Remember when I got two speeding tickets five months ago? Actually, the tickets were from eight months ago, but they only arrived in the mail five months ago. I blogged about it HERE. Well the saga is not over. I got two more fines in the mail today. Why? Because when the tickets arrived, Nathan took them to the appropriate office on base to find out what this five page Italian letter said. That office explained it all and said to pay it, we needed to take one of the papers to the post office, fill out another form, and pay the fine. I did this. I remember it clearly. The masses of people, the couple who wanted me to ask my husband to give their son a job, the baby vomit down my back.
As it turns out, this new fine is because in addition to paying my two 170euro speeding ticket (for going anywhere from 6-40 kilometers in excess), I was also supposed to fill out some other mysterious form (don't even know where to get it) and mail it into the police so that they could attach points to my driver's license. We have never heard of this additional step, did not hear about it when the letter for the speeding tickets was translated, and so on. The fine for not mailing in this form? 300 euros. Each offense. Fortunately, we can appeal these two fines. We paid the fines on time, don't speak the language and didn't know about this extra form, blah, blah, blah. The appeal will take four months. If the appeal is rejected, then the fine is doubled. Per offense.
I love the efficiency of the Italian bureaucratic machine. And by love, I mean something completely opposite that I don't feel comfortable writing in a public blog. Also, while we should have been told about this extra step, at the end of the day, it's my ticket for my speeding and my responsibility for ensuring I have gotten all the information translated accurately. Now I'm headed to Facebook to post on a board on which local nationals are members. That way, maybe I'll make sure I'm getting correct information about the appeal. I never would have guessed that I'd be turning to Facebook over an official office in order to get accurate information.
Isn't Italy grand? But remember, you do have the view of the water and Capri off your balcony. You have to take the bad with the good. I can say, though, I will be SO GLAD when you get back to the states.
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