Monthly Archives: June 2011

Not Quite Ready for Prime Time

30 Thursday Jun 2011

Posted by in Italian bureaucracy, Italian habits and customs, Italian Postal Service, Shopping, Uncategorized

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photo credit: 49th-parallel.blogspot.com

In years past it seemed that Italy embraced the notion of “Service” with some reluctance.  I’m thinking of the bad old days, of how when you entered a shop you were expected to make a purchase – which is why you now sometimes see signs in shop windows that say ‘Entrata Libera’ – that is, you can come in and look around and not feel obligated to buy something.

Combine dubious service ethics with an elastic sense of time and you get a good idea of how your problem with Telecom Italia (fondly known as TIM) might be handled.  An example.  We lost our landline telephone service on a Friday; it was restored the following Monday.  That was bad, but it wasn’t the end of the world thanks to cell phones.  We lost our broadband internet service (winningly named Alice: TIM and Alice, what a pair!) the following Wednesday, for no apparent reason, i.e., no storms, electrical outages, sunspots, aliens, etc.  Since the internet is for us what the aorta is for your heart, the Captain immediately phoned 187, TIM’s appealingly brief help number.  After explaining what had happened to a sympathetic woman he was told that the situation would be rectified in two days.  TWO DAYS??  How about two hours, or, better, two minutes?  Two days was simply not acceptable.  It was also non-negotiable, so we had no alternative but to swallow our frustration and submit.

photo credit: ioffer.com

Sure enough, on Saturday morning two cheerful TIM Techs appeared with their tool-laden black bags (they remind me of the doctors who used to make house calls when we were young, black bags bulging with mysterious and disturbing apparatus).  After satisfying themselves that it wasn’t our wifi server at fault they checked the connections outside and did some other line checks.  After a spirited discussion between themselves, which we could barely follow, they told us that the problem was at Centrale, that we were awfully far away from the center of Rapallo, and that therefore the solution was to change our account from a 7 mbs to a 4 mps service.  Okay, that doesn’t make a bit of difference since we receive data generally at only about 1 mps.  The solution just didn’t make sense to me, but it did to them, so that’s what they did and Voila!  The internet came back.  Phew!

Except it didn’t stay with us.  It came and went, seemingly at will.  We would be working away and suddenly our connection would evaporate.  Sometimes it was gone for five minutes, sometimes for five hours.  But it did eventually come back, until it didn’t.  We called TIM. This time the wait was four days.  Fortunately we were away for two of them so we didn’t have to actually murder anyone.  Again the same good-natured duo appeared.  After a lot of thising and thating they went down the street and found a loose connection in the San Maurizio centrale (which is probably a pole with a wire on it, but I couldn’t tell you which pole or which wire).  Hurrah!  The internet was back again!

And it stayed back for two days.  On the third morning it went out for about ten minutes.  We were going nuts at this point, so the Captain called 187 immediately.  At lunch time our friends reappeared.  This time they didn’t even come down the stairs to the house.  They asked if we had the connection now and we admitted we did.  Then they admitted that they had shut it down for ten minutes.  Well thanks for warning us ahead of time!  “It was just ten minutes,” one said.  Well, yes, but how was one to know?

So TIM gets one of my nods for Not Quite Ready for Prime Time – not for lack of service, but for quixotic service.  In fairness, I have to say they are trying.  The Tech guys did come up to see us three times (and for that I credit Trattoria Rosa across the street, where they could enjoy a fine meal after doing their magic) – it’s just that it took three visits to get it straightened out.  After our telephone was restored we received five phone calls over a four-day period to see if we still had our connection.  This is like firmly closing the door of the stable after the return of the horse, a sort of twisted approach to service:  “We’ll make you wait forever to restore your service, but then we’ll pester you to death making sure your service is restored!”

We’re spoiled in the U.S.  If something goes wrong we call, wait on hold for an hour or so, talk to someone (or register an electronic service request), and then the problem gets fixed, and not two days later. Right away. End of story.

My other nod for NYRFPT goes to Amazon.it.  We were thrilled to learn that Amazon had arrived in Italy because we are enthusiastic customers in the U.S., but with the vagaries of mail service here we wondered about order fulfillment.  Our first order, made shortly after we arrived, was a dream.  We ordered an electric toothbrush (at great savings, I might add) and were told delivery would be four days later. Lo and behold!  Four days later our toothbrush arrived.  We could hardly believe it.

