It's the incongruities in Italy that get you.  How can a country have such high-tech, modern, well maintained highways and have parking lots where none of the automation works and they have to pay 2 people to help parkers insert tickets and figure out what cards are accepted.  God forbid these same workers actually stand in a booth and accept cash.  Today we literally got stuck in a parking lot.   Another example?  The government has a great recycling program.  You can recycle everything.  We have containers outside the gates of our apartments for glass, plastic (any), metal, paper, organic, garden refuse (different from organic), and standard trash (very little remains).  There are specific places to drop off meds (the pharmacies), batteries (the supermarkets), clothes and linens (also the supermarkets).  You just need to call and they will come haul away old furniture and appliances.  And yet the alleys and side roads are strewn with trash.  It is not as though people are saving money by throwing trash in the streets.  Every resident in this country pays a tax which covers the cost of all this trash collecting and recycling.  Then there are of course those strange bureaucratic quirks so prevalent here.  When you shop, in a market or a store, the cashier always rounds off the change in the customer's favor.  Small change is virtually useless.  But today GP had to buy a type of stamp that is used on official documents, the money for said stamp goes directly into government coffers.  The cost?  40 euro and 39 cents.  39 cents, not 40 or 35 but 39 cents.  Okie dokie.  And let's not forget their obsessive parenting that keeps kids at home til they're 40 but when it comes to education they throw up their hands and say "That's the teacher's job."  Italian parents adore and spoil their children.  They are carted everywhere, no sitters, and enormous quantities of money are spent on clothes, toys, holidays for offspring up til and well after attaining adulthood.  But as soon as those same kids are dropped off at the doors of their school it's all hands off.  Italian parents have zero involvement in their children's education.  Our school is about 60% local and 40% international but 99% of the parents who are involved with the PTA or volunteer as"Room Parents" or have any sort of interaction inside the school are international.  Italians are there for drop off and pick up.  According to the locals I know, this is typical.  Go figure.  xxoo me