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 ?

The Night I Met Beautiful Barbara

How I Met Barbara

That evening I went by myself on an evening bike ride to Piazza Santa Maria Novella, it was hip on the piazza, a DJ played loud music, young people hanged around with bottles of Moretti in their hands. It was an intro and a counting down to the upcoming big event, an MTv Italy Award in Florence! So I stayed longer than I intended to, until dawn and the sky turned dark. The music got harder and more crowds joined in whilst shaking their bodies along with the music. I stood there among the crowd, was taking photo of the DJ and he seemed friendly. Youngsters starred at me, and I wondered why. I thought maybe it was strange that a “young” girl like me being there alone and did not even move by the music.