> Here in Italy there are at least three kinds that are fairly common. Well, one of them is the Europlug (the "small" 2-pin variant) and that works everywhere

> Here in Italy there are at least three kinds that are fairly common. Well, one of them is the Europlug (the "small" 2-pin variant) and that works everywhere in EU except UK. The problem is that the two grounded versions are peculiar to Italy and not the standard ISO ones. Italy lost its chance to switch to the ISO sockets (compatible with the Europlug) sometimes in the 90s, when the EU forced the adoption of 230V (+-10V) from the previous 220V. The legislator failed to force the use of the ISO grounded plug and now it is not uncommon to see in Italy sockets that are compatible with Europlug, the 2 Italian grounded kinds of plugs, Schuko and type C. It is obvious that these sockets are both clumsy and expensive.