So we tried again.  We ordered a weather station for some friends.  Again we were told delivery would be in four days.  Six days later I visited the website and saw that the item had been shipped and was waiting for delivery.  A few days later it was still waiting.  A few days later the web-site (excellent) showed that delivery had been attempted twice.  The only problem was, we were having work done at the house and there was someone here all the time.  No delivery had been attempted, we were quite sure.

The Captain got on the phone again and talked to a terrifically helpful woman. She assured us delivery had been attempted several times, and that they had called us a couple of times about it, but we think she mis-spoke (we have an answering machine and it was empty of Amazon calls).  Maybe the delivery company told Amazon they had tried, but for sure no one came up the hill with a weather station for us.

photo credit: retroclipart.co

The Helpful Woman said she would resolve the problem, and she did, setting up a delivery day (not hour, just day). (By the way, Customer Service ladies in Italy really do look just like this, and they speak on big black phones with fat lines.) We arranged our schedules so someone would be here every minute of the day.  And after all that, the delivery person simply put the package on top of our mailbox without even ringing the bell or announcing his presence in any other way.  The weather station we ordered on May 16 arrived on May 29, almost two weeks later.  It probably still wouldn’t be here if the Captain hadn’t persisted with his phone calls.

The problem is not with Amazon.  They have done enough business in enough countries to know how to do it right.  The problem is with the Italian approach to delivery (or, if you will, ‘service’) which is different than the American, British, or even Amazon approach.  Amazon was extremely responsive and helpful, but their expeditors didn’t help them much.

It will be interesting to see if Amazon.it survives.  As I see it there are two strikes against them: 1) Italians in general are not mail-order, computer-order people and 2) delivery is undependable (which may partially explain #1).  Few of our Italian friends take care of business on the computer.  It’s almost more a curiosity for them, an amusing way to keep in touch if and when they feel like sending an e-mail.  But banking?  Shopping?  No.  And if they do decide to shop online, they may find themselves waiting, waiting, waiting for delivery.

photo credit: etc.usf.edu

And that’s why Amazon is Not Quite Ready for Prime Time in Italy.

Beigua Park and Campo Ligure

20 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by in Hiking in Italy, Photographs, Uncategorized

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In my last post I told you about the Abby at Tiglieto.  Following our visit there Elena, Michela and I took a ring hike through the adjacent Beigua Regional Park. Beigua is the largest park in Liguria and covers a variety of terrain from high mountains to streams to woodlands.  We saw just the teeniest corner, but it was enough of a taste to make us want to return for more.  Elena’s guidebook suggested it would take us two hours to complete our walk, but it took us four!  I guess that’s what happens when two of the three hikers are toting cameras.

We crossed a number of bridges on our hike, some more rickety than others.  One had enough missing boards to be downright worrisome, but most were in fine repair.   The curvy, hilly roads in the park are a mecca for bicyclists and motorcyclists, of which we saw many on the occasions when our path crossed the road.  Here, in no particular order, are a few photos taken on our hike.

Roman bridge

Beigua's Grand Canyon

An old oven

Old shrine


On the way home we stopped in the pretty town of Campo Ligure which features a castle built by Genova’s Spinola family in 1309 (closed by the time we arrived), a spacious central piazza with a 14th century palazzo (also Spinola) and a medieval bridge which has been much restored.

Here are some photos of that brief visit.  An amusing event while we were there: a pair of old gents on a bench in the piazza kept staring at Michela as she took pictures – I couldn’t figure out why.  It turned out they just wanted to be sure she knew about the medieval bridge and would go there to take photos.  In fact, the man in the yellow pants followed us to make sure we did just that!


The highly touted  bridge was built over the River Stura in the 9th century and rebuilt several times from the 18th century onwards:

In spite of the rebuilds it still has a pleasingly romanesque shape.

The old center of the town is laced with narrow medieval alleys:


The castle sits atop the hill behind the town:


I’m not sure what purpose this chimney serves, or why it is so deliciously turned.  If you know, please tell me:

This nonna and her tow-headed grandson were having excellent fun diverting the water from the lion’s mouth to make their own fountain:


Campo Ligure is a perfect example of what makes Italy such a delightful country to explore.  Without be ‘important’ it offers a brief and interesting history lesson, as well as many beautiful little corners to discover.


Badia di Tiglieto

17 Friday Jun 2011

Posted by in Italian Churches, Uncategorized

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Not long ago our friends Elena and Michela took me to see the Badia di Tiglieto, also known as the Abbazia Santa Maria e Santa Croce, located in the town of Tiglieto  in the hills to the northwest of Genova.  Founded in 1120, Santa Maria was the first Italian monastery of the Cistercian Order; in fact it was the first monastery founded outside of Burgundy, France where Saint Robert founded the order in 1098.

