This morning, I went to make my monthly pass for the metro. I asked just in case, if I could pay with credit card and of course they said no. I come from a region of France where I was using my credit card for even 1 euro. I always been scared of having cash in my purse, I think it’s scary, I always feel I’m going to be robbed and as well you realize at which speed you spend a lot of money. Actually the only time I got around 100euro in my purse, I got my purse stolen (murphy s law...). The problem is that in Italy, I don’t know if it’s a result of the old mafia black market or the fee that shops have to pay for the credit card machine, but they simply refuse the cards. You pay everything with cash, your electricity, your transportation pass, most of the restaurants, bars, last time I’ve been to “Terme”, I had to pay the entrance with cash and I had no cash with me… It’s been now 2 years I’m facing that aspect of their culture and I’m still not used to it. Each time I get pissed off cause you know that potentially, if you don’t have cash, you can’t do anything, you’re blocked.
Besides, I can't stop thinking : “waoh, must be so easy to hide money if you pay everything with banknotes…” But on the other side, the first time I went to a place and let my "scontrino" there, the people yelled at me until I came back. Was really weird for me, cause in France, you simply don’t give it or the guy throws it for you. But here, I got several shops/bars/supermarket pissed off cause I didn’t take the scontrino. One shop explained to me that they’re legally obliged to make a receipt and give it to you. A friend told me that if they don’t do it, they can get a fine, this has been implemented to fight black market. She told me as well that technically they have to produce it but the customer is not getting a fine if he doesn’t have it ! So basically now I take it and throw it immediately when I found a trash can…
Though, I read the other day that 1 out of 3 shops in Milan still pay the “pizzo” to the Mafia. When I went to Sicily I read a lot of thing about it but could not imagine it was still so active in the North. The ratio looks unbelievable. I really have difficulty in understanding how the economy works. I consider Italy as a modern country but there are still a lot of things not regulated. Most of the people I know work without contract, there is no min salary like you can find in some countries, people work during nights, weekends. Having a diploma means doing what they call "internship" for 2-3 years ( basically it means no contract, and not getting paid, I call it black market). Women that stop working for raising their baby know they will probably never work again, less than 30% of the women work. In brief, the working population is blocked in a vicious circle and does not know how to go out of it.
Anyway, I noticed that Italians have in their culture to go to the restaurant, eat pizza, take a coffee at the bar on a regular basis. Even if they don’t have a awesome salary, they keep in their culture the fact of going out and “godersi la vita”. It's a pity to have such a nice country to live in, where people are prone to enjoy life, and meanwhile have a workforce system that makes the people worried about how to make both ends meet and the younger disgusted by work market. OK I know crisis is everywhere but here the situation seems to have always been like that. My grandparents left Italy more than 60 years ago to find work in France, and I have the feeling that even if I love Italy, I'll have to go back to France soon to find a paid job...
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