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> Beyond the broadband connection, the pace of life in Santa Fiora is slow, offering a sojourn far from city chaos and smog. Sample translation of what this me

> Beyond the broadband connection, the pace of life in Santa Fiora is slow, offering a sojourn far from city chaos and smog. Sample translation of what this means in practice: if you have something like a toilet clog, prepare to wait a week to have it fixed, at least; much longer if you do not speak Italian. Source: I spent a few months living in another small Italian town. The scenery is beautiful, but dealing with bureaucracy and mundane tasks like repairs or furniture delivery is a horrifying and unpleasant nightmare, especially if you do not speak the language.

fy20 5y ago
A few years ago I stayed in a guest house in a similar town. The WiFi router closest to my room wasn't working properly, and needed to be rebooted every few hours. I was there for a week and just got used to doing it (the staff showed me where it was). When I checked out I asked if someone is coming to fix it, they said "maybe next month".
stephenr 5y ago
I don’t know if apartment living has changed the brains of Americans but I don’t know many guys who when hearing it’ll be/waiting more than an hour or two, wouldn’t just go buy a plunger and drain cleaner. Necessity is the mother of invention, or in this case: learning something new (if you haven’t done it before). I moved to Thailand 8 1/2 years ago. I fully expect to buy a less-than-stellar house when we move back to Australia and do a lot of the renovations myself, using the skills I was forced to learn here, because of a lack of reliable tradesmen.
- Ansil849 5y ago
  > I don’t know if apartment living has changed the brains of Americans but I don’t know many guys who when hearing it’ll be/waiting more than an hour or two, wouldn’t just go buy a plunger and drain cleaner. Your reply seems to be making a lot of nonapplicable assumptions. #1, I'm not American, so I don't know why you're ruminating about the 'brains of Americans'. #2, I know how to use a plunger and drain cleaner, my comment was referring to issues that a lay person cannot readily fix; hence the need for a repair person and the lack of ready availability of such in small rural towns.
  - stephenr 5y ago
    > I don't know why you're ruminating about the 'brains of Americans' Because Americans often seem to have a fascination with living in shoe-boxes and divesting themselves of any personal responsibility for things like this. Homer Simpsons "can't someone else do it" attitude, effectively. > my comment was referring to issues that a lay person cannot readily fix There aren't that many things that can go wrong in the home, and that you would expect a person to come and repair, that you the occupant, can't also repair. Yes you will possibly need to learn something new. Welcome to life. A blocked toilet is most definitely one of the things you can fix. Calling a plumber for a blocked toilet is like the oft-quoted calling IT support for the unplugged computer.
    - SergeAx 5y ago
      > There aren't that many things that can go wrong in the home Until it is something about electricity or, even worse, gas.
      - stephenr 5y ago
        Electricity isn't magic, and while it can be dangerous, so can lots of other things we use/do all the time, and people manage to learn to use/do those things. I don't know what it's like in Italy, but here, it's arguably more dangerous to call an "electrician" because everything is "mai pen rai" (don't worry about it), including things you personally might actually worry about like, you know, having outdoor power sockets in a waterproof box, or sealing the underground conduit, or connecting an earth, or not just twisting wires together and taping them up, or turning off the breaker before connecting things to existing circuits. (Literally all things I've had to fix because "a professional" did it). Besides the wiring from the meter to the breaker boxes (yes boxes, plural, because $reasons), and the wiring to the A/C units, there isn't much in this house where I haven't had to change/fix some aspect of the wiring. Occasionally just to do something different, but almost always that inevitably ends up involving a fix for whatever retarded thing the previous "professional" did.
thefz 5y ago
> especially if you do not speak the language Then you are a bit naif if you expect everyone to cater to your language. You can't expect a foreign country to bend over backwards to accomodate you.
- Ansil849 5y ago
  Making the observation that it is an absolute prerequisite to know the local language is not the same as the expectation that everyone caters to yours. If anything, it is the opposite. That said, if a given city only speaks one language, that is a good indicator of how homogenous and monocultural it will be. For example, if you take a vibrant multicultural city like Toronto or London, you can almost certainly find a plumber who speaks your native language.
  - thefz 5y ago
    > That said, if a given city only speaks one language, that is a good indicator of how homogenous and monocultural it will be Which is not intrinsically bad, as you implicitly depict it.
- missedthecue 5y ago
  I don't think it would be that difficult for an Italian speaker to get furniture delivered anywhere in the US.
3v1n0 5y ago
True the language part. Wrong on the fixing side. At the contrary such places have full of people willing to help and with good engineering knowledge.
- Ansil849 5y ago
  It is not 'wrong', it is something I lived through for months. The issue is not that these places do not have anyone with the necessary skillsets, the issue is that the service takes much longer than in a larger town.

