It wasn't until my run-in with the law that I began to feel more comfortable with and even began to like the people of Italy. Up until then most of our interactions with them had seemed to provoke indifference, impatience, and at times, outright fury. The day before, a simple request to a shopkeeper for "un toiletta" got a scowl and a "Ba!" and harsh pointing to some vague location down the road. And questions to people staffing "Tourist Information" booths got the most curt responses and the quickest ejections despite the fact that there was no one else waiting. One museum ticket seller even erupted into a fit of anger when my mother misplaced the ticket he had just sold her and asked for another one. All of this treatment left us feeling sheepish and a little afraid to ask anything of anyone!
But when we returned to our rental car parked in 2-hour space in front of Santa Maria degli Angeli church and found a 39 Euro ticket on the windshield, I decided to fight back.
An hour earlier I had parked the car, looked around for a parking meter to pay for the space, and finding none, asked a passerby whether I could park there. He said yes and so I left the car there with some confidence. When we returned to it at 7 pm, my heart sank as I saw some papers under the windshield wiper. Since the papers were written in Italian, I approached someone nearby who read them and confirmed that indeed it was a parking fine, and suggested I walk to the police office around the block to ask about it.
So my daughter and I walked across the street and down the block to a government office building and went inside. There was a large middle-aged man sitting at the desk who looked up when we walked in. Not having much Italian, I waved the ticket at him with an imploring look and shrugged my shoulders. He seemed defensive and held both of his hands up in surrender as he said, "Not me! It is from Assisi police!" and sent me out the door and on my way without any further explanation.
To be honest, I was very upset by now about the injustice of receiving a hefty fine when I had not stayed longer than allowed. So I resolved to find the police office in Assisi the next day to see if I could get the ticket rescinded.
Back at the convent where we were staying that night, I talked to one of the nuns about my plight. She was sympathetic, which helped a bit, but not overly optimistic about my being able to fight it. She told me where to find the police office in the piazza and said that a plumber who had parked at her gate while he worked at her place recently had been fined 60 Euros by the police. She and he had tried to fight it, but the town would not back down.
So off I went at 9:00 am the next day to see what could be done. I found the police office down a small alley and climbed two flights of stairs. The stairs opened into a reception room with a man, sitting with his back to me, who was talking on the phone. In front of him was a man of higher authority sitting at a desk in the next room. Neither man looked up at me as I stood awkwardly there at the reception desk. After a few minutes I noticed a sign that said in Italian "Open to the Public 9:30-12:00 Ore". So I went back downstairs and waited a half hour before returning again, this time with my mother and daughter in tow.
The man who had been on the phone earlier greeted me this time and asked me about my business there. I showed him my ticket, told him I was parked for under two hours, and asked him why I was issued it. I added that I did not want to pay it. He listened patiently to me, explained that there is a dial on the windshield of all cars and that you have to set the time of arrival on the dial before leaving your car in a timed parking space. I gently said that I didn't know about the dial, that I wasn't parked for more than two hours, and asked if the ticket could be excused. He replied, "You want to pay? You want to pay?" I shook my head no.
He said, "You have a ticket and you want not to pay?"
I nodded and replied, "That's right" and made a motion in the air of myself ripping up the ticket.
He said, "If you do not pay, you will have to write to the judge your justification."
"I'll write to the judge!" I said.
So the man at reception took my papers to the man in the office behind him and they discussed it. I felt sure that they were going to excuse my fine right then and there, for surely they could see that it was all a misunderstanding. Then the phone rang and the man helping me returned to his desk to take the call. Next, a woman walked in from the stairway with a handful of documents and stood at the counter beside me. She was agitated and began to call out to the man on the phone. Just then a policeman in a white helmet and blue uniform came in from the stairs, and the irate woman began shouting at him about her problem. This caused the man in the back office to storm in, take the phone out of the other man's hands and slam it on the desk. He then took every other phone in the office off of their hooks and slammed them down, one after the other to make his point.
So the man who had been on the phone got up, handed my ticket to the policeman and returned to the woman at the counter and began discussing her problem with her, to her exclamations of, "Perfecto! Perfecto!" He was unruffled despite all of the poor treatment he was receiving and simply dealt with whatever was the most pressing matter at hand.
