any english). So off we went. At the nearest post office, we got a long rambling answer in italian which we took to mean she had no idea what form we were talking about. Back to the police station. This time someone who spoke english told us actually we can apply there, but we would need to give them an official letter or receipt for our initial accommodations in order for the permit to be approved.

Upon meeting our first farmer/host Giovanni, we realized he would not give us a letter (besides dogs he's apparently not fond of police). We decided to abandon the visas and maybe stay a fourth month in Ireland instead.

I'll skip over the time we ran around campobasso trying to at least get the permit application from a post office, and the effort to cancel the visas. Fast forward through dog abuse to our arrival in Bologna. Serendipitously, besides an extra chance for Matt to practice pasta making, 3 weeks in Bologna at an airbnb also gave us a receipt to show for accommodation proof.

So, we headed asap to the central Bologna post office and submitted our permit applications. Though the man there didn't speak much english, he accepted all our documentation and stamped out receipts and appointment sheets for our trip to the police.

Now we are caught up to yesterday, when we had our appointments. It was an anticipated big day, since once those wrere done in the morning we were headed Bologna-Naples on the train, then commuter train to Sorrento with a stop in Pompeii, then a bus to Positano onthe Amalfi coast. Anyway, at the police station there were a lot of people there to receive their permits, and the lines were speedy. We chose the line with the officer who was laughing and speaking in english. When it was our turn, we waited patiently and then he said "ok... there is an issue". Hearts sank and filled with dread. Thoughts - we can't stay; or, we have to cancel our reservations by the sea to deal with more complications. What it turned out to be what we should have come to accept - apparently for our SPECIFIC visa type, we were supposed to apply at the police station after all,  not the post office. So they hadnt received it in the mail yet. So there we go. Still ongoing. We at least are not disrupted in our plans, but we return to the police station when we're back in Bologna in October.  Fingers crossed but I wouldn't be too surprised if we have returned home by the time these things come in.

I think through dealing with these hoops we have a better understanding of how italians live than any other experience we've had.

Something on Positano coming soon!