PATENTE FACILE (easy licenses)
Here is an update on (what else?) licensing and police habits and such in Sicily. Take it away, guest writer Steve:
Well folks, another chapter in the ongoing story of my attempts to get a drivers license.
I think I told you that when we took the group of 11 (with Frans brother and his wonderful wife Jo) to Palermo, I had to ditch the group for a little while to go visit Angelo, our Palermitano friend that we met in Istanbul, who works for his father at a frame shop in the Centro Storico. I had to visit him, as he thought he might have a way to get me a drivers license a bit quicker than the normal channels, through which I was going. As it turned out, the licenses were not available at that moment, and his father warned me away from them, saying that they were only good in Palermo.
Well, since then, there have been two large articles in the paper about Patente Facile. Both had to do with a number of arrests. First in Palermo. A few dozen folks had been caught by the Carabinieri (note, they are like the federal police, not the local or provincial police) for driving with Patente Facile. The Patente Facile, or Easy License, is basically a counterfeit license. And it was only good in Palermo, as everyone looked the other way to the folks who were using them.
The fly entered the ointment with the appointment of a new Questura in the Region of Sicily. He has been going around, doing all sorts of things that could not be done before, and trying to become popular, I think. In Sciacca, he reopened the police station that was in the emergency room of the hospital, so when they had a prisoner in the hospital, the police would have a place to hang out and drink coffee, and when there was an accident or crime they had to investigate, when an injured person was in the hospital, they would not waste time stopping for coffee on their way to the hospital to take the statement. Actually, they double their chances to get coffee this way. First, they have to rush to the scene before the bodies are scraped off the pavement to take measurements of the accident (with, of course, a stop for coffee on the way) and then they must rush back to the hospital with lights and siren and another stop for coffee, to take the statement.
Anyway, while he gives with one hand, he seems to take with the other hand. He did some things to improve traffic in Palermo, but in return, he apparently ordered a crack down on PFs. Therefore the arrests. This last week, there were even more arrests. Another twelve people, mostly from Agrigento Province, were arrested for using PFs. We live in Agrigento Province. One of the people arrested was the ex mayor of Santa Margherita de Belice, which is a place we have taken tourists to, and also a place where we have bought some exceptional wines.
All of the folks so far are under house arrest, and if they do not tell who they bought their PFs from, they may go to jail. Probably not. Anyway, I am too close to feeling like I am under house arrest to really want to tempt the fates. But I did jokingly ask my driver Michele if I should ask my drving school instructor Stefano if he could get me a PF. Michele said it was probably not a good idea. It seems Stefanos father, who ran the driving school before Stefano and his brother Ezio took it over, was arrested for selling PFs in 1993. It cost him a pretty penny, and a lot of ugly lira, and he was under house arrest for several years.
It seems that all the folks who used PFs were fined the equivalent of 500 Euro, and then had to go to driving school and get a real license, which costs about another 500 Euros. They had already paid about 300 Euros for their PF. The 300 Euros that they paid for their PF was added to the normal fine to the person who issued the PF. The government makes out like a bandit on this one. It is certainly a part of the bureaucracy I want to avoid.
As long as we are talking about the government making out like a bandit, there was another interesting story in the news about the Department of Terrestrial Transport (formerly the Bureau of Motorization) (Trasporti terrestriale ne Motorazione). This has to do with a parking ticket. A parking ticket given to someone who parked in an area reserved for taxis in Rome.
When you park in an area reserved for specific sorts of vehicles (taxis, ambulances, government officials, or the disabled) (and those are about the only four categories I have learned of so far), you face not only a parking ticket, but also points on your license. One is allowed 20 points. One can get two points for this infraction, and the parking fine must be paid by the owner of the vehicle, but the points go to the person who parked in the wrong area. The usual fine is between 50 and 150 Euros.
However, in this case, the person who owned the vehicle did not want to rat out the person who was driving. Apparently, the driver already had too many points. The owner also had too many points. So the court decided that they could not force the owner to rat out the driver. However, the owner had to pay a different fine. He now is liable for a fine from 943 Euros to 1568 Euros. That is a fairly hefty parking fee. Even by NYC standards, including a tow away.
All of this would have been lost on me had I not been going to driving school. Just a little side benefit, I guess.
In the meantime, I hope you have parked your car legally, and have yourself a wonderful memorial day weekend. . . .
