RAI and the case of the missing TV taxes

Italy, like much of western Europe, considers television a "public good" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good ) and to pay for it, taxes every household with a television to the tune of 100 Euro a year.

No, you don't get ad-free television. And yes, you get plenty of all-singing, all-dancing, celebrity special guest spectaculars, with scantily-clad showgirls and crooners whose heyday was during the Carter administration. Suffice it to say, I'm not a fan. I could probably easily give up the TV were it not for bike racing, which I will admit RAI does a good job of covering. I've often considered officially giving up the television, which apparently involves a fairly entertaining procedure: since they can't actually come and take it away from you, the official procedure is that they show up at your home and put the television in a sack and place an official seal on it. I think it might be worth giving up the TV just to see if they actually turn up and carry out the TV bagging.

Anyway, normally the TV tax is just one more annoyance, but not that big a deal, so you pay it and forget about it.

However, it appears that RAI's computers got it in their heads that we lived in Italy during 2007 and 2008, when we were actually in Austria the entire time, and have now sent our "bill" to a collection agency.

I have slowly been working my way backwards through the various agencies and phone numbers to try and explain that we were not in Italy and thus are not going to pay taxes. The woman I talked to today explained that we should have been the ones to communicate to RAI that we were no longer living in Italy and so we were still responsible for the taxes, unless we can send them a backdated notice explaining that we were indeed living elsewhere, with documents proving said residence abroad. Sent, naturally, via a registered letter with notice of reception. That may be enough to clear us of having to pay the "past due" taxes, which have now ballooned to 300 euro with fees, interest, etc... etc... Presumably, I will not be able to add fees and interest for my own time wasted trying to explain that we did not reside in the country those years.

Fall in Padova

I have never cared much for fall, as seasons go. The last of the warmth and sunshine from summer are slipping away, which means no more big, all-day outdoor adventures, no more relaxing outside without worrying about rain or cold, and the thought of a long winter ahead before it's spring again. Summer is easy and carefree - shorts and a shirt and you're good. Fall is when you start having to select clothes with care in order to avoid overheating or getting cold.

Fall in Padova, however, is, if still not my favorite season, at least one with some distinguishing characteristics that make it more pleasant. Having grown up in Oregon, with its fir and pine trees, you don't notice the changing seasons in the landscape as much - just the transition from warm, clear summer days to murky, gray, wet winters. The nearby "Euganei" hills here in Padova, however, take on a new look with fall. They may not have the brilliant fall colors that the north eastern US is known for, but the crunchy brown leaves do make for pleasant walks, especially on one of the many days when the sun still puts in enough of an appearance to keep things pleasantly tepid. Indeed, the hills fill with people again after the summer season, when the most popular destinations are the beach or other vacation spots. During the fall, many people head out from Padova to gather chestnuts or mushrooms in the hills.

Indeed, it's probably food that best characterizes the fall. During the summer, it's really too hot for the feasts for which Italy is well known, with appetizers, a 'primo', 'secondo' (and sometimes more than one of each), salad, desert, all washed down with lots of wine. But in the fall, everyone's back from vacation, it's cooler outside, and passing the time with friends and family and good food is quite appealing.

Besides roasted chestnuts, one of the other culinary traditions in fall is the 'vino novello', or 'young wine', which is actually a fairly recent creation, but it fits in well with the harvest season. Vino Novello is not wine to keep for years for some special occasion, but to be drink fresh, and indeed, has a very fresh and fruity flavor to it.

Fall is a good time to visit, too: torrid summer days can be very draining if you want to walk around to see the sites, and in August, most of the town's residents have left for vacation in any case, so you won't get a good feel of what life is like. Even later fall, as the sun wanes and gives way to chilly fogs, can be nice if you're prepared for it. Indeed, nearby Venice is beautiful in a less "Disney-esque" way when wreathed in fog. It's nice in the summer with sun and blue skies, but the darker version, with boats sliding out of the thick fog, and the inviting lights of bars where you can get an 'ombra di ross' (a glass of red wine) and something to eat give the city an added depth that its summer raiment does not.

Bus Driver Pops in for a Quick Meal - Leaves Bus Running Outside

This is a funny one:

Acerra, autista Ctp salta una corsa e ferma
il bus sotto casa per cenare: sospeso

The police found a bus running, with no one in it, along the side of a street.  It turns out that the bus driver had popped in to his house for a quick dinner and had simply parked the bus outside.  When questioned, he said he'd simply gone in to use the restroom, and seeing as how dinner was ready, stopped to eat a bit.

He was charged with several crimes by the police.  However, he was only suspended, rather than fired, by the company he worked for!

This was near Naples...

Crossing the Road

One of the things that I really miss about Austria is how civilized the drivers were at crosswalks.  They'd slow down, wait for you to cross, and then go on their way.  In Italy, it's basically a game of "chicken":

I have fantasies about taking a crack at one of the ones that refuses to stop with a baseball bat.

Funny Products

This first one is "American Wheat" (complete with stars and stripes)... labelled "Manitoba".  Weird, as I'm sure everyone knows, Manitoba is a province in Canada.

This second one is one of a huge variety of clothing with completely nonsensical English labels and phrases on it.