Nestled against the hills it lies on the plain of the Orba River and is surrounded by the Beigua Regional Park.  It’s a full day’s outing to visit the monastery and take the ring hike in the adjacent park.

The Abby has had its ups and downs over the centuries.  For the first century or two of its existence it grew and prospered.  Farming and agriculture are hallmarks of the Cistercian Order, and the monks at Santa Maria were no exception.  Their holdings grew to be quite large over the years, and because of excellent relations with both the nobility and the ordinary people of the region they were able to get seasonal help for their agricultural pursuits.  They raised corn, wheat, rye, hay and veggies, made flour from chestnuts, and harvested the plentiful wood from the surrounding forests.  They reclaimed boggy areas in the lowlands, turning them into productive fields.

In addition to their physical pursuits the monks had a lively spiritual life.  They were renowned for their even-handedness, neutrality and their attentiveness to local problems.  Frequently they were called upon to adjudicate disputes among the region’s inhabitants.  An indication of their value and importance in this area is that they helped negotiate the peace between Genova and Pisa.

The booklet available in the monastery store presents an image of an idyllic country existence, a life well balanced between hard physical labor and intense spiritual meditation and practice.  It was not always perfect, however; the records indicate numerous cases of disagreements about boundaries, water usage and the like between the brothers and others.

The decline of Santa Maria began somewhere along the middle of the 1200’s.  Unlike the mendicant orders based in cities, the agrarian Cistercians had a hard time finding novices to join the order; there simply was not an ample enough population to provide the needed monks.  As their numbers lessened they were less able to look after their holdings and had either to sell or to lease them.  As their holdings and prosperity declined, so did their prestige, and by the middle of the 14th century they were in a total economic, moral and spiritual decline.

Pope Eugenio IV delivered the death blow when, in 1442, he gave the abby to Cardinal Giorgio Fieschi as Commendatory Abbot.  (A commendatory abbot is one who draws the revenues of the Abby but has no jurisdiction over its spiritual life and practice; he is not obliged to live at the Abby.)  Cardinal Fieschi was not frequently at Santa Maria.  What happened to the remaining monks is unknown.  Perhaps attrition finished them off, or perhaps they moved to other orders; in any event, they were no longer at Santa Maria.

The local populace was not happy about this state of affairs, and did not accept it willingly, being obstructive and even destructive to Fieschi and successive  commendatory abbots whenever possible.  This was the case until 1635 when Pope Innocent X gave the title to Cardinal Lorenzo Raggi who immediately began to improve the premises.  In 1648 Cardinal Raggi recieved the Abby for his family in perpetuity.  He moved to Santa Maria, which has been in the Raggi (now Salvago-Raggi) family ever since.

The Abby underwent major restorations in 1953, 1977, and 1999, with efforts made to restore the structures to their medieval forms.  Unfortunately the cloisters are irretrievably lost, but several rooms have been beautifully restored, notably the chapel and the chapter room.

This is the Chapter Room, the Sala Capitolare. The lovely white and red stripes are not medieval; probably they date from the 16th century.

The Chapel is beautiful in both its proportions and its simplicity.

Above the altar there is a silver dove with a golden feather in its wing. The silver represents Christ’s humanity, the golden feather his divinity.

In 2001 the Cistercian monks returned to Santa Maria, through the cooperation of marchesa Camilla Salvago Raggi, the owner of the property, and the Cistercian Congregation of San Bernardo in Italy.  There are now four monks in residence; three are in rather poor health, but one, Brother Walter, is still able to work and, with help from a local family, tends an enormous garden, makes honey and soap, and minds the monastery shop.

I was amused in the shop to see this display:


Apparently someone amongst the brothers has an interest in things automotive.

Three pomegranates, symbols of hope and transformation, were drying on the window ledge – one for each of us.  Of course we left the fruit there, but we took the hope with us when we left the peaceful Badia di Tiglieto.



Election Day

14 Tuesday Jun 2011

Posted by in Italian bureaucracy, Italian habits and customs, Italy, Rapallo, San Maurizio di Monti, Uncategorized

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Faithful readers will remember that the Captain became an Italian citizen about a month ago.  As luck would have it, there was an election yesterday, and he is now eligible to vote.  It wasn’t an election for political office, it was referenda on four questions: 1) should the law allowing privatization of the water company stay on the books?  2) should the cost of water be increased?  3) should the law exempting politicians currently in office from being tried in court stay on the books? and 4) should the plans to re-institute nuclear power plants in Italy go forward?

