I am sure that one day I will have a stroke at the post office. Inevitably every single time I go, my blood pressure goes sky high as I waiver between bursting into cries of frustration or insane laughter at the absurd inefficiency of this oh-so Italian system.
I received, not for the first time, a bill 2 days before it was due. Now it is a week over-due, no fault of my own. Evidently the post office's central system software has been out of commission for several days now. Happy to learn this, as I was thinking that I was just extremely unlucky to always find a chaotic mess the past three times I've attempted to pay this bill. Oh, and if you aren't versed in the Italian ways you pay your bills at the post office. And collect social security payments. And mail stuff. This glitch in the system is pretty much crippling the country.
My favorite post office story though happened one morning when I popped in to mail a letter before heading to work. There was only one woman ahead of me in line, so it should have been a get in get out affair. Oh yes, how foolish of me. Jenn, don't you know better by now? This woman was mailing a letter to Rome, but didn't have the zip code. The lady working the desk, kind as she was, offered to look it up for the customer. What service! Imagine my shock and awe when rather than punching in the street address on her trusty computer, she pulled out a 10 pound book to look it up. Because why would it be unreasonable for us to be in 2011 and Italy to be publishing books the size of anvils with every single street in the country listed? And so, for the next 15 minutes we stood there as she went down, row by row, looking for this ellusive Roman street. Finally after confirming that it definitely was not listed, she flipped the book closed, slapped her forehead and exclaimed, "But this was published in 2008!" Silly you!
Recently a very important Italian claimed that Italy is a world leader in six sectors: Tourism (ok), Food and Beverage (most definitely), Culture and Cultural Heritage (yeah), Design and Fashion (sure, sure), Precision Manufacturing (whatever that is) and Logistics.
Logistics? Please. Logistics of serving donuts on another planet. That's all I'm giving you Italy.
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