I can't get no satisfaction

 Ah, life in Italia!  Fantastic food, clean air and water, beautiful surroundings, nice people and so many things that just don't make any sense whatsoever.

Let's see if I can explain this.  

We have Wi-Fi.  Obviously...I wouldn't be here on this blog without it!  Ok...we used to get bimonthly bills which we paid at the Post Office (Yes! You can do that here!) Sometimes going there is a pain, due to weather or long lines, but it is still pretty convenient. 

But, why don't I just go online with my bank and arrange for automatic debit?  Ahhhhhhh, well......THAT is not so easy.  You can't.  You just can't.  I could pay them individually online, but it is not possible to set up a "payee" for automatic debiting in this country.  Why?  Beats me, I have no idea, but people mumble things about security and blah blah.  

In order to set up automatic debit, you have to consult a rather unpleasant gentleman in the Post Office.  I've tried and I've mentioned this fellow before.  The last time he claimed that the "code" (what code?) was incorrect and it could not be done. 

That was then and this is now.  And now instead of bimonthly bills, we have monthly bills that arrive via email, making the little trek to the post office a tad less convenient than it was before. These emails usually arrive at the very beginning of every month. 

All was chugging along as it should until October.  No email.  I checked my "junk" file....nothing.  Hmmmm.  I could call their customer service line, but I know from past experience that they speak very quickly and like all customer service lines, you have to "enter #2" here and "enter #1" there before you can get through to a person and I tend to get nervous on the telephone to begin with, so we went for help.

Aldo is a guy who is a wine merchant with a small cafe around the corner.  He lived in the US for decades, so he is fluent in English as well as his native Italian.  He called the customer service line and found out several things.  One, they seem to be changing the billing cycle yet again, so the bills have not gone out as yet.  Ok...we are not in arrears.  Wait!  Yes we are!  There is a......TWO EURO (!!!) balance on the account and for whatever illogical reason, unless we pay the two euro right away, with a credit card, our bill WILL be withheld and our service disconnected.   WHAAAAAATT?

Fine, I whipped out my international credit card for Aldo to read to the guy on the phone,  Number, name, expiration, code.  Nope.  Not going through.  Why?  It's an international card, I have used it in multiple places over the last three years.  Try again.  Nope.  No good.

My husband then pulled out his AmEx card, good "all over the world."  No, sorry, no good.  

So Aldo pulled out HIS OWN card and paid the damned two euro with his.  His worked.  All is well in Wi-Fi land again and absolutely NONE of this makes any sense at all. Why were we never informed about this two euro?  Why was it not just forwarded onto a subsequent bill?  We will never know. 

Well, fascists are not very welcome here, we are in little to no danger of being victims of a random shooting, it is very unlikely to flood and there is universal health care. 

Sit down, have a glass of wine...it's a lovely evening...ah, Italia!