Fingers Crossed and a Manhattan in my Hand!

Today was the pre-contract appointment with the Housing Office.  Oh my goodness, if only I knew what that would entail.

The appointment started at 2:30, but in true Italian tradition, was 15 minutes late.  Giuseppe is the owner of the property and is an attorney.  Maria, the housing contract specialist, and Giuseppe began the appointment by speaking for 3 minutes in Italian.  Upon the completion, I think it was decided that the rent would be less than what the previous tenant had paid.  Because, the previous tenant was a single Commander and Tom is a married LCDR, they get different housing allowances.  It's pretty much always the case that the rent of your intended place is magically EXACTLY the rent of the housing allowance for your rank.  Go figure! 

We had agreed with the listing agent to pay an extra €200 per month for our two parking spaces in the gas station.  This set into motion what appeared to be a huge argument.  The gas station next to our place is operated by AGIP, kind of like Shell in the US, but they are one of the vendors through which we are able to purchase gas.  Legally, Giuseppe couldn't rent us the parking spaces in the lease because he doesn't own the AGIP.   So Guilia, the supervisor, came in and she and Giuseppe began yelling at one another.  For 22 full minutes (seriously, I timed it), Guilia and Giuseppe screamed at each other.  I picked up the words "parcheggia" (parking), "Americani", and "due mille" (2000 - our agreed upon rent).  The remainder, I picked up only in bits and pieces and when Guilia walked away quickly, I assumed it meant that things went badly.  Then Giuseppe got up and walked away and I was left, mouth open with Maria.  "Did that go alright?" I asked.  "Oh, si si si!  That's just the way that Guilia talks.  Her only volume is loud," said Maria.  Well bless you, Maria, because she had the parking spots guaranteed and got Giuseppe to agree to pay for our moving expenses if the parking spots are no longer available.

Sigh, it took over 2 hours for the agreements to be reached and upon completion, we signed three copies of 10 page documents.  At long last, I left the housing office feeling like one of those Asshole Americans that so many Italians think we are, wishing that I had the opportunity to say repeatedly, in Italian, "we're really, very nice people!" 

Moving forward, we have the housing inspection on the 22nd of this month.  From there, we will have the final contract signing and the presentation of the keys.  Maria expected all of this to take until about the 1st of August.  Which is kind of crappy because I also got a job offer today and was hoping to have our house all settled before I start working.  We'll see what really comes of it all!  Fingers crossed and a Manhattan in my hand, I think we'll be ok!