The not so dolce vita

A general poll amongst my friends here in Italy (not Italians) shows that while Italy is a great place for travel, it is not necessarily the best place for living.

Case in point, Italian bureacracy and lack of system.

1) One of the general instructions to foreign students when they arrive in Italy is to apply for a staying permit. Previously, what the students need to do is to head down to the Questura (police station) and produce some photos and their passport. Now, we have got to fill in a PILE of forms (all in Italian), and these are meant for students coming here to LEARN Italian. Afterwhich there is a fee of maybe 40 over euros and only after a couple of months later, will your permit arrive, and this apply to students who are here for only say 2 months. And everyone would have already obtained a student visa before arriving. It's already my third month here, I have not applied for one and I am still not behind bars. So there.

2) My laptop was fucked along the way to Singapore but it had a 3-year warranty under HP. When I called Milan, HP's main office in Italy, they requested for me to send a photo of my fucked laptop. Italians are tech geniuses because they can derive the problem and maybe solve it from a picture sent over the internet. When I explained that it was still under warranty (it's worldwide, mind you), they said they will do a check and they came back with a reply that it would cost me 400 euros for servicing. They will be more than happy to waive the shipping cost. Am I glad! Not.

3) My Japanese friend Ikumi had her mum send her a laptop from Japan. It took maybe a month or so and was stuck in Rome for the longest time. When it finally arrived in a parcel, there was the cable and... nothing else. Upset and worried, she called the ufficio postale and demanded an answer. They casually shrugged it off with 'I don't know what happened to it, I am sorry.' And the most ludicrous of it all? 'Maybe your mother forgot to put it (the laptop) in.' Do they take her for a dimwit?

Italy for you. The not so dolce vita.