I was travelling with my motorcycle around Umbria / Lazio when all of a sudden a Bee enters my helmets and stings me right next to the eye. I am allergic to bee/ wasps stings so when it starts swallowing I go to the Farmacy. The give some prescription medicine: In Italy often you can obtain prescription medicine right at the farmacy without an actual prescription. I ride back to Rome and go to sleep. When I wake up in the morning in Monteverde Vecchio I look like the Elephant man. I go to the farmacy in Rome but this time the farmacist tells me that due to my look he cannot give me anything and I should go to the Hospital.
I go down to Trastevere at the Regina Margherita expecting the worse ... Well I was pleasently surprised: in ten minutes or so the doctors visits me and he sends me to different department to a specialist. After maybe 15/20 minutes the specialist visits me and she gives me a shot and a prescription. The shot has effect very rapidly and I feel better soon and I go back home.
Total cost: zero !

OUCH!! Glad you were able to be seen so quickly and that the shot worked fast too. I lived in that neighborhood and fortunately never needed immediate medical attention, but it's nice to know it was there if we needed it.
In the book Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr (read my short review here Recommended: Four Seasons in Rome), he too lived in Trastevere and tells of the time his wife passed out and needed emergency care. They are an American family with limited Italian skills, but were treated quickly and professionally. Turns out the wife, a mother of infant twins was suffering from exhaustion and dehydration - no time to take care of herself. Their medical bills totaled zero as well, and if I remember correctly that included a day or two in hospital.

Ciao Paolo, Glad that you are well now. send some pictures.

Ciao Ed

Not of your face lol.

My fiance is going to Italy next week. He's much older than me so he's always concerned about getting sick OS but he is a UK citizen, so I think that going to the doctor would be free? I'd love to go too but my mother's old and frail so I have to help her. I went last year - it's always wonderful! I dream of living there.

Ciao,
Lisa

Lisa, if your fiance has a European Health Card, then he is entitled to free emergency treatment in Italy. Even without that, if he has a UK passport, then he probably would get the same entitlement.

That said, in mine, and many other peoples experiences, the Italian medics usually go out of their way to be helpful and accomodating, and mostly without charge.