Selamat malam,

Setelah ngobrolin makanan Indonesia kemaren, seperti janji aku, ini dia daftar toko-toko yang menjual bahan makanan Asia, dan daftar beberapa restoran:

Kalo kamu suka jalan-jalan di daerah mercato centrale, Basilica di San Lorenzo, dan Stazione Firenze SMN, maka kamu sudah dekat dengan 3 alamat jalan (via) berikut ini:

Makanan Indonesia di Firenze, emang ada?

Jadi kamu ada di Florence, salah satu kota yang indah di Italia. Tujuan kamu mungkin untuk belajar, entah kursus bahasa, kuliah seni, tata boga, atau desain busana. Jadi kamu menetap minimal 6 - 12 bulan, bahkan mungkin lebih dari setahun. Sebulan pertama, kamu masih bingung tapi penuh semangat cari tau ini itu, penyesuaian sini situ. Karena semuanya masih serba "baru" buat kamu, kamu masih antusias cobain segala macam khas Italia, selama cocok buat kamu dan kantong kamu, gak bikin kamu sakit, ataupun melanggar hukum...aduh, amit-amit!, jangan sampe deh. 

Salah satu yang udah pasti kamu coba, yang jelas makanan dan minumannya. Ya iyalah, namanya juga kebutuhan primer. Mana bisa hidup tanpa makan minum, bener gak? Nah, semua juga tau dan setuju kalo di Italia tuh, pizza, pasta, anggur, dan kopinya yang yahud dan kudu dijajal. Ada yang bilang, kamu belum bener-bener merasakan Italia, kalo belum cobain pizza, pasta, anggur, dan kopinya. Dan...aku tuh setuju banget! Jadi pantes dong, begitu kamu tinggal di sini, makanan Italia jadi makanan sehari-hari. Kalo minuman, anggur dan kopi, kayaknya suka-suka aja deh. Gak semua pendatang suka sih, jadi bebas aja pilih minuman lainnya.

Mimpi bekerja di Italia? Bagaimana caranya?

Mencari pekerjaan di Italia bahkan di wilayah Eropa Selatan umumnya bukanlah hal yang mudah - bahkan banyak orang-orang di sinipun kesulitan dan harus berjuang keras mencari kerja. Dan jika anda lancar berbahasa Inggris kemudian pindah ke Italia, maka maaf, ada tambahan nilai minus bagi anda sebagai pencari kerja di Italia. 

Jadi bagaimana caranya agar anda dapat makin dekat pada peluang anda untuk mengejar mimpi anda di Italia? Pekerjaan macam apa sih yang mungkin dapat anda dapatkan sebagai seorang yang lancar berbahasa Inggris?

Mimosa and International Women's Day

All around the world, International Women's Day represents an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women while calling for greater equality.

Each year International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8. The first International Women's Day was held in 1911. Thousands of events occur to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women. Organisations, governments, charities, educational institutions, women's groups, corporations and the media celebrate the day.

From 1908, the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Great Britain adopted the colour scheme of purple, white and green to symbolise the plight of the Suffragettes. Purple symbolised justice and dignity - two values strongly associated with women's equality. The three colours were used for banners, flags, rosettes and badges to show solidarity.

Festival del Cinema d'Indonesia_Le Murate

Since the first time we arrived in Florence, I've been thinking of how to promote Indonesia. Unlike in the Netherlands where number of Indonesians are large, Indonesians are only about 200 to 250 people in Italy. Once I attended a simple Indonesian bazaar organized by a cultural foundation founded by an Indonesian friend who lives in Rotterdam to celebrate Indonesian independence day and to promote Indonesian culture. Two foundations were involved in organizing the whole event which took place in a good size of a hall for about 250 people in Rotterdam. It was a family bazaar with a bit of Dutch 'gezelligheid', the bazaar inspired me to have the same event in Florence. Unlike in Netherlands, however, as I went around and gathered information, I found more obstacles and more challenges to do so.

However, when we came back from our summer holiday last year. I heard from Malina, that she and her husband have organized a festival of Indonesian Cinema in Florence in continuation with the one they held in Pietrasanta. The organization was done by Malina and her husband, an Italian lawyer, the poster was designed by Erlinda, an Indonesian student who studied design in Florence. I was so excited about this event, finally, we had this opportunity to make Indonesia more recognized and pop-up in Italy. Thank you to Jacopo and Malina for their hard-work and the Ambassador of Indonesia for Vatican City for their supports in making the Festival of Indonesian Film a successful event. 

How to use your Tessera Sanitaria healthcare card?

Once you received the healthcare temporary documents, these documents allow you to visit the doctor and to access health services although you haven't received the Tessera Sanitaria card yet. 

How to get your Tessera Sanitaria healthcare card?

Once you had your Permesso di Soggiorno, Codice Fiscale and Carta d'Identita, you can begin to obtain your Tessera Sanitaria health care card.

Registering for Healthcare 

Registration is handled at a local level by the Local Health Service (Azienda Sanitaria Locale, ASL) which issues a social security number and a health card (Tessera Sanitaria). This entitles the holder to low or no-cost treatment. Hospital services are provided free and a 75 percent reduction is given on the cost of outpatient and some dental treatment.

