{"id":3361,"date":"2026-08-29T11:03:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.culturediscovery.com\/blog\/?p=3361"},"modified":"2026-09-02T12:46:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T10:46:01","slug":"my-life-in-italy-part-15-race-against-the-clock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.culturediscovery.com\/blog\/culture-lifestyle\/my-life-in-italy-part-15-race-against-the-clock\/","title":{"rendered":"My Life in Italy, Part 15: Race Against the Clock"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 7<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n
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Every time I think about a wedding, Wallace Shawn shows up in my head lisping about “mawwiage” and “twue wuv.” Sorry, can’t help it! It ruined weddings for me forever… in the best possible way.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with every post in this series, if you’re jumping in here, it’s like walking into a movie halfway through. Go start with Part 1<\/a>, or none of this is going to land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my last post, I left you right at the proposal, and I warned you we were about to deal with something like 126,000 pieces of documentation just to get married. OK, not literally<\/em> 126,000. But seriously felt like it! Now before I get into that, I need to drop some context on you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re in Italy. And in 1980’s Italy, you had two options for getting married:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. In church<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. In city hall<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Sounds simple, right? No. Not even close!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In small-town Central Italy at the time, those options got a lot more complicated. Get married in city hall, and that was basically a public declaration that you were a communist. Sit with that for a second. It was the 1980s. Soviet Union, Cold War, bomb shelters, the constant reality of nuclear dread in the background of everything<\/em>. And remember… I’m American.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But it goes deeper: Paola’s dad had been chairman of the local Democratic party. Not Democratic as in Democrat versus Republican. Democratic as in Democracy versus “seize the means of production.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So if his daughter got married in city hall, he’d be looking at a full-blown political and reputational firestorm. A church wedding it was, then. And I was completely fine with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But that was the only complication, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But before I continue, as usual I need to get you in the frame of mind of the time. It is 1986, I’m getting married, and…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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