Moving to Italy? How (not) to get connected!

I received this mournful lament of our modern era - the era that's being dubbed (much to the chagrin of Weiner, Shwarzy & Co.) "The Era of Communications."  But if you're planning a move to Italy from abroad, here's an eye-witness report on how to obtain a telephone line.  I recall that a friend working at the Embassy waited months for her hookup...Both had something else going for them...they both know Italian -- always a plus.  One might think that we live in the Error of Communications instead.  In any case, Benvenuti in Italia!

It was my ambition to have a phone and internet connection already set up for when we got to Italy - I can virtually see you rolling your eyes ;)    

I encountered a few rather Kafkaesque situations: On the forms, you have to fill in the province - but all they give you is abbreviations. How should any foreigner know that the abbreviation for the Provincia di Roma is RM?? Thank God for Google!!  Telecom Italia asked for my codice fiscale (Italian social security number).  I was so proud to be so well- prepared to already have one for months (after all, I'm German! and I came prior to set this up).  Unfortunately, they informed me that my codice does not match my (new) address in Rome.  No surprise, I do not live there yet.  A bit scary too, because it makes you wonder if the codice fiscale of every person in Italy is linked to their residence…(it is).

At Vodafone, I was more lucky.  No abbreviations, no codice, but I needed an Italian mobile phone number…Are there no foreigners moving to Italy???  Finally, they did accept that there are potential customers who are not Italian, and they eventually accepted my passport number.

I guess you get the direction.  In my distress, I gave them your cell phone number.  Forgive me. It happened in the heat of the moment! 

All I can say to our demoralized writer and readers is, wait til you try for the ADSL line! Maybe I should start a service of hosting cellphone numbers to potential visitors to Italy...In any case, I feel your pain. You are forgiven.

Retake Rome: Get in the Act!

If you live in Rome or know someone who does, here's an opportunity to act like a local: Participate in an upcoming protest march thru the city streets:


RETAKE ROMA, a movement aimed at increasing civic pride of our public spaces, has launched a Cordata per il decoro or “March for Dignity of Public Spaces” to take place on Saturday June 11. Our aim is to raise awareness of citizens, and all the institutions, associations and committees and those who see us march, to view our streets, our walls and other objects in our urban landscape with new eyes.
While Saturday's demonstration will involve only a small part of the XX Municipality, we believe it will be only the beginning of a cultural movement that will spread through the entire city.
It is essential that citizens begin to understand what it means to give a new face to their streets, involving ourselves directly and actively in the management of the urban décor of our neighborhoods.
Seeing our walls, streets, signposts, garbage bins, rooftops and other urban structures clean, and not blighted with advertisements, signs, stickers, graffiti and other vandalistic, abusive elements is a question of respect and common courtesy to others.
Abusive signage that spoil the streets and sidewalks is also dangerous because it often violates safe driving norms. The decision to remove signs from the spaces in which we live our daily lives is not only a cultural and environmental battle, but one aimed at increasing safety. 


Who’s participating?
GROUPS: RETAKE ROMA, RIPRENDIAMOCI ROMA, IMAGO XX, VIVIVEJO, HERMES 2000, VIVI COLLINA FLEMING, COMITATO CITTADINO PER IL XX MUNICIPIO, LABSUS, LABORATORIO PER LA SUSSIDIARIETA', SCOUT DI ROMA NORD, COMITATO CARTELLOPOLI
SCHOOLS: LICEO CLASSICO TACITO, LICEO SCIENTIFICO LA FARNESINA, LICEO CLASSICO DE SANTIS, AMERICAN OVERSEAS SCHOOL OF ROME, ST. GEORGE'S SCHOOL, MARYMOUNT and
SCUOLA MEDIA NITTI
INSTITUTIONS: FACOLTA' DI ARCHITETTURA "LA SAPIENZA" and MUNICIPIO ROMA XX
CARING FOR PUBLIC SPACES IS EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY!

Check for updates on the event at Retake Cassia: cordata per il decoro

Pizza Italiana -vs- New York Pies

Comedian Jon Stewart killed the other night when dissing 'The Donald' for his New York Pizza-eating etiquette...Viewers got a quick & dirty 'user's guide to pizza eating in Manhattan', with an extra topping treat of his short list of the best pizza establishments New York City has to offer, although, I'd go one more:  Artichoke - just under the hi-line at 14th & 10th Ave - pictured here.  Buonissimo.