Will it surprise you to hear it was not a simple matter to get into the voting booth?  The Captain started two weeks ago, when he went to the Comune to request his voting card, without which he could not vote.  They were too busy to take care of him that day, and in fact tried very hard to discourage him from voting this time. But as a citizen it is his right to vote, and they were more or less obliged to take care of him, although not at that exact moment.  They grumblingly instructed him to come back a week later, which he did. They were even busier and once again they tried to put him off.  He wouldn’t give up, so they promised they would do the necessary work and then call him to let him know when he could pick up his card.

The polls were open on Sunday and Monday.  Late Sunday afternoon the long-awaited call came, and first thing Monday morning the Captain went back to the Comune where he found… that his card was not ready.  But there was a document that would allow him to vote and it was lacking only one signature.  Fortunately the hand that had to affix the signature was actually in the building, so without too much more delay the Captain received a handsome paper on Comune letterhead, signed by the man in charge of elections, and officially stamped, attesting to his right to vote.

Going to the polls turned out to be one the pleasantest experiences we’ve had in quite a while.  It began outside the former elementary school (now a Catholic social club) where we were warmly welcomed by the secretary of the polling section, Enrica Pedrasi, to whom the Captain explained his mission.

Inside we encountered the genial Gianluca from the Forestiere service. He was one of the people taxed with guarding the ballots from the time they arrived on Saturday until the polling was over on Monday afternoon. There is an armed guard on site at all times to make sure no one monkeys with the ballots.

There was a bit of confusion over the Captain’s document, because it was not the usual voting card, but the President of the polling section, Alberto Tumiati, made a quick phone call to the Comune, and all was well.


Renata Castagneto, one of the scritore normale of the polling section, entered the Captain’s name in the ledger of eligible voters.  Please note, he has been entered on the ‘maschi’ side.  Women’s names are entered in a different book kept at the other end of the table.  We’re accustomed to seeing alphabetical groupings in the States – it was a surprise to see the gender separation.

Then the Captain was given his ballots.  There was a separate color-coded ballot for each question.  The referendum question was on a strip of paper glued on the top of the paper, instructions were glued below, and two large boxes, one for Si and one for Non were glued at the bottom.

Into the booth he went, and, for the first time, voted as an Italian Citizen.  You can see his shoe in the picture below, peeking out from beneath the voting booth.


Moments later he emerged with his marked and folded ballots, and deposited each ballot in the appropriately colored box (he reports that it was complicated to fold the ballot correctly – many folds, and one section had to face out).


You can see from the expressions on the faces above that we received a very warm welcome.  In fact a cheer went up when we first walked into the room.  We were told that with the Captain’s appearance the percentage of people voting of those eligible at this voting station now stood at 51% (Rapallo, with its population of 30,000+ has 30 polling districts, each with about 1,000 voters.  Voters must vote at their own polling stations).  Well, that’s nice, we thought.  Then we learned that for the referenda to be effective more than 50% of the eligible voters in the nation must vote.  Little San Maurizio did its part.  There are about 330 eligible voters in the village, and at least 165 turned out.

As I write this the final results are not yet in.  But the evening news indicated that it seems all four referenda were passed – that is, that the laws already in place allowing for nuclear power plants, privatization of the water companies and immunity from prosecution for politicians in office, have all been overturned by popular vote.

Hurray for democracy!

Addendum:  It is the first time in fifteen years that enough voters have turned out to make a referendum valid.  All four popular initiatives passed convincingly (90%), which some see as the beginning of the end for Mr. Berlusconi.  See what the Italian press is saying here (in English).

Renata, Enrica, Alberto… if I have details wrong, please correct me in the comments or in an e-mail, okay?

Hi Pidge!




What the…..???

07 Tuesday Jun 2011

Posted by in Italian bureaucracy, Italy, Uncategorized

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Last November when we left Italy it was possible to put one of these on an envelope and know that sometime in the next five to ten days the letter would arrive in the U.S. of A.

Last week the nice tabaccaio (the man in the cigarette, salt and stamp store) told me I would have to put this on a similar letter to the same destination:

That’s right.  Postage to zone 2, which includes the United States, increased from .85 to 1.60 in December (the patient tabaccaio had to show me the official notice before I was able to believe him).  Factor in the exchange rate and that’s about $2.25.  Can you imagine what would happen if the U.S. Postal Service almost doubled rates from one day to the next?  There would be Congressional hearings at the very least, and quite possibly the streets would be filled with rioting junk-mailers.

So to all dear friends and family who are accustomed to receiving snail mail from me, you’ll be getting only half as much in the future.  Which will still be pretty much the ‘none’ you’re already used to.

Hi, Jay!