FCO

I flew to Rome's main international airport, Fiumucino-Leonardo da Vinci for the first time the other day. I flew in from Istanbul around 8am with an hour or so to make my connector to Milan. It would end up being enough time...but only just. Ending up in Italy was not part of the original plan, but due to flight flexibility/costs I decided to go there for a day on my way home.

Exiting the plane, I had to clear security again in order move onward to the next flight. Nothing unusual about that, and I eventually moved through security...very slowly but surely. The funny part came when it was time to clear passport control. They had exactly two windows open for non-EU passport holders, which was hilarious given the huge number of people moshing their way through on a Monday morning at 8am. No lines to speak of, just a crowd of people trying to push their way to the windows. An angry woman would come out and yell at us every 5 minutes or so to make a proper line...or at least that's how I interpreted the Italian she spoke. No one listened...but then many of us probably had no idea what she was saying since anyone that spoke Italian probably had an EU passport and was passing through passport control on the other side without even having to wait. Nothing I could really do other than laugh at it all and try wheedle my way forward.

The whole things makes you wonder why. Why a country like Italy, that depends so much on its tourist industry, would allow such a disgraceful situation to persist. A lot of it you can just sluff off to culture I suppose. But that seems a little too convenient to just blame it on a disorganized, distracted, inefficient, and lazy culture...though those things may all be true. Incidentally, on the subject of culture, I will mention here that Alitalia flights I took were the first flights I have been where the pre-flight safety video warned people to "remove your high heeled shoes before exiting the aircraft in the event of an emergency evacuation".

Anyway, culture aside, I'm thinking that Italy in this situation is comparable to the star quarterback on the football team. When a guy is really good, the powers that be are likely to accept his foibles, whatever they may be, just to keep him on the field. Italy is the star quarterback of the tourism industry. Its sights, history, geography, weather, food, fashion, style, language, and yes, even people, are just that good. You can try to stay away if you want, complaining about the inefficiencies and ineptitude of the public sector workers...but at the end of the day, it's you that is missing out if such things keep you away. So given that people are not going to stay away, there's not a lot of incentive for them to improve I suppose. And what difference do such inconveniences make on peoples' decisions anyway...I mean, when I went through passport control in Helsinki there were more guys on duty checking passports than there were people in line. Now that makes for a quick trip through...but it and other examples of Nordic efficiency are not going to make a difference on whether I come back.

In the end, it's all part of the fun, and I suppose I should thank the Italians for being so disorganized...makes me feel like I've got it together by comparison.