Pay Parking Italian Style
Today I discovered how the pay parking system works in downtown Foggia. I had previously noticed the signs indicating pay parking from 9am to noon and 13h30 to 20h00, excluding Sundays. I thought it odd that street parking would have such a long lunchtime exemption.
It turns out this is because they have guys on every street that run the service. That's right instead of using the good old mechanical parking meters that have existed for decades, or the new centralized, solar powered payment machines, they employ lots of people to stand around and wait for cars to come and go.
Do they know that it is 2004?
Am I the only one that thinks this parking system is really messed up? It is no wonder I keep hearing about how messed up the economy is down here in southern Italy.
At the job site there are few if any locals employed. You would think that with unemployment in the teens, there would be people itching for work. Instead we have pipefitters from Portugal and the electrical contractor is unable or unwilling to staff the job properly.
This country once ran the world. I wonder what is in store for the UK and the US. I am still not convinced this is a first world country.
It turns out this is because they have guys on every street that run the service. That's right instead of using the good old mechanical parking meters that have existed for decades, or the new centralized, solar powered payment machines, they employ lots of people to stand around and wait for cars to come and go.
Do they know that it is 2004?
Am I the only one that thinks this parking system is really messed up? It is no wonder I keep hearing about how messed up the economy is down here in southern Italy.
At the job site there are few if any locals employed. You would think that with unemployment in the teens, there would be people itching for work. Instead we have pipefitters from Portugal and the electrical contractor is unable or unwilling to staff the job properly.
This country once ran the world. I wonder what is in store for the UK and the US. I am still not convinced this is a first world country.