Specchio dei Tempi, Letters of Monday, January 29th

One reader writes:

“Once upon a time, signs announcing roadworks in the city indicated not only the start date, but the completion date. Now this second date is almost always omitted and replaced with “until close of business”. It means abandoning planning, not being able to meet certain deadlines, and accepting “work on the horizon” also known as “we'll start it today and then we'll see how it goes.”
An unfortunate stunt that should be prevented by a serious municipal administration (which gives licenses to occupy the lands needed for excavations). Serious management…”
in Arabic

One reader writes:

“Italy is part of the association of the world's largest economies, known as the G7; Within this small group there are four countries (Canada, USA, Japan and UK) where you must have a valid passport to travel for business or leisure reasons. It is unthinkable in a democratic country (we are not North Korea!) that, in order to obtain a passport, we would have to make morning or night attempts to reach the “passaportionline” website, and then discover that there are no places available. I think it's easier to win the lottery than get a date. I would like to point out that I obtained my first passport in 1973, and I had just graduated from high school at the time, but had not yet reached adulthood. It was delivered to me late because, due to the European Cup Final in Belgrade between Ajax and Juventus and the large number of passport applications, the police books at Turin Police Headquarters had run out and the computers were not present at that time.
In the following years I had no problem obtaining the document. My last passport, dated 2010, allowed me to continue my professional career after a European project with Lebanon and Jordan. In the midst of the Covid crisis, my passport expired, at the same time Britain left Europe, and now if I had to go to London for any reason, I couldn't. Is it possible that we cannot do anything without resorting to the Italian “recommendation” procedure?”

gf

One reader writes:

“I am based in Milan but I lived and worked in Turin for many years. I have traveled extensively in Italy and around the world for business and pleasure, and unfortunately I must point out, year after year, that I have never seen public transport as old, dirty and rickety as here in Turin and in any other city in Italy and anywhere else. The world (not to mention major European cities). Leave aside the elevators and escalators in the subway. A bad image of the city and the services it provides to citizens and tourists. what a shame”.
Jaco Bala

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