The policeman was a young man in his twenties who held up the ticket and said, "You wish not to pay?" I nodded yes and he asked for my driver's license. Then he began making multiple copies of my license and stamping forms and filling in my information on them. Then he returned for my signature and told me I had two choices. I could pay the fine now or write my defense for the judge. I said I would write to the judge.
So he asked me to follow him, and my mother, daughter and I walked down the stairs, out into the street, across the piazza, and into the tourist office with him. He explained to the person there my situation. Two women suddenly appeared from the back room and the officer told them my situation too. I nodded as he talked in Italian to them as I could pick out every few words and was able to follow along. They stopped and looked at me in surprise and said, "You understand?" I said that I did nothing wrong and that I preferred to write my case to the judge rather than pay the ticket. So they gave me a desk and a pen and the name of the judge who would hear my case and then stood with me as I wrote my defense as best as I could. They were companionable and interested in what I was doing, and chatted with me as I wrote.
After I got it all down on the paper, the policeman suddenly said, "Look. You can pay me now and you will be free of all of this or you can submit your defense to the judge and pay the fine later plus a penalty for administrative costs. The judge will most likely not excuse the ticket because we were not wrong. The time on your windshield said you arrived at 2:00 pm. So the officer was right in issuing you the ticket."
I laughed as I said, "I can be free??!" and I held out my hands as if he were going to cuff them. They all laughed at this and I suddenly realized the hopelessness of my situation. None of them really had any power to release me from my ticket. At that moment I knewthat it was not the spirit of the law that mattered, but the letter of it. Even if I was parked for the allowed time, it did not matter to them. What I was really being fined for was not using the time clock on my windshield. I felt that this law took advantage of tourists who did not understand their parking system. After all, my rental car was in a virtually empty parking lot at dusk in front of a church. There was no one waiting for a parking space and yet I was slapped with the equivalent of a 49 US dollar fine. With that, I told the officer that I agreed with his advice and I paid the ticket on the spot. One of the women standing there smiled and said her son had received a similar ticket a few months ago and had to pay the fine too.
And so we were smiles all around. The officer filled out a few more forms, collected my payment, and handed me a receipt attached to the ticket and with a smile said, "You are now free. Here is your souvenir!" It may be hard to believe, but I actually left feeling good. I had made a connection with the people of Italy on a deeper level and was satisfied with the helpfulness of all who became involved. And at the very least, I had certainly gotten my money's worth!
- Posted from my iPad
But when we returned to our rental car parked in 2-hour space in front of Santa Maria degli Angeli church and found a 39 Euro ticket on the windshield, I decided to fight back.
An hour earlier I had parked the car, looked around for a parking meter to pay for the space, and finding none, asked a passerby whether I could park there. He said yes and so I left the car there with some confidence. When we returned to it at 7 pm, my heart sank as I saw some papers under the windshield wiper. Since the papers were written in Italian, I approached someone nearby who read them and confirmed that indeed it was a parking fine, and suggested I walk to the police office around the block to ask about it.
So my daughter and I walked across the street and down the block to a government office building and went inside. There was a large middle-aged man sitting at the desk who looked up when we walked in. Not having much Italian, I waved the ticket at him with an imploring look and shrugged my shoulders. He seemed defensive and held both of his hands up in surrender as he said, "Not me! It is from Assisi police!" and sent me out the door and on my way without any further explanation.
To be honest, I was very upset by now about the injustice of receiving a hefty fine when I had not stayed longer than allowed. So I resolved to find the police office in Assisi the next day to see if I could get the ticket rescinded.
Back at the convent where we were staying that night, I talked to one of the nuns about my plight. She was sympathetic, which helped a bit, but not overly optimistic about my being able to fight it. She told me where to find the police office in the piazza and said that a plumber who had parked at her gate while he worked at her place recently had been fined 60 Euros by the police. She and he had tried to fight it, but the town would not back down.
So off I went at 9:00 am the next day to see what could be done. I found the police office down a small alley and climbed two flights of stairs. The stairs opened into a reception room with a man, sitting with his back to me, who was talking on the phone. In front of him was a man of higher authority sitting at a desk in the next room. Neither man looked up at me as I stood awkwardly there at the reception desk. After a few minutes I noticed a sign that said in Italian "Open to the Public 9:30-12:00 Ore". So I went back downstairs and waited a half hour before returning again, this time with my mother and daughter in tow.
