Italian bureaucracy is infamous, and for good reason. As a “high context culture,” meaning in Italy is often conveyed in subtle ways that a non-native speaker or foreigner might miss. Add to this that contemporary Italians- and especially Romans – are descendants of a culture that practically invented the concept of bureaucracy to manage a vast empire, and continued to fine-tune the institution in civil and religious contexts. Basically what I’m saying here is that it can be hard for Americans to get things done. We think that directions should be clear and straightforward, and that public offices and officials should be deferential and helpful to our needs. Well, dear reader, let’s take a trip to the Post Office for lesson #1 in How to Navigate the Italian Bureaucracy and see how things can go wrong.
Things have improved since I lived here in 2005-2006. Now, when you enter the post office, there is an automated machine that spits out a numbered ticket depending on what service you request. I was quite excited to see this bright yellow Prenotazione machine – perhaps too excited, as we will see. (Fifteen years ago you just had to wait in a line.) Nine or ten staffed windows helped customers and big screens listed the number served. The screen scrolled through at least ten different numbers at a time, and moved pretty quickly through the list. The machine gave me #81. Window 5 was already helping #80! Wow! Was it really going to be this easy? Of course not.
“Wow, was it really going to be this easy? Of course not. “
–Lauren, thinking this to herself upon entering the post office with a simple goal: to get a packet of forms.
I sat down among the generally bored looking people and prepared to wait only a few minutes at most. I had entered the post office to pick up a packet of forms required for a permesso di soggiorno – a “permit to stay” in the country, which must be filed 8 days after arrival. (If you’re wondering, I went to the P.O. on my day 7). Ok, back to the prenotazione- sportello (window) system. I sat down and saw 81 was next up. Great! But then the window serving #80 was now serving #82. What? Did i miss something? I went back to the big yellow machine, got a new number, 83 this time. Turned around, and window #5? Serving 84. Ummmm……okay? So I printed a new ticket. While I watched the window. My new ticket – hot off the presses? Already outdated. Seriously????
So I went to the window and tried to insert myself in between customers. That is where things went off the rails. I asked what happened to my number – all three of them. The attendant yelled at me that she could only do one operation at a time. I asked why the number the machine just gave me was already outdated. Did I mention that she yelled at me? Okay. So I asked a man standing there what I had missed.
He explained the KEY to the whole system. So, dear reader, is where I reveal the secret to the post office. Are you ready? Each number has a code next to it – at my neighborhood Poste Italiane, it’s an image. At the main station I went to the next day (spoiler: after all that, they didn’t even have the packets anymore), the code is a letter. In Italy, the P.O. is also a bank. So customers come for a wide variety of different needs, and the codes differentiate – something invisible to the naked eye, however. My code took me to a window in a corner where I couldn’t see it – which was serving #69. So, that 81 I got upon initial entry? Yeah, I needed to sit and wait. So the next time you need to visit a Poste Italiane? Look for the yellow machine, and pay attention to the letter or picture AND the number. Another example of hidden rules that you must navigate to get things done here. Once you figure it out, however, you do feel like you know something (plus you can get the packet and file the forms and go on with your day).