http://my.lifeinitaly.com/blogs/sardoman/ Discuss Italian culture, Italian culture history, Italian food culture and Italian culture customs. We at Life in Italy, are a friendly bunch of people who love Italian culture and Italian customs. Share your favorite Italian food and Italian culture. en Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:57:02 GMT vBulletin 30 http://my.lifeinitaly.com/images/styles/italy/misc/rss.jpg http://my.lifeinitaly.com/blogs/sardoman/ http://my.lifeinitaly.com/blogs/sardoman/98-mouse-fairy.html Wed, 09 Jan 2008 23:39:38 GMT Part of living in a new country is learning the cultural differences. Yesterday my daughter lost her first milk tooth, and as tradition has it she... Part of living in a new country is learning the cultural differences. Yesterday my daughter lost her first milk tooth, and as tradition has it she put it under her pillow before going to sleep, but who was going to come and take it.
I told her it was the tooth fairy, yet her Italian family informed her "il topo" would come. She liked the idea of a fairy more than a mouse, and was extremely happy to find some money where she had left her tooth. And what of the tooth... "the fairy gives it to the babies who don't have any teeth!" :eek: ]]> sardoman http://my.lifeinitaly.com/blogs/sardoman/98-mouse-fairy.html http://my.lifeinitaly.com/blogs/sardoman/97-italian-post-office.html Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:36:24 GMT In Italy your utilities bills land on your doorstep every 2 months. Whilst it is now possible to pay bills online, or by bank transfers, the vast... In Italy your utilities bills land on your doorstep every 2 months. Whilst it is now possible to pay bills online, or by bank transfers, the vast majority of people go to the post office mainly because they don't trust these modern methods (and I am one of them!).
You need to be psychologically prepared for such a journey, you have to make sure you have more than one thing to do there, and you must be prepared to lose an hour of your life! :(

When you walk into any post office the first thing you notice is that it is full of people :eek:, and despite your mental preparation your heart sinks because you know you're in for a long wait. You take a ticket with a number on it, look at the digital display in the hope that all these people are here to keep warm and aren't waiting to be served, but no such luck.:mad:

With the Internet post offices have had to diversify, and now most offer banking services. In my local post office there are 7 counters, 5 for banking transactions, and 2 for postal services, although more often than not only 4 of these are staffed. The trick is to have some bills to pay and a letter to post, generally because the queue for the postal services is shorter and you can pay bills at the same time.

The time spent waiting for your turn can often be entertaining as tempers flare up through the frustration of waiting, or people miss their turn, or try to push in. Eventually, you make it to the front of the queue, just in time for the staff member to go off for a coffee break leaving no-one behind to cover for them! And there is no point in complaining because they will just take even longer.

And so yesterday I made it to the counter, paid my bill, collected a parcel and asked for some stamps! I should have known better! "Oh, I don't know if we have any!" was the response :confused:. I was speechless, my brain didn't wasn't able to make sense of this. And so off she went to look for some stamps, for a good 3 or 4 minutes I was left standing there, the people behind me hating me for making an outrageous request and delaying them even more, but eventually I got my stamps and I left.

It all makes living here so much more interesting!! ]]> sardoman http://my.lifeinitaly.com/blogs/sardoman/97-italian-post-office.html http://my.lifeinitaly.com/blogs/sardoman/95-introduction.html Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:51:49 GMT As I said in the preamble, I intend to make this a diary of life here in Sardinia, not that I have a particularly interesting life, but I hope to... As I said in the preamble, I intend to make this a diary of life here in Sardinia, not that I have a particularly interesting life, but I hope to provide an insight into Life in Italy. So to get this started here is a little about my life so far.

I came to Sardinia from London about 3.5 years ago in a bid to have a new and easier life, especially for my daughter who was 18 months old at the time. The change of life hasn't been all that I thought it would be. The employment situation is difficult and it has been hard to make ends meet sometimes, especially for my Italian wife who has found it hard coming back. I used to be a policeman but here I teach English as a foreign language in a language school.

Daily life isn't very different to what it was like back home, apart from the sun, sea, sand... you get the picture. ]]> sardoman http://my.lifeinitaly.com/blogs/sardoman/95-introduction.html