The man who had been on the phone earlier greeted me this time and asked me about my business there. I showed him my ticket, told him I was parked for under two hours, and asked him why I was issued it. I added that I did not want to pay it. He listened patiently to me, explained that there is a dial on the windshield of all cars and that you have to set the time of arrival on the dial before leaving your car in a timed parking space. I gently said that I didn't know about the dial, that I wasn't parked for more than two hours, and asked if the ticket could be excused. He replied, "You want to pay? You want to pay?" I shook my head no.
He said, "You have a ticket and you want not to pay?"
I nodded and replied, "That's right" and made a motion in the air of myself ripping up the ticket.
He said, "If you do not pay, you will have to write to the judge your justification."
"I'll write to the judge!" I said.
So the man at reception took my papers to the man in the office behind him and they discussed it. I felt sure that they were going to excuse my fine right then and there, for surely they could see that it was all a misunderstanding. Then the phone rang and the man helping me returned to his desk to take the call. Next, a woman walked in from the stairway with a handful of documents and stood at the counter beside me. She was agitated and began to call out to the man on the phone. Just then a policeman in a white helmet and blue uniform came in from the stairs, and the irate woman began shouting at him about her problem. This caused the man in the back office to storm in, take the phone out of the other man's hands and slam it on the desk. He then took every other phone in the office off of their hooks and slammed them down, one after the other to make his point.
So the man who had been on the phone got up, handed my ticket to the policeman and returned to the woman at the counter and began discussing her problem with her, to her exclamations of, "Perfecto! Perfecto!" He was unruffled despite all of the poor treatment he was receiving and simply dealt with whatever was the most pressing matter at hand.
The policeman was a young man in his twenties who held up the ticket and said, "You wish not to pay?" I nodded yes and he asked for my driver's license. Then he began making multiple copies of my license and stamping forms and filling in my information on them. Then he returned for my signature and told me I had two choices. I could pay the fine now or write my defense for the judge. I said I would write to the judge.
So he asked me to follow him, and my mother, daughter and I walked down the stairs, out into the street, across the piazza, and into the tourist office with him. He explained to the person there my situation. Two women suddenly appeared from the back room and the officer told them my situation too. I nodded as he talked in Italian to them as I could pick out every few words and was able to follow along. They stopped and looked at me in surprise and said, "You understand?" I said that I did nothing wrong and that I preferred to write my case to the judge rather than pay the ticket. So they gave me a desk and a pen and the name of the judge who would hear my case and then stood with me as I wrote my defense as best as I could. They were companionable and interested in what I was doing, and chatted with me as I wrote.
After I got it all down on the paper, the policeman suddenly said, "Look. You can pay me now and you will be free of all of this or you can submit your defense to the judge and pay the fine later plus a penalty for administrative costs. The judge will most likely not excuse the ticket because we were not wrong. The time on your windshield said you arrived at 2:00 pm. So the officer was right in issuing you the ticket."
I laughed as I said, "I can be free??!" and I held out my hands as if he were going to cuff them. They all laughed at this and I suddenly realized the hopelessness of my situation. None of them really had any power to release me from my ticket. At that moment I knewthat it was not the spirit of the law that mattered, but the letter of it. Even if I was parked for the allowed time, it did not matter to them. What I was really being fined for was not using the time clock on my windshield. I felt that this law took advantage of tourists who did not understand their parking system. After all, my rental car was in a virtually empty parking lot at dusk in front of a church. There was no one waiting for a parking space and yet I was slapped with the equivalent of a 49 US dollar fine. With that, I told the officer that I agreed with his advice and I paid the ticket on the spot. One of the women standing there smiled and said her son had received a similar ticket a few months ago and had to pay the fine too.
And so we were smiles all around. The officer filled out a few more forms, collected my payment, and handed me a receipt attached to the ticket and with a smile said, "You are now free. Here is your souvenir!" It may be hard to believe, but I actually left feeling good. I had made a connection with the people of Italy on a deeper level and was satisfied with the helpfulness of all who became involved. And at the very least, I had certainly gotten my money's worth!
- Posted from my iPad
