Here at Bellaugello Gay Guset House in the lovely corner of Umbria near Perugia I am still waiting for delivery of the long overdue sauna.  It was supposed to be here and operational the first week in October but as yet there is still no news of delivery date -hopefully mid November  sorry guys!

Don’t get me wrong I ADORE living here in Italy it is a wonderful country full of wonderful people, but can at times be frustratingly slow.

Recently I had to renew my driving licence and passport.  The procedure for renewing a driving licence here in Italy involves, visits to the doctor, form filling, two trips to the Automobile Club d’Italia after which they gave me a piece of paper in substitution for my licence and told me to come back in two weeks.  I returned after the two weeks to be given my old now out of date licence back together with another piece of paper that is a kind of licence – how overseas car rental companies will see the piece of paper I really do not know.  I asked ACI when I could expect my new licence, the reply – THREE MONTHS!!

My passport had to go to Paris, the British Government has closed the passport office in Rome and all southern europe is dealt with from Paris.  I pulled the forms off the internet, got a photograph, no smile, no grin, no open mouth, enclosed it with the completed application and a friend dropped it off at the office on a Thursday morning.  The following Tuesday I receive a call from a courier company wanting to deliver my new passport.  All done in FIVE DAYS!!

Ergo….