Italia – 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.

Carmen Consoli and the authentic in art

I am not interested in Carmen Consoli’s new, fantastic, album Amuri Luci.

Genova – il primo mese

Updated 24 Oct 2025

Of all the difficulties, the one that surprised me was an inability to understand the amount the cashier says when checking out at a store, restaurant, etc. Numbers are second nature to me when reading or speaking but, as with all of my listening skills, my comprehension is lacking. Hearing “dicianovequarantacinque” isn’t the same as reading €19,45 and intuitively speaking that glob of words in your head. It’s not that much a necessary skill: when was the last time someone mis-charged you at checkout? And at every place except at a caffè I use a credit card where: the cashier says something, I hover my card over the ))) little radar symbol, and finally they shove a long piece of paper at me. Voila, my four bottles of wine are on their way home (I am of course kidding, I don’t have to pay that much for four bottles of wine).

Well it may have taken me a month to get here but I can finally understand. (Me: “I can COUNT!”. Everyone, patting me on the head: “…”).

Going through, at an angle

When I discovered Guy Debord and the Situationist International movement–and learned of their subsequent influence on the anti-capitalist French student protests of 1968–I knew it was a philosophy relevant to our days and, as they say, I would like to know more.

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.