Il permesso di soggiorno and stubling upon Santa Maria Maggiore

So according to Italian law, before you travel to Italy for any period of time you need a visa. Easy enough? Not really. You need to complete the paperwork (which isn't very clear) and submit it to the Italian embassy several months in advance, and then you are still sweating at the last minute waiting for the visas to arrive. Fortunately, the University helped us with that part of the process and ours were in our hands by early December. But that doesn't complete the process.

Once you arrive in Italy you have 8 days to get an application that allows you to stay for the full time listed on your visa, copy your entire passport, pay a fee, and submit it to the post office. If it doesn't sound easy, that is because it isn't. After putting that off long enough, yesterday we went on a hunt for one of these applications - called a kit per il permesso di soggiorno. The kids and I went to four different post offices in search of the kits, which are apparently all out. (My guess is that it may be because of all the study abroad students arriving at the same time we did). Either way, our hunt for a kit took us all over the city.

Fortunately, just when I had had enough and was starting to get frustrated, we stumbled upon Bernini's Fontana delle Api (a drinking fountain dedicated to his Barberini patrons) and his Fontana del Tritone. (See Celia posing with both). She particularly enjoyed the bees you see on both sculptures - the Barberini emblem. Since it was raining we decided to make a quick stop at the Barberini Palace just to get out of the rain for few minutes. There was a large covered area which which enjoyed standing in for a little bit. In fact, we didn't even go inside the museum because Augustine was asleep in the stroller and the way in is a beautiful oval staircase. (See my next posting about navigating Rome in a stroller. The city is not at all accessible so this has been quite a challenge).

It just so happened that Santa Maria Maggiore is just down the street, so that's where we headed next. It was a nice treat to sort of be so close that we were stumbing upon this church even though our plans had not been to go there that day. This is an amazing Roman basilica with elements from 356 through the 1700s. Legend says that in 356 Pope Liberius had a dream in which the Virgin appeared to him and told him to build a church on the spot where snow fell. In the middle of a hot summer, on August 5th, snow fell on the Esquiline hill. So Pope Liberius built Santa Maria Maggiore on that spot. Celia and I really enjoyed the basilica while Augustine slept in the stroller. She particularly liked the church's stained glass window above the entry.

Well, that was about all we could do for the day. So the quest for the kit would have to continue on Wednesday. We decided to head home at that point. That walk was interesting. Needless to say my cockiness about my ability to get around got the best of me on our walk home. But we made it, after a few wrong twists and turns. Here's a final shot of the city from Ponte Garibaldi on our way home.