il visto e arrivato!!

Life in Liguria just got slightly less complicated. The working papers that I have been waiting for since January finally arrived in La Spezia. Now, the La Spezia offices need to check out my background as well as the De Fina's before issuing the official documents that I will need to take to the U.S. before actually applying for the visa. After I apply for the visa, I need to wait about 15 days in the United States, then re-enter Italy as an official worker.

Downside (and it's a large one) is that since we waited 7 months for the papers to just get processed in Rome, I have little hope in the Italian government - whoever is left, since it is August now and everyone is on vacation - that any of this will get done before I am required to leave to country August 12th so I don't overstay my tourist visa and cause a whole host of other problems.

It's so interesting trying to analyze what the hardest part of Italy is. I try and explain to disbelieving tourists I encounter every day here at La Cantina di Miky that it's actually not the language, the culture, the "Italian" way of life, but the difficulties from moving from a city like Manhattan (or even Princeton) to one as small, albeit charming, as Monterosso al Mare. You can't buy hangars. Clothes. Or, most importantly, cilantro, which is weighing heavily on my mind right now as I eye the Mexican and Southeast Asian food products in our cupboard I brought from the U.S. with grand hopes of cooking lavish ethnic dinners and winning over the hearts and stomachs of Italians.

This blog is a new concept for me - I want to use it less as a "diary" or sorts of my experience living here in the Cinque Terre, but more as a tool to discuss Italian cuisine, gastronomy, culture and the differences I see every day.

Of course, a few anecdotes and recipes along the way.

Enjoy!