Parking Fines - Italian Style
Never had a parking fine in my life and then I went to Italy. Somehow I managed to attract two parking fines in one day. Not two different places. Not even two different days. Same car, same place, same day but two separate fines on the same day for two different days. Not quite sure how it all works. Upon arriving at the car to collect our forgotten CD wallet we noticed that the screen was plastered with 4 pieces of paper. Two infringements and two additional pieces of yellow paper. Unable to determine the cause of the tickets we approached a parking attendent who in broken, English, advised us, that despite the internet advice re parking, we had to pay the fines. Okay, accept the error but how to pay. No, not her. Fines were only paid at the Post office. Back to the apartment. More
interenet research; where was the local Post Office? A few streets from our apartment but now closed for the day. So on Friday, before breakfast, we made our way to locate the Post Office and to pay the two fines. Not too hard. One person serving, everyone complaining in Italian re the pace of service. We waited patiently with everyone else until it was finally our turn. At the service desk the lady behind the counter advised us that she would not process our paperwork. Non and waved us away. Une problemo. We were at the Post office and no one wanted to process our fines. What to do? Walk the kilometre to the Tourist Information Centre and seek their advice. Yes, indeed the first Post Office should have accepted our money and processed the tickets. Everyone knows that the Post Office in San terenzo is 'not professional' and very 'slow.' We didn't know that but now we did. The wonderful tourist information man gave us a map and showed us where the best post Office was as it was staffed by professionals. He was right Lerici post office was indeed most helpful. I congratulate them on their customer service. Thank you Lerici postal workers.
Never had a parking fine in my life and then I went to Italy. Somehow I managed to attract two parking fines in one day. Not two different places. Not even two different days. Same car, same place, same day but two separate fines on the same day for two different days. Not quite sure how it all works. Upon arriving at the car to collect our forgotten CD wallet we noticed that the screen was plastered with 4 pieces of paper. Two infringements and two additional pieces of yellow paper. Unable to determine the cause of the tickets we approached a parking attendent who in broken, English, advised us, that despite the internet advice re parking, we had to pay the fines. Okay, accept the error but how to pay. No, not her. Fines were only paid at the Post office. Back to the apartment. More
interenet research; where was the local Post Office? A few streets from our apartment but now closed for the day. So on Friday, before breakfast, we made our way to locate the Post Office and to pay the two fines. Not too hard. One person serving, everyone complaining in Italian re the pace of service. We waited patiently with everyone else until it was finally our turn. At the service desk the lady behind the counter advised us that she would not process our paperwork. Non and waved us away. Une problemo. We were at the Post office and no one wanted to process our fines. What to do? Walk the kilometre to the Tourist Information Centre and seek their advice. Yes, indeed the first Post Office should have accepted our money and processed the tickets. Everyone knows that the Post Office in San terenzo is 'not professional' and very 'slow.' We didn't know that but now we did. The wonderful tourist information man gave us a map and showed us where the best post Office was as it was staffed by professionals. He was right Lerici post office was indeed most helpful. I congratulate them on their customer service. Thank you Lerici postal workers.
What a nuisance!! One of the frustrating parts of being a tourist!! Some people are not very helpful are they, can relate to that we had some similar trials......
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