Eczema Q&A

I am not a medical doctor or a health expert but as an eczema sufferer, I learned from my own experiences and felt the urgent need to get my self free from this illness. So, I did a lot of research to find out more about it. Here are some common questions and answers :

Question : What is eczema?

Answer :

Atopic dermatitis or atopic eczema is an extremely itchy inflammatory skin condition made worse by scratching. The skin can become red and irritated and even weep (oozing liquid) if the area becomes infected.  In the chronic stage, skin thickening (lichenification) can occur.  Atopic eczema can be a very difficult condition to deal with for both children and adults.

Introducing Bike Florence&Tuscany

A friend offered us to join a special bike ride from Florence through some small towns in Chianti Region all the way to Sienna. Luckily I didn't have to ride a bike, I had a privilege to be the photographer and to follow their biking trip by car. The bike ride was meant to test biking routes they were going to offer to tourists, as they planned to open a new company named 'Bike Florence & Tuscany'.

How to Collect the Permesso di Soggiorno at the Immigration Office?

Immigration office or Questura is at Via della Fortezza, Florence.

How long does the process of PdiS?

The length of the process of PdiS seems to be varied, some can get it in 4 weeks, some in 2 months, most people get it in 1 year or more. When you are submitting your application, ask the officer, how long will it take to process your PdiS. He/she will say you may come back in 2 weeks, but don’t be surprised because often when you go back after 2 weeks, your file will probably remain untouched or simply stacked on his shelf. 

The key is to be patient, keep smiling, and speak/ask the officer politely. Keep asking when can you have your PdiS ready? Ask for a certain date and timing.

How to Get the Italian Stay Permit / Permesso di Soggiorno for an EU citizen's spouse?

You are a non EU citizen and your spouse is an EU citizen who lives and works in Italy. After your husband received his Carta d'Identita, now it’s your turn to get your Stay Permit / Permesso di Soggiorno.

Step 1
Once your husband has done step 4 (on previous post, that was iscriversi all'Anagrafe to register himself at the Registry office / Uffizzi d'Anagrafe), after 10 days, he should be registered in the database of Uffizzi d'Anagrafe/Registry office already, means you should also be registered as his wife. So you can go to the Registry office to get your Stata di Famiglia. It’s a statement letter issued by Registry office states that you are his wife and you are in Italy for family reason.

How to Obtain an Italian Carta d'Identita?

After you received your Permesso di Soggiorno, you can now begin to obtain your Italian Carta d'Identita (National Identity Card).

Step 1

Go to a posta (Comune office which is in the same building with PosteItaliane at Via Pietrapiana), press letter "F" on the ticket machine, wait until an "F" number is called, and say you want to obtain your Carta d'Identita.

How to Get Your Italian Stay Permit / Permesso di Soggiorno?

If you have questions about what Permesso di Soggiorno is, you can read it in my previous post.  
Let’s have a look now on how to get it.

If your reason in Italy is due to your marriage with an EU citizen (non-Italian) who lives or works in Italy like I do, here are steps you need to take in order to get your PdiS:

How to Get the Italian Codice Fiscale?

You can obtain your Codice Fiscale at the provincial tax office in Florence:

Direzione Provinciale
Via Santa Caterina D'Alessandria, 23
Phone: 055/505141
Email: dp.firenze.utfirenze1@agenziaentrate.it
Hours: Monday-Friday 8:40 - 12:40; Tuesday and Thursday also 2:20 - 3:40

Visa to Italy

Do you need a visa if you are Indonesian and wants to visit Italy? The answer is YES. You need a visa before you enter Italy. The visa must be obtained in your home country, Indonesia.

You need to apply your visa at the Italian Embassy in Jakarta :

INDONESIA

Jakarta - Embassy of Italy
Address: N/A (please call phone number below to find out about the address)
Tel.: 00622131937445
Fax: 00622131937422
Website: www.ambjakarta.esteri.it
E-mail: visa.jakarta@esteri.it

European Union and Schengen

European Union

The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe.The EU operates through a system of supranational independent institutions and intergovernmental negotiated decisions by the member states. The European Parliament is elected every five years by EU citizens. The EU's de facto capital is Brussels, Belgium.

Tessera Sanitaria

The Italian health insurance card is a personal card which has replaced the Italian fiscal code card for all citizens entitled to benefits of the Italian National Health Service and fitted with tax code. Its rear side acts as European health insurance card. The Italian health insurance card was issued for Italian citizens by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance in cooperation with the Italian Agency of Revenue in accordance with Article 50 of dl 269/2003, converted, with amendments, by law 326/2003. The objective of the Italian health insurance card, is to improve the social security services through expenditure control and performance, and to optimize the use health services to citizens.

Codice Fiscale

Every country assigns its residents a number by which it can unequivocally identify them. In the USA it is the social security number. In Indonesia it’s similar to our NPWP. In Italy, it is the "codice fiscale" or fiscal identification code.

Carta d' Identita

Carta d'Identita

In Italy, by law everyone is required to carry at all times an official identity document. And you often have to show it - like when you check into a hotel. You can always carry around your passport if you like, but it is (relatively) bulky and can be quite difficult to replace.

So the solution is to get an Italian identity card or "carta di identità", in Indonesia it’s kind of like KTP (Kartu Tanda Penduduk), which looks like this :

Do you know that Chuck Norris is actually an Italiano ?

Permesso di Soggiorno

What is Permesso di Soggiorno?