In Ferrara: watching the rain

May 16, 2023

No need for much of an entry here. With it raining most of the day, we’re just feeling fortunate that we don’t have to travel anywhere and have a comfortable apartment to hang out in. Major activities for the day included my walk through town with the camera during a morning break in the weather and a short excursion to Quattro Angeli Osteria for lunch. Lunch was especially satisfying, sitting in a plasticized outdoor enclosure with a view of the castle. For a starter we split an order of one of Ferrari’s traditional dishes, cappellacci di zucca, which was marred only by the fact that we had to share it - a judgement error Rachael plans to correct at our main meal tomorrow.

Cappellacci di zucca with ragu. An outstanding dish and a local specialty, worth coming to Ferrara for even if Bruce Springsteen’s not in town to draw you in.

Salmon, grilled vegetables, and lamb chops. The lamb was good enough, but if we were to go back I’d have the salmon.

Over lunch we tried to place the conversation of the two elderly couples sitting next to us. They sounded fluent in Italian, but we thought we occasionally heard German and even English in the mix. At one point I noticed that the two women were wearing rain pants and what looked like cycling shoes. If we were more socially intrusive or less reserved we might have tested the language barrier and broken the ice, but that’s not us for better or worse.

As they rose to leave though, a few pleasantries were enough to start an exchange. They’re Swiss (and so naturally fluent in everything), from St. Gallen, and have driven down here for about a week-long cycling tour. We watched them from our table as the biked off, them carefully waving to us as they kept their balance on the cobblestones.

So that’s the news from the day, a slow news snoozer.

Oh, wait! I almost forgot. There’s Xoom News!

At last report, we were still frustrated in our attempt to send ourselves some cash from our checking account via Xoom. It’s been a very frustrating endeavor, leaving us thrice-thwarted and still reliant on the cash infusion Kelly and Jacinto sent us three three weeks ago together with Rachael’s credit cards that we still haven’t reported to BofA as having been lost. About the cards though, which have been a life-saver - we’re still monitoring the account daily, but after three weeks with no suspicious activity we’re feeling increasingly confident that we can use them until we return home.

So what’s with super-easy, super-fast Xoom, and why did we initiate three transactions only to have all of them cancelled? We don’t really know the full answer because our multiple calls to their service center never gave a clear answer. We’ve never known why the first one was canceled, other than the Ria outlet we went to stated the amount was wrong whatever that might mean. It could be that there’s a monthly limit on how much the recipient can receive, but that’s really speculation.

We think the second one (to myself this time, to test the theory that there was a limit on the recipient) was cancelled by Xoom as potential fraud. They didn’t or couldn’t explain why it had been cancelled when I called them up, but after talking it to through they agreed we should be able to place the transaction and told us to initiate a new one.

Which we did. And note that each of these transactions came with a several day lag while electronic communications with our bank occurred, so a lot of time is passing by. It’s a good thing that we didn’t really need this soon, or we’d have been pleading with Kelly and Jacinto for a second transfer.

So the third transaction finally made it through, and we got the message that our cash was ready to pick up now (while we were back in Pesaro, which happily has several Ria outlets). So we stopped in at the nearest Ria outlet, and I waited a goodly time while the queue of cash customers (all immigrants or transient workers, from the looks of it, as were the employees) worked its way down. When my turn came, after several minutes I was rejected. The agent compared the recipient name on the Xoom transaction (last name: Anderson; first name: Scott) with my name on my passport (last name Anderson; first name: Scott Francis), noted that they did not match because it hadn’t occurred to me to concatenate my middle name into the first name field on the Xoom form, and rejected the transaction. We tried a second Ria outlet (also filled with immigrants/migrant workers, which apparently is the norm), and got the same result.

So there’s one lesson for potential Xoom users. Make sure your full name on your ID document matches what you enter when you place the transaction. If it includes your middle name, pack it in with your first name because that’s the only place provided on the form.

And no, Kelly and Jacinto, we have no explanation for why your transaction to Rachael Anderson was accepted, even though her name on her passport is Rachael Ann Anderson. Apparently, as everywhere else, much depends on the specific person you’re lucky or unlucky enough to be working with.

So we cancelled that transaction and submitted a new one, to Scott Francis Anderson, and waited until we got to Ferrara to hopefully pick it up. A few days later though I got a message from Xoom that I needed to call them to provide more information, or else they would cancel this transaction too.

So I called them. And confirmed my identity, as both the initiator and recipient; and after several minutes of discussion and breaks for the agent to consult with others he assented, released the transaction, and a minute later I got the email that the cash was ready to pick up.

So there’s a possible second lesson for folks in our situation. I think Xoom’s fraud security system must look askance at transactions initiated by someone overseas to send money to themselves like we’ve been trying to do. Pretty reasonable really, but just expect to need to chat with a human before it’s done.

So walking back from lunch I stopped in at the nearest Ria outlet, feeling not at all confident that I’d be successful this time. The agent, an apparent immigrant again, asked me to come back in five or ten minutes after he’d finished his lunch. Which I did, and then waited for the two other Ria customers who had shown up in the meantime.

When my turn came, he saw from my passport that I was an American and we had a nice chat - his brother lives in Michigan somewhere - and then with no further ado he started counting out bills and wished me a good day. Easy!

Some pics from the day. Actually, it was very nice walking around this morning while the streets were still wet and empty of the crowds they’ll see later in the day. I’ll come back and caption these later, but for now the weather is clearing up and it’s time to ride.

Our street. Our doorway is that nearest one on the right. When I’m out and don’t have the key I knock on the window for Rachel to let me in.

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