Why Italian Post Offices Are Always Crowded

According to a piece on the Faster Times website, "An Italian post office doesn’t just take care of so-called prodotti postali (mail-related products), such as pacchi (parcels), raccomandate (registered mail) and telegrammi (telegrams), but also deals with many different money services (servizi in denaro), just as a bank does. Because there are post offices everywhere, businesses and public utilities use them as places to collect money from millions of customers nationwide."

They go on to say, "And so Italians go to the post office to pay bills (electricity, gas, telephone), fines, the fee for public television, and the car tax, among many others. They also can pay for various services provided by offices and public agencies, such as drivers’ licenses and trash collection.

"In addition to the money operations that cause most of the crowding, there are the mail services. You go to the post office to send a registered letter, a parcel (le poste also sell packaging materials), or a telegram (even if e-mails have made them nearly obsolete). If you weren’t home to receive a certified letter or a package, you need to bring the receipt that the postman left in your mailbox to le poste.

In conclusion, "L’ufficio postale also sells stamps, but no one is so insane as to line up just for stamps."

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