[ExI] abandoning hope - the queuing experience

[Amara Graps]

Eliezer, Italy has a large percentage of the world's art.. For ex. If any
of those sculptures on a random street corner in Rome were moved to the US,
then the US local art curators would put glass around it and charge you
an arm and a leg to see it. In Italy, such art that is all over the
cities is free to see and for everybody. It will be rare to experience
such a phenomenon anyplace else, and it is an absolutely gorgeous place
to visit. When I decided to move to Italy, it was not only because I fell
in love with Serafino, it was because I thought that Italy was so beautiful
and so interesting. So I do  suggest if you have an opportunity, to go.
IF you have time, because time _does_ run differently in a cultural sense.

Most of what I listed is what people who live in Italy must experience
in daily life with the government bureaucracies. Not visitors; with the
exception of the airport and public transportation (that's not easy
either).

I think that Rome Fiumicino generally is an awful airport, but that is
partly slanted to my necessarily heavy use.. I don't care how they might
change its appearance (which occasionally happens); I need it to
function properly because all of my scientific colleagues are located
outside of Italy. In the last 3-4 years I've been traveling for 1/3 of
every month, which means that I've seen and experienced everything
possible that can and does go wrong there. Italy's overall
transportation system is not generally designed for ease of use and
comfort for the passenger, so that's the main point that the visitor
needs to be aware about.

Amara