The current holder of the US Presidency threatened to close our American consulate, but thank goodness he didn’t.

My passport expires in mid October, so last month I knew I had better get the ball rolling on a new one. I filled out the form I found online and took it, along with a color photo, to the consulate to apply for a new passport. When I arrived, I was told I needed to make an appointment online, but since they weren’t that busy that day, they let me come into the building and file my documents.

Going through security to enter the building was beyond anything I expected, way beyond what you experience at any airport. They went through everything. They took my phone and put it in a locker. They found something suspicious in my handbag and made me take everything out, including my wallet and everything inside it. I had a 2 inch long little tweezer that I had forgotten about completely. But they found it and confiscated it. No worries, it didn’t matter to me.

The consulate is in a pretty, little (by Italian standards) building, beautifully situated right next to the Arno River. The street it sits next to is named Lungarno Amerigo Vespucci, which seems very appropriate!

The street behind the building is Corso Italia, which also strikes my mind as very appropriate. I like the idea of our American building being next to Italia and on a street named after Amerigo Vespucci.

Roughly two weeks after I applied for my new passport, I got notification that I could pick it up on a specific afternoon in September. I was streamlined and prepared to go easily through the security check.

But the consulate is professional! Instead of taking all of us applicants into the building, they came outside. I was presented with my new passport within 10 minutes of my appointment!

Above, the little line of people waiting for the new passports. Some were replacing passports that had been lost or stolen from them. Others of us were renewing. It was a painless process, especially given that we are in Italy where bureaucracy is a big part of life.

Long life America!