Italian Post-Offices = A Test of Patience
Where the rule of third time lucky applies to everything you try to do
When I get home, there is a note in the letter box stating that a delivery was unsuccessful and it will need to be collected at the post office.
I presume it is the part we are waiting on to fix our strimmer. So I go to the post office, queue for half an hour and hand the note in.
The woman in the post office, who we affectionately know as Sourface, says that the parcel is still in the car of the mailman and to come back tomorrow.
I return the next day.
I queue again and hand in the note to the same woman.
She checks the number on the notice against her list.
“Yes it is here. But I cannot give it to you until tomorrow.”
“Why? You just said it is here.”
“I am sorry,” she says, like she is sympathising for the loss of a favourite pet. “But it is noted that it is not available for collection until tomorrow.”
“But it is here?”
“Yes, but you cannot have it until tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“Because it says so on my system.”
The woman behind me in the queue says in English. “It does not make sense, but this is the post office in Italy, nothing makes sense.”
The following day the strimmer part arrives, so the package waiting the post office is now a mystery.
I preserver and returns to the post office for the third time.
I again hand in the note. Sourface smiles a sour smile that makes her nose scrunch and her lips tight and small. She gets me the registered envelope and I open it in front of her. It’s a water bill we have missed that needs to be paid.
“Okay so I will pay this while I am here.”
Sourface looks at me blankly.
“I can pay this bill here, right?” I know you can pay bills at the post office.
“Emm,” she hesitates. It’s like she needs to go and change her head to the one that deals with bill paying and it might take a while for her to do it. “This window is for parcels. You need to join the line for bills.” I look around at the line she is pointing to snaking out the door.
“Never mind, I’ll pay it at the supermarket,” I say exasperated and leave. Of course when I get to it, the supermarket is closed for a three-hour lunch. At least I got one thing done today - collecting the bill. Tomorrow I will make another effort to pay the bill. “Third time lucky,” I find myself saying yet again, as every thing in Italy takes about three times to do.
A very frustrating situation but the way it’s told is absolutely hilarious! I was also wondering how much the crowd outside B&N cost 😂
Strikes a cord with me :::waiting for delivery of a book from Firenze ( a 3 hour drive north) since Sept 23 … the sistem couldn’t figure out that the via cassia int meant Via Cassia interna ( centro storico) so the packet with a 10 euro book has been riding up and down on SDA trucks for about 3 weeks …