It takes 10 Italians to change a light bulb. I thought about it and this is how many Italians it took to get our light bulbs changed. Well, 9 Italians and 1 very persistent Italian-American (me). Our Italian friend next door told me I should learn to laugh at the silly things here in Italy. He's right. I thought I'd share this funny (true) story of getting light bulbs changed here so you can all feel the experience of living in Italy. Here goes...
Italian-American #1 (me) tries to change light bulbs. Can't reach them without a ladder, so I ask for the maintenance guys at the school to help. Italians #2 and #3, the maintenance guys, ignore requests for help (multiple requests over several weeks). Eventually Italian #4, their boss, gets involved. He ignores the requests too (more than a month has passed now). So Italian #5, the boss' boss, gets a request for help....by now I just want to borrow a ladder and do it myself. He gets the other guys to at least respond. Here's where it gets really funny...
#2 leaves light bulbs at our door (wrong bulbs, no ladder). #3 leaves ladder at our door (wrong ladder). More than 2 months pass. I decide I'm tired of having no light upstairs because its so dark and cloudy here in the winter...try to figure out how to get this done once and for all...getting kind of mad. I mean, its a light bulb for God's sake.
Italian #6, our tall Italian friend, gets involved. He walks me over to boss #4's office, he's not there (of course). We walk to Italian #7, an administrative assistant, to ask for help finding #4. #7 tracks down #4 on the phone, and he says "we aren't allowed to change light bulbs for resident tutors." Hmmm...maybe someone could have said this 3 months ago? Still, I just want a ladder to do it myself. Go with tall Italian friend #6 to find ladder and bulbs...no luck. So he comes over to see if he can reach our very high light fixtures...he can by standing on a chair (to my surprise...but he is very tall after all). So now I just need bulbs.
I go to store #1, talk to Italian #8, the store clerk, and find out they don't sell light bulbs. So I drive our rental car to store #2 where they have bulbs, but the store is closed (of course....it's 3:00 pm on a weekday and I forgot that lunch in Italy is from 12:30 - 4:30 ~ seriously). So I go to store #3, but of course its closed too. Finally, store #4 is open. I get help from Italian #9 at the store and find 2 of the 4 bulbs we need. So I try store #5, they have 1 of the remaining 2 bulbs we need...good enough! Return rental car and take the bus, driven by Italian #10, home to get help from tall Italian friend #6 to change the light bulbs.
After all this...3 of the 4 light bulbs are changed. It only took a few months, 9 Italians, and 1 very persistent Italian-American to get it done. I think if you remove the 1 persistent Italian-American from the equation you are lost in an endless loop tracking down a ladder and a light bulb.
Ciao,
Tom
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