Life in Italy

When is it open?

When the time comes to get paperwork done here in Italy, one of the biggest challenges is finding out when the office you need is open.  For example, I'm getting ready to renew my driver's license, and since it is the first time I'll be doing it (the licenses are valid for 10 years), I decided to drop by the department of transportation and ask how I go about renewing it.

The first time I dropped by, as is often the case here, was useful only in that I found out what the hours were.  They happened to be Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 9-12 and Thursday 2:30-4. 

So today (a Thursday) I stopped by and found out the good news that it is quite simply to renew.  I just need to go make an appointment with their doctor for an exam and then after the exam they will take care of the rest.  Wow!  How easy is that!  So, since I happened to be driving by the office of that doctor on my way home, I stopped by to see if I could make an appointment.  Well, actually I stopped by so I could find out what the hours were so that I could come back and make an appointment.  And sure enough, they were not open.  Their hours are Mon - Fri 8:30-12:30 and Wed. afternoon 2-4.  So I'll go back another time to make my appointment.

Now, if all the offices had the same hours, it would not be so challenging.  But they do not.  Most have morning hours of some sort, but many pick one morning (good luck guessing which) to be closed, or to close early.  Many pick a random afternoon to be open, but there the hours are even more tricky.

But one learns to take it all in stride, and to try to make notes of which office is open when.  Of course that doesn't help when they change their hours, but it is a useful way to learn patience. :-)