New blog post:

[82mhz@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

New blog post:

I'm a wanted criminal in Italy. Well, maybe. Probably not
http://82mhz.net/posts/2026/01/i-m-a-wanted-criminal-in-italy-well-maybe-probably-not/

#blogging #blog

[stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@82mhz After 10 years, they can't do anything about that. So you're not a criminal anymore 🙂

I've had problems with Enel, too. When I bought my first house, it had just been build. Enel had a non existing address (a nearby street, number was 99999) and, despite the fact I sent the correct address, they started to send the bills to that nonexisting address.

So I didn't receive - and pay - the first bill. Long story short, one day they reduced my power. I had to contact them and pay (!!!) 70 more euros because of the procedure of lowering my power. They also said it was "my fault" because I had to call them and check if I had pending bills, after a couple of months (!!!). I got angry and wrote this was absurd - but nobody replied.

Things have changed, but those situation are still quite common.

But hey, don't worry. If they'll arrest you, just tell them you're going to call the Barista. They'll immediately let you go and beg your pardon. 😆

[jake4480@c.im]

@82mhz 😂 you're better than me. I would've just said fuck it and never tried to pay anything. 😂🤣

[lorenzo@snac.bobadin.icu]

Welcome to the real world

:)

[cinimodev@masto.ctms.me]

@jake4480 @82mhz Exactly what I would have done 😅. Bills better get to me before I leave. Once I'm gone you will have to send the Carabinieri

[dougmerritt@mathstodon.xyz]

@82mhz
Oh. That explains why we saw your picture in a "WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE" poster first in Rome, then later in Venice.

Italy is kind of peculiar in various ways; I sure hope that by now they modernized the billing thing you're talking about.

As an American I'm curious, how were you fluent enough in Italian to do that? I never learned more than a few hundred words of Italian.

[82mhz@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@dougmerritt
Well I lost my hair since then, so the posters aren't accurate anymore and they'll never find me 😄

I learned Italian for 2,5 years before going there... and it wasn't enough 😄 At first I had a lot of trouble understanding the people there, also because of the local dialect. After a couple of months it got better and by the end (six months almost) I wasn't perfectly fluent, but I could have a conversation without too much trouble. I told my colleagues at work to never speak English to me because I wanted to learn the language, which was difficult but it helped a lot.

[angel@triptico.com]

I'm a Wanted Criminal in Italy sounds like the title of a cool 80's newwave song

[82mhz@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@stefano
After ten years I'm off the hook? Such a relief! 😉

Your story also sounds like something out of Monty Python or so... but it reminds me that my colleagues there warned me about Italian bureaucracy and the fees by saying "in Italia si paga anche per l'aria" 😄

[82mhz@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@angel 😂 now that you mention it... somebody should write it!

[stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@82mhz true - luckily, things are improving, year by year. (this was in 2008, too)