Phones (Again)

So I thought getting a Spanish SIM card was difficult. I had no idea what it's like to get one in Italy.
Let's start with the fact that mobile shops in Italy are chaotic. There's always a huge line (think RTA during lunch break in the city) – you need to take a number and wait and wait and wait.
Then there's the opening hours. They may be selling high tech gizmos, but they are very very conservative with their opening hours. And in particular they all seem to take their siesta between 1:00 and 4:30 PM. I mean technology is all well and good, but still they all have to go home for mom's pasta!
Now, once you get to actually speak to someone, you find out that you need a fiscal code to get a phone here. What's a fiscal code? Good question – it's the Italian equivalent of the Aussie TFN, a tax file number.
I was beginning to feel a bit weak at the knees - imagining myself at the Italian Tax Office (*shudder*)... But all was not lost - there was a silver lining of sorts.
The silver lining is that getting a TFN is a piece of cake. You just need to go online, put in your name and date and place of birth (I put ROMA, because they only accept Italian cities) and it spits that code at you right then right there. It's not much of a code really. It's pretty much a combination of your name and date of birth... I could probably have just made it up...
Anyway, once you do that you go back to the shop, wait in line yada yada yada then complete a form, and then wait 48 hours for someone to type that form into a computer and ta-da... You're all set and ready to go.
So yeah – They may have the best pizza and coffee, but Italian red tape gives a bad name even to red tape.