So, we have all heard the stories about how awful Telecom Italia can be (all of us who have ever decided to live in Italy that is). The behemoth of bureaucracy in Rome, the black hole of customer service. I think a lot of it is cliche - I have had terrible phone/Internet service in Hoboken, NJ (no dial tone every time it rained), Philadelphia, PA (no dial tone at all for 2 days - after I had DSL "installed"), St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (I won't go into that one...) - and now - Florence, Italy, so it can happen anywhere.
Our line went dead last week - either Tuesday or Wednesday, I can't even remember. It is pretty inconvenient for someone like me who depends on the DSL to work and to play - when the Internet goes down I realize just how much my life is attached to it (work, news, weather, recipes, my telephone messages, paying bills, more work, etc.). There just aren't many things I do now that don't have an Internet connection component. The first couple of days are the worst. Right now I am at Internet Train on Via de Benci - spending 12€ for 3 hours of access. This is my 12th hour of the week so far (yes - that is 48 euros - more than a month of DSL at home) - I also have spent several mornings at office of a generous friend.
But the point of this post is TELECOM ITALIA! They have called twice to tell us the line is fixed - it is still stone dead. They have promised to have it fixed every day since it went down. Nothing. It is really hard to yell at someone in Italian when you can't even speak Italian. Plus, I have pawned the problem off on Ellen, since my Italian is useless. Anyway - end of rant - I just need my phone fixed, and figured I would add my Telecom story to the legend...