fy20 5y ago

A few years ago I stayed in a guest house in a similar town. The WiFi router closest to my room wasn't working properly, and needed to be rebooted every few hours. I was there for a week and just got used to doing it (the staff showed me where it was). When I checked out I asked if someone is coming to fix it, they said "maybe next month".

stephenr 5y ago

I don’t know if apartment living has changed the brains of Americans but I don’t know many guys who when hearing it’ll be/waiting more than an hour or two, wouldn’t just go buy a plunger and drain cleaner. Necessity is the mother of invention, or in this case: learning something new (if you haven’t done it before). I moved to Thailand 8 1/2 years ago. I fully expect to buy a less-than-stellar house when we move back to Australia and do a lot of the renovations myself, using the skills I was forced to learn here, because of a lack of reliable tradesmen.

Ansil849 5y ago
> I don’t know if apartment living has changed the brains of Americans but I don’t know many guys who when hearing it’ll be/waiting more than an hour or two, wouldn’t just go buy a plunger and drain cleaner. Your reply seems to be making a lot of nonapplicable assumptions. #1, I'm not American, so I don't know why you're ruminating about the 'brains of Americans'. #2, I know how to use a plunger and drain cleaner, my comment was referring to issues that a lay person cannot readily fix; hence the need for a repair person and the lack of ready availability of such in small rural towns.
- stephenr 5y ago
  > I don't know why you're ruminating about the 'brains of Americans' Because Americans often seem to have a fascination with living in shoe-boxes and divesting themselves of any personal responsibility for things like this. Homer Simpsons "can't someone else do it" attitude, effectively. > my comment was referring to issues that a lay person cannot readily fix There aren't that many things that can go wrong in the home, and that you would expect a person to come and repair, that you the occupant, can't also repair. Yes you will possibly need to learn something new. Welcome to life. A blocked toilet is most definitely one of the things you can fix. Calling a plumber for a blocked toilet is like the oft-quoted calling IT support for the unplugged computer.
  - SergeAx 5y ago
    > There aren't that many things that can go wrong in the home Until it is something about electricity or, even worse, gas.
    - stephenr 5y ago
      Electricity isn't magic, and while it can be dangerous, so can lots of other things we use/do all the time, and people manage to learn to use/do those things. I don't know what it's like in Italy, but here, it's arguably more dangerous to call an "electrician" because everything is "mai pen rai" (don't worry about it), including things you personally might actually worry about like, you know, having outdoor power sockets in a waterproof box, or sealing the underground conduit, or connecting an earth, or not just twisting wires together and taping them up, or turning off the breaker before connecting things to existing circuits. (Literally all things I've had to fix because "a professional" did it). Besides the wiring from the meter to the breaker boxes (yes boxes, plural, because $reasons), and the wiring to the A/C units, there isn't much in this house where I haven't had to change/fix some aspect of the wiring. Occasionally just to do something different, but almost always that inevitably ends up involving a fix for whatever retarded thing the previous "professional" did.

thefz 5y ago

> especially if you do not speak the language Then you are a bit naif if you expect everyone to cater to your language. You can't expect a foreign country to bend over backwards to accomodate you.

Ansil849 5y ago
Making the observation that it is an absolute prerequisite to know the local language is not the same as the expectation that everyone caters to yours. If anything, it is the opposite. That said, if a given city only speaks one language, that is a good indicator of how homogenous and monocultural it will be. For example, if you take a vibrant multicultural city like Toronto or London, you can almost certainly find a plumber who speaks your native language.
- thefz 5y ago
  > That said, if a given city only speaks one language, that is a good indicator of how homogenous and monocultural it will be Which is not intrinsically bad, as you implicitly depict it.
missedthecue 5y ago
I don't think it would be that difficult for an Italian speaker to get furniture delivered anywhere in the US.

3v1n0 5y ago

True the language part. Wrong on the fixing side. At the contrary such places have full of people willing to help and with good engineering knowledge.

Ansil849 5y ago
It is not 'wrong', it is something I lived through for months. The issue is not that these places do not have anyone with the necessary skillsets, the issue is that the service takes much longer than in a larger town.