Patience is a virtue,
Posess it if you can.
It’s always found in woman
And seldom found in man.
My aged granny taught me that little bit of doggerel about a hundred years ago.
Patience. If you are dreaming about moving to Italy, or even just having a visit here, it is a virtue you might want to cultivate. One must wait in lines for everything here, from the Post Office to the Train Station Ticket Counter (allow extra time if you need to purchase train tickets at the station) to, always and ever, the food stores. I’m always amazed at how patient everyone is as they shuffle slowly forward in whatever line they’re in. Once a friend came late for tea, telling us that she had had to wait an hour at the Post Office. An hour.
This is something that’s hard for Americans to wrap their heads around. If there are more than three or four people ahead of us at the supermarket we become restive – quick! Open another register!
But with a slight attitude shift the lines and the waiting become rather fun. First, they give a great opportunity for people watching. Second, they give you the chance to remember the thing you forgot to get (if you’re at the market). Third, they give the time to practice what you need to say in Italian (at the Post Office). If you’re into meditation, the line is a great place to zone out and ommm for a while.
Also, the take-a-number system employed by many stores, offices and (hallelujah!) the Post Office now ensures that people are served in the order in which they arrived… or at least in the order in which they thought to take a ticket. There’s something demoralizing, however, in taking a ticket at the deli counter and realizing that there are 18 people ahead of you. But it’s better than the unchecked chaos that used to reign.
At the top is a photo of all the people waiting to check out at a nearby Ipercoop. Granted it was a Sunday, so the store was quite crowded. Che casino! as they say here – what a mess. There were trolleys every which way, people with hand baskets and strollers trying to navigate through the lines, other people trying to sneak into the middle of a line. What an adventure. The postures of the women in the foreground tell the whole story: these are not people who are moving smartly along; these are people who are waiting. What I said above about the waiting being fun? I lied. It really isn’t all that much fun, especially if it drags on for 20 minutes, as in the picture above.
An Ex-Expatriate 
That picture is my idea of hell. I’ll do anything to avoid it. There’s a small post office in far out suburbia where the lines are only long on pension day. I go there. I shop at lunchtime when all the folks are home eating. You learn coping mechanisms as time goes on. On the other hand, my trash bill still isn’t paid because they went from 5 mornings accepting payments to 2. There is always a line of 15-20 people so I just ditched it.
Ha! I have the same trick for the post. I go to a small office that is open only in mornings, and there are never more than two or three people ahead of me. Ah yes, the trash bill… that’s due this month here. I think we can actually pay online now, or maybe we just mail it in, I’m not sure. What will happen if you don’t pay yours?
No doubt about it. I’d never be able to eat in Italy if it required shopping. I’d be without the one true entertainment source in American supermarkets when the lines grow “long” – the access to trashy reading material that you wouldn’t mind perusing but would never consider buying!
hmmmm, good point, Hilary. Haven’t read about any alien abductions in months now!
Great post, which certainly rings true around here. Patience is something I have certainly learnt since moving to Italy, the latest sage being with a problematical dishwasher!
Oh LindyLou, I can only imagine. A dishwasher – you’re looking at a month at the least, don’t you think?
Oh it has been longer than that 🙂
http://lindyloumac.blogspot.com/2010/09/friday-foto-dishwasher-saga.html
And why am I not surprised??!
Great post and fabulous photo. Poor people!
I hate waiting in supermarkets, such a waste of time. Think of the Italian – hmm few minutes wasted. Check shopping list, another minute. Bored now!
Yes, I agree Sue, the waiting is a big fat bore. We’ve found it really pays to go to the big markets at about 1-2 p.m. No self-respecting Italian would shop then, so the stores are almost empty. The downside is there is only one cashier, but the wait is usually much, much shorter.
I always have to wait at the post office and it drives me nuts, but by far the worst is at the station. It is almost never the fault of the ticket seller. It seems that people turn up at the sportello for a chat!!! I have noticed that it rarely foreigners who take a long time. I have learned to navigate the automatic machines – when
they work.
Even better than the machines, for us, has turned out to be online ticket purchase from Trenitalia. They’ve made an excellent website. It doesn’t work for a spur of the moment purchase, but if you know you’ll be training a day ahead it’s easy to get the ticket. The other thing that helps, at least here in Rapallo, is that one can buy a ticket for the Regionale to Genova in the Tabacchi right in the station, perhaps to other destinations at a similar remove. I’ve only every bought Genova tickets.
When I first arrived in Italy, about 1000 years ago, there were no lines. Chaos is an understatement. People had strategies for being served right away; one was the screaming baby. The baby and the woman didn’t necessarily belong to each other: the babies were often borrowed for the purpose. Then there was the person with the dying relative, the person who left a pot on the stove, the person on crutches…and if all else failed, a small donation of money to the right person could work miracles. I’ll take numbers any day! p.s. I am talking about Rome here. I can’t speak for other towns!
Oh Pat, I never heard of all these ploys for quick service. I wish I had known them (or even thought of them) back in the pre-number days. What a hoot!
I can’t wait for the “take-a-number system” to reach our little town, “unchecked chaos” is still King around here! However unchecked chaos tends to be pretty amusing for us silly Americans, who think that you are supposed to wait in neat, straight lines!
Neat straight line? What’s that??