You can view the link here (just click on live link)

But what Jon doesn't know are few facts about true pizza eating in its birthplace.   Visitors to Italy are always a bit stunned when ordering their first 'pie' - they get to eat the whole thing!  That's because, they'll soon find a pizza crust so thin (yet so totally deliziosa) you would not be faulted for thinking they had simply forgot it altogether.  [Of course, in Naples you can still find the thick-crusted as well]  But the most important trait?  Look around you - everyone's eating it - with a knife and fork!


One other surprise?  In Italy, you'll be hard-pressed to find Italian pizza-makers (although I must admit, my local trattoria still has the real McCoy - or maybe, Maccari, as the case may be...).  Like the chain in The Daily Show video, many pies are being made by Albanians - but it's the Egyptians spinning your dough by those brick ovens who are the upper crust when it comes to dishing the pies...


And, if you want a nice review on the Home of Pizza - Napoli-style, check out Carbonara's terrific posting of the pizza experience! (click here)

Italy's Main Man

June 2nd in Italy, Google treated us all to this nice shot - celebrating our 150th year as a united country (in fact, I saw it right about the same time the planes flew overhead); Italy's unification basically meant that from that time on, everyone had to pay all their taxes to one place (or in Italy, not pay them), although bribes are still being dispersed healthily according to the former feudal system of favoritism, nepotism and patronage depending on the region, town or village in which you live.  

Lately, the Northern League Party wants to change all that (the one-stop tax payments, not the bribes) by bringing some of Italy's national ministries to the north.  That way, Mr. Bossi (party leader) can then act as Overlord and seal the deal for kickbacks for all and northern sundry, without having to come all the way to Rome in order to do so (he may recall that Tangentopoli - Bribe City - started in Milan).  In fact, so nostalgic for 'the old ways', Bossi saw to it that his son proved so brilliant - with no experience whatsoever and who failed his high school diploma 3 times - nonetheless could scrounge up a pretty impressive job - fancy that! - He's now a Parliamentarian for Europe, earning upwards of $20,000 per month.  Earnings on par with Barack Obama.]  And Mr. Bossi loves to rail about the graft and corruption in Rome.


But I digress.  The nation, once it got its collective act together, started to build a national railway and road system.  And while I've oft-stated that via Garibaldi (named after the man who set out to unite our fair country) was synonymous with Main Street, turns out  I was right:  


- Giuseppe Garibaldi holds the pole position in the naming of streets or piazzas, with 4247 vias in his honour.
- Second comes Mr. Mazzini, again one of the architects of the Unification of Italy with 3307 streets or plazas
- And, in a show of our artistic heritage, Giuseppe Verdi garners a healthy third place with 2937 streets named after him*


*Tutta Città - the map company came out with this

Tante Belle Cose - May in Italy

As far as Great things going down in the merry month of May, readers most likely will believe that I am personally rejoicing the trouncing that Berlusconi's party candidates received in the recent Mayoral elections this past week.  While it pleases me as a referendum on our Dear Leader, in my unbridled cynicism, I don't think the candidates who cleaned up in the elections from the Left will be any more honest, better and bribe-free.  Watch this blog when the Left - now in charge of the store - starts getting caught with their hands in the tills.  
Having said that, however, I am personally thrilled that the (Partito delle Libertà) PdL party even got trounced in Arcore (Sardinia), Berlusconi's playground, making it for one fine way to end the month.

Italy cleans up

Elsewhere on the Peninsula, Italy's Legambiente (Environmental Group) spent 2 days spring cleaning.  In fact, they picked up over 50 tons of garbage off our beautiful coastlines, hoping that those that frequent the beaches sort of learn by example.  To put things in perspective, 30% was plastics, but even 5% was aluminum -- enough to make 274 bicycles.  
And, speaking of garbage, in May another corrupt businessman, Mr. Fazio, got the heat for messing with financial markets while head of the Bank of Italy, in order to push a Dutch offer out and allow an Italian group to take over a bank.  He'll be doing 4 years' time for his valiant efforts.
And, while on the topic of recycling, a caustic curator & art critic, Vittorio Sgarbi, made his own suggestion for the godawful statue purported to depict Pope John Paul II.  "Bring it up to the (contemporary art fair) Venice Biennale.  There, it might elicit a new and maybe better response."  He went on to say, "If the statue was to be a depiction of JPII, well, then, when I saw it, I should have known straight away who it was."  Hear, hear.
As for me, the best news this month was that I've cleaned off and gussied up my bicycle.  And, aside from the Black Lung I'll get from riding surrounded by car exhaust, it feels great to ride around Bella Roma on these gorgeous spring days.  Happy trails.