Well folks, another chapter in the ongoing story of my attempts to get a drivers license.
I think I told you that when we took the group of 11 (with Frans brother and his wonderful wife Jo) to Palermo, I had to ditch the group for a little while to go visit Angelo, our Palermitano friend that we met in Istanbul, who works for his father at a frame shop in the Centro Storico. I had to visit him, as he thought he might have a way to get me a drivers license a bit quicker than the normal channels, through which I was going. As it turned out, the licenses were not available at that moment, and his father warned me away from them, saying that they were only good in Palermo.
Well, since then, there have been two large articles in the paper about Patente Facile. Both had to do with a number of arrests. First in Palermo. A few dozen folks had been caught by the Carabinieri (note, they are like the federal police, not the local or provincial police) for driving with Patente Facile. The Patente Facile, or Easy License, is basically a counterfeit license. And it was only good in Palermo, as everyone looked the other way to the folks who were using them.
The fly entered the ointment with the appointment of a new Questura in the Region of Sicily. He has been going around, doing all sorts of things that could not be done before, and trying to become popular, I think. In Sciacca, he reopened the police station that was in the emergency room of the hospital, so when they had a prisoner in the hospital, the police would have a place to hang out and drink coffee, and when there was an accident or crime they had to investigate, when an injured person was in the hospital, they would not waste time stopping for coffee on their way to the hospital to take the statement. Actually, they double their chances to get coffee this way. First, they have to rush to the scene before the bodies are scraped off the pavement to take measurements of the accident (with, of course, a stop for coffee on the way) and then they must rush back to the hospital with lights and siren and another stop for coffee, to take the statement.
Anyway, while he gives with one hand, he seems to take with the other hand. He did some things to improve traffic in Palermo, but in return, he apparently ordered a crack down on PFs. Therefore the arrests. This last week, there were even more arrests. Another twelve people, mostly from Agrigento Province, were arrested for using PFs. We live in Agrigento Province. One of the people arrested was the ex mayor of Santa Margherita de Belice, which is a place we have taken tourists to, and also a place where we have bought some exceptional wines.
All of the folks so far are under house arrest, and if they do not tell who they bought their PFs from, they may go to jail. Probably not. Anyway, I am too close to feeling like I am under house arrest to really want to tempt the fates. But I did jokingly ask my driver Michele if I should ask my drving school instructor Stefano if he could get me a PF. Michele said it was probably not a good idea. It seems Stefanos father, who ran the driving school before Stefano and his brother Ezio took it over, was arrested for selling PFs in 1993. It cost him a pretty penny, and a lot of ugly lira, and he was under house arrest for several years.
It seems that all the folks who used PFs were fined the equivalent of 500 Euro, and then had to go to driving school and get a real license, which costs about another 500 Euros. They had already paid about 300 Euros for their PF. The 300 Euros that they paid for their PF was added to the normal fine to the person who issued the PF. The government makes out like a bandit on this one. It is certainly a part of the bureaucracy I want to avoid.
As long as we are talking about the government making out like a bandit, there was another interesting story in the news about the Department of Terrestrial Transport (formerly the Bureau of Motorization) (Trasporti terrestriale ne Motorazione). This has to do with a parking ticket. A parking ticket given to someone who parked in an area reserved for taxis in Rome.
When you park in an area reserved for specific sorts of vehicles (taxis, ambulances, government officials, or the disabled) (and those are about the only four categories I have learned of so far), you face not only a parking ticket, but also points on your license. One is allowed 20 points. One can get two points for this infraction, and the parking fine must be paid by the owner of the vehicle, but the points go to the person who parked in the wrong area. The usual fine is between 50 and 150 Euros.
However, in this case, the person who owned the vehicle did not want to rat out the person who was driving. Apparently, the driver already had too many points. The owner also had too many points. So the court decided that they could not force the owner to rat out the driver. However, the owner had to pay a different fine. He now is liable for a fine from 943 Euros to 1568 Euros. That is a fairly hefty parking fee. Even by NYC standards, including a tow away.
All of this would have been lost on me had I not been going to driving school. Just a little side benefit, I guess.
In the meantime, I hope you have parked your car legally, and have yourself a wonderful memorial day weekend. . . .
posted by Sicilian Mama at 8:09 PM
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