The devil in the red & yellow disguise

Please don't judge me but its my third day in Italy and i have already had....McDonalds...ahhh
It was a rash decision in an overwhelming food court. OK OK overwhelming might be an over exaggeration in order to justify this disgraceful effort.
The easy order menu and the fact that the girl behind the counter spoke English led me to the devil in the red & yellow disguise.
So i beg of you please don't judge me. I am not proud of my actions....I'm even ashamed that in this land of beautiful food, fear of speaking led me to 'Maccas'


Today i traded my soul to 'Maccas' for the sake of not speaking. As a tax for this behavior there was something printed in the small print of this deal that i did not see. I got to eat my hamburger but i had to trade one whole day of my life and give it to the Italian bureaucratic bastards

I had often asked my Italian friends why they come to live in Australia in droves. Their answer was always the same " Why the life in Italy is hard, the government is corrupt and unfair yada yada yada "
I would think to myself 'Gee Italian's are wingy bunch' they come from this magical land full of beautiful women, food and wine...Whats wrong with you all.....? but after today the sheen of Italy is a little duller in my eyes. Don't get me wrong, Italy is still very shiny and beautiful but today i saw Italy through the eyes of an Italian as i tried to get my ' permesso di soggiorno' a sort of ' Permission to stay in the country' even though i already have my lovely new working holiday visa stamped in my passport!

For one entire day being told to 'come back later this office is not open until we say so', being pushed to this window, that window, through that door, eagerly holding a ticket for our turn in stuffy waiting rooms...only to be told we don't have the correct documents.... "NEXT" .......

Everybody in these government offices seemed to be doing not much else but keeping everybody waiting. All the time with this collective smug smirk that said " lets see who cracks the shits first...and when they do we will just tell them to get out...COZ WE GOT THE POWA "

If it was not for Luca that person would have been me. I was so close to chucking my hands in the air, saying something in dirty Aussie slang and then a VAFFANCULO just to stick it to them....and as i walked out watch their collective smirks turn into collective grin as they say a slow and victorious " ...We won...."

Well they did not win today. We played the game and after 9 hours came away with a receipt to say that i can come back and do this all again next week for my ' formal certificate of permission '...VAFFANCULO!

I'm never eating 'Maccas' again!