Festival for the (Whole) Family

It may be Memorial Day in the USA, but today at the local Catholic school here in Rome, and across much of Italy, was the day that families gathered to celebrate with games and food the Fesitval of Hypocr  errr...Nuclear Families in the spirit of togetherness, tolerance, and clearly other widely-held Christian values.  It was the Festa di Famiglia - which, by most Western standards would include those couples who are most likely hiding their affairs from each other, who are 'separati in casa' (in-home separation) and lead double lives in order to keep up appearances, and of course, that rarist of species, the fully healthy family with parents that not only still talk to each other, but actually love one another, and their kids, and the kids love them back as well -- A citing so rare indeed, it was last seen in the 1970s in a species that entomologists coined, The Brady Bunch Genus.  I once read that Brady Bunch families according to one study were estimated at 5% of American families.
So, to partake in the festivities, I'll throw my own celebration to include single-parent households, gay families, the divorced and separated parents and their offspring as well.  Just think what a huge party that would be!  Of course, the Church probably thinks (with no irony whatsoever), that it would probably devolve into a wild Bacchanalia, the likes of which have only been seen in various seminaries and Evangelists' hotel rooms far and wide.
My guest speaker?  Zach Wahls, Engineering student raised by two women.  
Oh so, let's raise a toast and...God Bless Modern Families.

Letter from Milano

Spending a bit of time in Milano, I ended up cooling my heels at the Milan train station.  Always nice to sort of buzz around, if nothing else than to get a terrific lunch with fantastic service and uber-friendly personnel (I swear, it's Milan I'm talking about) at my fave place for a quick bite, Panzera.  You need the nose of a mouse in a maze to find it, but it's worth the effort (out the left side as you egress from the station, on the ground floor).  
I found the Garibaldi station nearby just keeps getting spiffier and spiffier, but I got totally confused when I came out of the metro, and found myself surrounded by tall skyscrapers. I thought that somehow I'd been tele-transported to Shanghai.  Of course, I realized I wasn't since there were no bicyclists in my midst and cars were trying to run me down while I wasn't watching (too busy craning my neck).
But, back at the capitalist heart of Italy, I noticed that the enterprising people at Trenitalia (our motto: Leave no Euro Behind) have decided to do away altogether with those big boards telling you when and from where, exactly, your train will depart. 
They've sold out the space to advertisers.  It's not all bad, as in your effort to catch a glimpse of the time table through the huddled masses (making a reverse Statue of Liberty statement) at one of only two teeny kiosks now pointing out crucial traveler information, you can rest assured that in the very least, you'll know what sunglasses to buy when you're forced back out of the station after you've missed your train.
So, passing the time whilst waiting for the NEXT train to come along, I took to reading the signage.  Italians love rules, and I had absolutely no idea there were 18 of them governing elevator riding alone.  Clearly, Trenitalia & Co. are trying their best to dissuade you from going up to the tracks without first passing the dozens of retailers you get to behold while riding their slow-motion sidewalks - an experience akin to the moving walkway at It's a Small World exhibit at Disneyland, except there are no cheery children's voices to seranade you as you're transported along at a ridiculously slow pace.
So, here are the rules for riding the elevator (or lift) - Take a look and discover your favorite [just click on foto to enlarge].


My favorites?

• Don't allow to use the lift to children under 12, if alone -- How can I disallow if they're by themselves?  Or maybe, it's me who's alone or maybe...whatever.
• Don't use the emergency alarm button if really necessary -- Really?!
• Drunken travellers are excluded from transport such as those who carry on objects that block on the lift, and those who, because of their status or their behaviour...Never mind I need a drink!

I later discovered it was actually an advert put up there by Facebook as to why you should never use Google Translate.