On Thursday morning, I found out that the bank transfers had come through. In fact, as I looked at the paperwork, I figured they had in fact happened the day before, before the closing. So we should have been able to finish yesterday evening.
No matter. Giovanna was able to get the notaio, the translator, and the seller for a 6pm Friday meeting at his office in Macerata.
The only difficulty was in getting to the office. Since I needed to be in Macerata, I left my hotel in Urbisaglia and moved to one in the centro storico of Macerata. It was not an easy move.
Like many Italian towns, the center has a zone where only residents can drive, a ZTL, zona traffico limitato.The entry streets all have cameras and the fines are large. Also, like many towns, there are pedestrian only streets, also with cameras.
The hotel had sent me an email, telling me not to use a gps since it wouldn’t bring me into this limited zone — where the hotel was located. (They have an arrangement to cancel the fine for hotel guests.) They told me to follow a set of written instructions and to not worry about the limited zone or the pedestrian streets.
That’s hard advice to follow when you’re by yourself and streets are poorly marked. After two trips through and back out of the centro without finding the hotel but having gotten a lot of dirty looks on the pedestrian streets, I decided to try Google Maps.
It did, in fact, take me into the ZTL, but I still couldn’t find the hotel. Finally, on my fifth tour, I spotted it. The sign was positioned up high and past the hotel. No wonder I didn’t see it — even though I know I’d been down that street at least once before.
I crammed the car next to the wall, took my bag and went to check in. I was hoping, like other hotels, they’d handle the car from there.
No luck. I was going to have to find the parking garage on my own.
Then luck. A woman had just finished work and offered to ride with me to the garage entrance. Now I just had to manage the two remote controls, for the gate and the entry door, find my assigned spot, and jam the car into a small space with walls on both sides.
I couldn’t find a pedestrian exit, so I retraced my process with the door and gate. Finally, I’m in my room. I arrived at the gate to town at 3:30. It’s now almost 5:00.
I figure it’s wise to leave the car and walk to the closing. Only 15 minutes, they tell me. True, but it’s all downhill. Steep downhill. (In the map on the right I was going from the center of town at the top down to an area outside the old city walls.) It will be 30 minutes back, I figure.
At the building, I locate the number for the notaio’s office. Number 14. First floor, I guess.
No. Off the elevator, I find numbers 19-25. So down I go down the stairs. Now I’m back where I started. No offices.
Let’s try the second floor. Finally, I locate the office. Higher floor, lower number office.
Sources
Photo: Copyright: coburn77 / 123RF Stock Photo
Map: Google Maps
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