Where was I? – An Echo That's Reversing

This actually hurts from joy

Tomorrow, Thursday 3 September 2026, I go to my local ufficio immigrazione to pick up my permesso di soggiorno. Basically: Italy is going to give me a document that allows me to live here for the next year*. Exactly a year prior on Wednesday 3 September 2025 I had arrived here in Genoa for a two-month stay. I decided to come here at that time, before I had a visa, because I was paying for an apartment and… that apartment is in Italy! It had honestly taken me too long to make that decision even though it’s pretty damn obvious. A few days after I had arrived for that two months, late on Saturday, Lisa sent me a photo of my passport newly returned from the Italian consulate in Miami with my Digital Nomad Visa attached to one of the pages.

* The permesso expires in three months so effectively I need to start the renewal process immediately. Bureaucracy is a harsh mistress.

Dove stavo? Mar, Apr, May. Brescia, Parma, Torino.

(nota: This post has been sitting forever in “draft”. Let’s just post as it is and let the gods sort it out later.)

At the Museo di Santa Giulia in Brescia there was a show of Guido Crepax’s Valentina artwork that ran from 30 Sep 2025 to Sun 15 Feb 2026. I read about it on the Friday before it ended. Rats. I then obsessed about it for a week or so, reading more about the city and reflecting on my weekend in Firenze back in July of last year and so decided to spend the next weekend there. In the few months that followed I solidified the fourth rule of my Rules of Italy:

Interact with someone on any level at least once a day.
Every Friday morning go see something new in the city, which has evolved into: 2.a. Every Friday study the history of Genova.
Go out for dinner once a week.
Visit another city once a month.

Though I don’t intend for the Italy experience to end, I’m not sure how long this era will last (*cough* AI-taking-jobs *cough*) and so the imperative of taking full advantage becomes more imperative-y. I don’t think I’ve been lazy thus far but I need to be more focused in my unlaziness.

Guido Crepax. Sogni Giochi Valentina 1953 – 2003, cover of the program from the Crepax show at the Museo di Santa Giulia

There’s too much politics to think about

There’s too much politics to think about. And that’s kindof an avoidance because calling waves hands what has just happened and what bleak anniversary just occurred, and the scars almost lining up, politics is not politics. There’s just too much to think about.

Untitled, signed 57/150, from the Grifo Edition of Crepax prints of Valentina

Genova – La prima settimana e mezzo

I arrived last Wednesday for a two month stay, keeping below my three-month non-visa allowance so that if I need further non-visa-allowance time I have it. Not long after my first visit in July I decided, spur-of-the-moment, to return for two months in order to take advantage of the fact that I have an apartment there, and that there’s no reason not to take advantage of that fact as much as I can until I get my visa.

On the Sunday after arrival I received my visa.

Who wouldn’t want to invite this man into their country?

Dove stavo?

One of the requirements of applying for an Italian Digital Nomad Visa is that you must have a physical address in the country, lasting for at least a year in the future, which meant that I had to get an apartment. Another requirement was that you had to provide proof that you are going to travel to Italy which meant that I had to buy an airline ticket to show the consulate that I, in fact, am really going to travel there. These two aspects of my DNV adventure collided last week. The tickets I purchased were, arbitrarily, for the 12th through the 19th and so even though I’m probably still far away from getting my visa I decided to take the week and visit my new city, Genova.

It was amazing. I am in love.