People with disabilities in Rome and other Rome, Italy Local Custom Tips

Please see http://www.romaccessibile.it/en/index.htm for information on movemento within Rome for the disabled.

Notice on the menu on the right-hand side "Links to other sites" which will provide much more information than this site does.

Also, the main train station in Rome maintains a shuttle for disabled people and the elderly. The station's website says

"Free transfer there and back from Rome railway sations and airports to the hotels.

The service is reserved to disabled and elderly people.

Booking everyday from Hotel Reservation desk or calling the call center at 06.69.91.000"

See http://www.romatermini.it/pagine.cfm?cont=m_3&lang=en and look for "Courtesy Shuttle".

Bill

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Website: http://www.romaccessibile.it/en/index.htm

Italian Bureaucracy can be dealt with if you have a sense of humor and understand how to play the game...it also helps to speak Italian pretty well but with a definite accent so that the bureaucrats know that you re a foreigner.

First of all, recognize that Italian bureaucrats are terribly bored. Anything you can do to make their lives more interesting will help. I once took two of my students down to Stazione Termini to ship their luggage to London. We found the office, and walked in past a long-haired backpacker who was arguing with a uniformed guard. The bored office manager listened to my request and slowly pulled out the forms needed to send the luggage ahead of the girls. He asked me in a disinterested way what I did, and I told him that I worked at an American university, and these were two of my students. He eyed them, and we carried on talking about the fact that they were really attractive and how it must be great working in such an environment, surrounding by really beautiful co-eds. I am SO grateful that the girls did not understand Italian, because even in the 70s, the conversation was not politically correct.

However, the entire time we were talking, he was filling out the forms. Soon, he was finished, and the total bill was a ridiculous 4,000 lire (a few dollars). We said goodbye, and as I and the two girls were leaving, we walked by the long-haired backpacker who was still arguing with the guard.

See next tip for another example...

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Another time, one of my students received notice that a replacement camera that his parents had sent him was in customs at Fiumicino (Rome's main airport). We went to go get it. While in the office waiting for the paperwork to be typed up, I noticed that the import tax to be levied was over 200,000 lire (about $250 dollars). Surprised, I turned and asked my student just how expensive this camera was. He said it was cheap, so I asked the Italian in charge how this figure was arrived at - it turns out that his parents had insured the camera for $500 (probably 4 times what it was worth) because it never occurred to them that anyone would actually use the figure.

By this point, the student was somewhat hysterical - since he probably didn't have $250 this late in the semester. The Italian office manager and I continued talking, and he finally asked me if the camera was used. Well, I had no idea, but, yes, the student thought that it probably was used. "Well, why didn't you say so?" he exclaimed.

A whole group of people (Italians love a good show) followed the office manager and the student and myself over to the customs vault, where all the stuff waiting to be claimed. The office manager rooted around in the vault, came up with the box, pulled out the camera, and voila' (excuse my French), the camera had a scratch on it, so it was officially determined to be "used".

Oh, the import price? 2,000 lire - about $2.50.

In any case, talk to the bureaucrats, treat them like people, pretend to be a some dumb foreigner who needs their help, and I think you'll be surprised how often they'll help you. Yes, sometimes a (monetary) tip after the fact (not before!) is warranted - but given how much time they may save you, it's well worth it....maybe I'll tell you about the experiences with the post office some time...

Bill

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When I was Assistant to the Director of the Rome Campus of the University of Dallas, one of my duties was watching out for the students - especially the female students. American "girls" (i.e., about 19 years of age and sophomores in college) from rural parts of the U.S. do not natively know how to handle come-ons and passes from men in large urban environments - like Rome.

One day, I was sitting in Piazza di San Pietro, waiting for the school bus to come. With me were several UD students. Suddenly, 3 of my female students walked by, hand-in-hand with 11 Italian soldiers, headed for the bus stop. Muttering to the students near me "This I've got to see", we all followed the crowd to the bus stop.

When we arrived at the bus stop, I saw the 11 soldiers all trying to collect kisses from my three students. The girls - all being from smaller towns in Texas - tried to say "No" and push the soldiers away, but ruined the effect by giggling.

So here I was all of 24 years of age, and I was going to have to chase away 11 men in uniform. Great.

I stepped up and said loudly in Italian something like "My students have to go now".

Suddenly, 22 hands flew up in the air, and the entire band surrendered, claiming in a babble of words that they didn't mean anything, no harm was done, and they were just leaving...

See next Local Custom Tip - Surprise ID of 3 Coeds...

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The most remarkable thing that happened that day in which I saw 3 of my students hand-in-hand with 11 Italian soldiers was not that I was able to chase the soldiers off so easily (I didn't understand the culture so well then), but actually happened several hours later that same day.

I was sitting in my office telling this story to Dina S-. Dina was the daughter of one of the owners of the building that UD was located in. Dina spoke far better Italian that I did, but with a very noticeable New Jersey accent.

While I was telling Dina this story, I was thumbing through the student IDs that had just come in for all the students on campus. I was just about to pull out the IDs of the three girls who had been the center of so much attention, when Dina stopped me, and said "Give them to me."

Surprised, I handed over the student IDs, little folded cardboard things with a photo inside. After a few seconds, DIna pulled out and handed me three cards. They were the cards of the three girls in question.

I was astonished, since I hadn't told Dina their names. How did she do it?

Dina explained that it was easy. Girls from rural areas of the U.S. - especially the South like Texas - have this easy, open expression, that makes them total suckers for men in urban environments. These girls all had big smiles for the student IDs, something that girls from urban environments don't do. Girls from U.S. rural environments don't know how to say "No" rudely, because they never really have to.

Please see the next Local Custom Tip - "Why Some People - Like Coeds - Can't Be Themselves."

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A few weeks later, one of the girls in the previous Local Custom Tip came in to my office in Rome. She was in tears.

"What's the matter, Suzanne?" I asked (not her real name).

"I can't be myself here," she replied.

After some discussion, I figured out what she meant. As one of the three girls in the previous tips, Suzanne was open, honest, and, well, "what you see is what you get". She was totally unprepared for an urban environment full of all sorts of people, including hucksters and con men and wolves (the two-legged variety).

At home (a town in Texas), she was taught to smile at strangers, be friendly and outgoing, and, in general, exhibit the same personality in public as in private.

In Italy - as is true to a greater or lesser extent in all European cities - people have two faces: the public face that may be polite, but reserved, and the private face that is unreservedly friendly.

In Texas, when a male stranger asks a woman for the time, she is likely (if from a smaller town) to smile and answer the question. If she turns away after that and minds her own business, the man should, too. But in Italy, if the woman smiles at all(!), it's considered a come-on, even if she turns away. The man keeps pestering her, because by HIS rules, she come on to him, even though by HER rules, she was simply being polite, not asserting any interest.

This is very hard to teach people, but for many Americans, the biggest culture shock is learning that the unwritten rules of how strangers interact just aren't the same - and this leads to so much misunderstanding and mistrust...

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