Having driven through it, I really don't think Fresno is a great place to go surfing, given that it's several hours away from the ocean.  It didn't actually strike me as a great place in general, but then again, I only drove through it.

 

Mexican Food in Europe

Anyone who knows me well enough knows that one of my long standing complaints about life in Italy is the lack of decent Mexican food.  Oh, there are a few places here in Padova, and once in a while I get desperate enough to go back to one, but then I remember why I never go.

This:

http://mungowitzend.blogspot.com/2009/05/worst-mexican-restaurant-on-earth.html

is a really funny description of "the worst Mexican restaurant on earth", and isn't too far off from many of the experiences I've had.  In Italy, they would have understood some of the Spanish, but probably wouldn't have sour cream, as that's quite difficult to come by here.

Here's a quote:

The waitress brings the food. The "quesadillas" were rock hard, and filled with chili that clearly came from Chef Hormel-ito. Appalling. This was served with rice and beans and quacamole. NOT. It was served with some purple lettuce and cabbage, with a big dollop of mayo, and then some canned corn and canned navy beans. More of the sour cream, and more of the ketchup salsa.

 

The Retiree Party

Italy is a rapidly aging country, and sclerotic politics, that much is widely known.  Once again, however, I was to be surprised by an election billboard posted near our home:

This is for the "Partito Pensionati" or, translated literally, the "retiree party".  Their motto is "get off our lawn, you damn kids".  Not really, I looked it up and it's actually "we've got ours, now kiss off".  Ok, I made that one up too.   Leave your own motto for the "Retiree Party" in the comments below.

Tu Razzista

Immigration to Italy is a relatively recently phenomenon.  Until very recently, Italy was a country that sent people abroad, rather than accepting immigrants in search of better jobs and lives.  Unfortunately, however, like everyone else in Italy, the immigrants have figured out that the consequences for misbehaving are hardly ever very serious, and so the bad apples have made a name for themselves through a string of rapes, robberies and other random acts of criminality.  Many news outlets have picked up on this theme and often publish the fact that some miscreant is a foreigner, while at the same time mostly ignoring how much Italians flaunt the laws themselves.

Today, I noticed an election billboard:

 

The text, "Tu colpevole... tu pena certa subito" is grammatically incorrect Italian, which, translated fairly literally, means something along the lines of "You guilty... you certain punishment right away", and is meant to immitate a speaker with a poor grasp of Italian.  Translating it a bit more liberally, one might end up with something along the lines of "You do crime, you go jail, capish?".

In other words, while the core idea of people actually being responsible for their crimes is certainly laudable (and applicable to everyone from the lowliest criminals amongst recent immigrants up to the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi), the delivery is something that I, as an immigrant and foreigner here myself, consider to be offensive.

Random Notes from the "Big Move"

We recently moved back to Padova, Italy from Innsbruck, Austria.  Here are some various, random notes:

• Moving truck rental in Europe stinks compared to the US.  It's something like 3 or 4 times as expensive if you want to rent a truck in one place and drop it off in another, and those two places happen to be different countries (even though they're only 4 hours away).
• Moving in general in Europe is fairly difficult compared to the US.
• I'm happy to be back in Italy!
• The language barrier in Austria was really a killer.  I speak Italian fluently, and to go from that to being a complete "zero" was really difficult.  I'm glad to be back somewhere where people are impressed by how well I speak the language.
• We'll miss the mountains, but enjoy the wide open skies.  Innsbruck is an extremely beautiful place, with high mountains all around.  However, sometimes it's nice to have more light, and to be able to look off into the horizon.
• I miss Austrian drivers.  Italians are, comparitively, and on average far less well-behaved (and of course there are plenty of exceptions, I'm just talking about averages).   You risk your life every time you walk across a crosswalk.
• It's wonderful to have hand carts in the supermarkets.  I have no idea what possesses supermarkets in Innsbruck to never have any .  On the other hand, in Italy, it's also annoying to have to weigh your own produce, rather than at the checkout, and use the 'sanitary gloves' that they provide in Italy.  Just wash your food before  you eat it, sheesh.
• The snowy cold winters in Innsbruck aren't bad, actually, however, spring time in Italy is truly something to behold.
• Padova, as a city, is much more interesting than Innsbruck.
• Driving up to Innsbruck with the rental truck was quite scary - there was a snowstorm on the Brenner pass as I went over, which would have been a bit unnerving even with our regular car.  With the rental truck, it was downright nerve-wracking.
• A huge thanks to all our friends who helped with the move: Ingrid, Nigel and Emily, Brad, Andrea, Marco and Raffaella.
• An even bigger thanks to my in-laws, Ruggero and Marisa, who have done an incredible amount of work to help us out.  Of course, they'll get their reward: now their granddaughter is very close by and they can see her regularly.
• Italy is still quite maddening: it's a stunningly beautiful country with an amazing variety of natural and cultural resources, from the carved woodwork of the German-speaking Sud Tirol area, to the arid beachers of southern Sicily.  However, it has a lot of serious problems that no one has the will to face.

All in all, we're happy to be back, even if the future is very uncertain in many ways.