Disco, Disco, Music, and an Old Problem

February 18, 2008 · Filed Under Life in Italy · 3 Comments

We have a slight problem where we live in Milan. There is a sort of disco which backs onto our apartment block and the volume of the music, and in particular the bass, can get rather disturbing at times. Five times a week, on average.

Still, you can probably thank the disco music for its contribution to this blog, for without it I probably would not stay up so late writing posts and generally tinkering with this site. You could say it is disco music driven, as opposed to database driven, I suppose.

Anyway, back to the fray. After having made numerous calls to the local police, written to the local council etc about the noise, something has started to move, albeit rather slowly. Lately we’ve been kept up by various engineers who have been monitoring the noise levels, although this monitoring is something of a farce in that the owner of the boogie bar knows when the sound monitoring is taking place. Surprise, surprise, the volume of the live groups and djs is rather lower than its generally wall vibrating levels.

I have to admit that I’ve been half participating in the battle, sort of in the hope that it may pressure other half to move to somewhere quieter. Well, as I’ve mentioned recently, hope propels me, but, often, not all that far.

However, the funny thing is, this is not your average disco. The average age of its patrons appears to be around 70, and, no, I’m not kidding. These no longer spring chickens seem to have a lot of spring in their steps, and will bop the night away until 2 in the morning. Five times a week on average. I suppose this could explain why the oldies trundle around so slowly during the day - they are dog tired after having fevered Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night away. Crafty this pensioners. I reckon they just pretend to be old during the day, and then, when the lights go down, they go for it. Ever see the movie Cocoon?

Alas, the antics of these golden oldies generally mean that sleep during the summer months, when the windows are open, it not much of an option. I think I know why the music is so damn loud. You see, although these disco granddads and grannies can boogie like John Travolta could back in the old days, all this frequenting of discos post-retirement, has done away with their hearing.

I wish I could turn off my ears, I might manage to get some sleep.

But what really bugs me is that the apartment’s previous owners, in answer to questions as to how quiet the place was, told us that their dear departed dad slept like a stone in this apartment. Indeed, on one occasion the fire brigade was actually called because nobody could raise the chap from his slumbers.

Now, there are a three possible explanations for this in my not too humble opinion. Firstly, the old chap’s hearing aid batteries where totally flat. Or, secondly, guess where he spent his evenings? Yes, tiring himself out on the dance floor at the very same disco that is now keeping us from our slumbers. That would explain why he managed to sleep as soundly as a block of concrete, now wouldn’t it?

The third, and more probable explanation, is that the former proprietors were simply telling porkie pies ( that’s Cockney rhyming slang for ‘lies’, in case you were wondering).

The honest truth is that this here abode is about as quiet as a town hosting nightly concerts by Bob Marley and the Wailers. For the moment this little battle will rumble on, at least until we end up having to call the lawyers in. Then I guess that we’ll only have to wait another 10 to 20 years before the case is resolved, by which time, of course, we too may well end up frequenting the most fun place for the over 70s in Milan.

Well, as the old saying goes ‘If you can beat ‘em, boogie with them’, or something like that. Sorry, what was that comment? I can’t hear you too well. Not sure why.

Tags: apartment, bar, blog, boogie, club, dancing, disco, evening, fire brigade, fun, Funny, John Travolta, lawyers, live, loud music, Me, men, Milan, music, noise, old people, over 70, police, problem, Writing

Naples is burning, again

January 4, 2008 · Filed Under Naples · 3 Comments

Some time back, I wrote about the rubbish situation down in Naples. Well, it appears as though the trash story has flared up yet again. All the national news here is alight with images of huge piles of rubbish, and huge piles of rubbish alight.

I had heard that the Neapolitan trash thing had been resolved, but, it sounds as though the solution was of the ’sweep-it-under-the-carpet’ variety. Only, said rug has not proved to be big enough, and, ‘hey presto’, back to square one.

Naples’ fireman (sorry, should use the pc ‘firepeople’) apparently spent a most enjoyable New Year’s evening dashing around the city putting out burning rubbish. That’s when they were not dealing with the bomb sized fireworks so beloved of those down in the south. Sounds like they, the firepeople, had a pretty trashy time. Heh heh (I will not use ‘ho ho’, a) ‘coz Christmas is all but over, and b) ‘coz I don’t want to be accused of being non-politically correct.).

Anyway, talking of politicially correct, Prodi has been creating a certain amount of hot air over all the fire down in Naples, and all the other politico’s are, as usual, trying to put Prodi’s flame out, by, equally as usual, calling for his resignation.

Ho hum. New Year, but same old, same old, here in the Living Museum (I shall continue to use the expression ‘Living Museum, because I still believe there is some live here, even if others, slightly more jaded than myself, consider that the word ‘Museum’ is enough to sum up ‘modern’ day Italy).

Tags: Italy, live, museum, Naples, new year, People, Prodi, situation

Tackling lands of confusion

December 17, 2007 · Filed Under Work · 5 Comments

Whilst trying to stand this sausage thing on its feet, I’ve discovered that it is not all that easy to find the information you need. In Italy, getting the right, well almost, information often means wasting half a day or so in some anonymous public office somewhere, clutching the inevitable numbered ticket. And often these offices are only open for half a day.

On the other hand, get it wrong, and if the authorities do catch up with you, they will stamp on you hard, and you pay for your ignorance in the form of large fines. Explaining that you could not find out where to go to obtain the information you needed, is, of course, no defence.

Still, maybe I’m moaning about nothing. I mean, there are lots of foreigners who set up enterprises around Italy, and I cannot believe all of them are totally without the requisite permissions. Then again, with the right finance, you can hire a decent adviser and get him or her to dig around for you. On the condition that you know what information he or she should obtain for you, or feel that you can trust them enough to ‘get the job’ done.

Hiring someone to prepare the ground for you is an option, but, there are other options. Spending some time on the web can help, but you do need to know the terms you should be searching for, as I’ve been discovering. Once you have the right terms, you can target your search much more effectively. Knowing some Italian does not harm either, as you might imagine.

While Italy is renown for it’s Byzantine, or should that be ‘Machiavellian’, bureaucracy and complex legislation, it is by no means the only country in Europe where finding what you need to know is not easy. Apparently France is the equal of Italy, in terms of trying to set up a business.

Still, if and when you do manage to overcome all the little (!) obstacles, you should feel some sense of satisfaction, although once you are out in the ‘business battlefield’, so to speak, that sense may be rather short lived. In Italy, if you do start making some money, you may well find that the dear old tax man will whittle it all away rather quickly. This is in part why Italian businesses use just about any and every loophole they can find to keep themselves in profit, or it could be argued that it is as a result of Italian businesses exploiting every trick they can, that the dear old Italian tax man takes so much away. Catch 22?

Me, and my partner ‘in crime’, Gaetano, shall keep plugging away, in an attempt to raise our ‘child’ into ‘adulthood’. And as every parent will know, this is by no means an easy thing to do. And juggling other things around at the same time is not going to be easy, either. ‘Why do it, then?’, you may ask. Well, there are lots of reasons. Here are a few: creating something from nothing, being in control, meeting challenges, and, let’s be honest, cash. ‘Can we do it?’. Yes (I am arrogant), and we are sure as hell going to give it a go.

The ball will roll on, but, if it does not end up in the goal, we’ll have to be brave and call it a day. This is going to be the difficult part.

Tags: Business, finance, fines, Information, Italian, Italy, live, Me, obtain, set up business, tax