I have a lot of examples just from the couple of month I have been here. It’s basically like Germany, just that it’s hard to find any useful information and different authorities tell you completely different stuff. And the worst part is, that they are so badly understaffed everywhere.

To collect my student ID/finish my enrollment, I had to book an appointment in advance, collect a number and wait 2h just to pick up this plastic card. The lady at the counter apparently did a mistake as well, so I had to redo the whole process, to see the lady again. Phone numbers or email addresses do basically not exist at the university. They have a ticketing system but you never get a response. So for every question you have, to stand in line for hours to get an answer.

Other story: I want to get Italian health insurance. The website of the health service says I have to get my residence first in order to get the insurance. The authority for the residence thingy says I have to get the health insurance first in order to get my residence. I asked another Student from Germany for advice and he told me that he put a lot of effort into getting Italian health insurance but he did not manage to get one.

If you want to get a monthly subscription for the public transport, you have to collect the ticket in person. You have to be there in time to get one of the 400 numbers they issue daily and wait in a super long line then.

That’s just three of the many things I experienced in the last month. It’s really grotesque how bad things work here. And it’s not only me as a German who says that. My friends from Belgium, France, Portugal etc etc have the exact same impression.

Let me tell you that in other places it’s even worse. E.g. Italy