The Phrase I Seem To Hear Most Often

Warning: Sometimes I will use this blog as a place to vent about Italy, in general, and Aviano, in particular. I know, I know, I am lucky to live in Italy.

"Well, it's because you are stationed in Italy. If you were stationed anywhere else..." If we were stationed anywhere else is usually what I am being told when I'm about to hear how Italian law is basically set up to destroy anyone living in said country.

The first time I heard this phrase was when I had thought to move rolling over my 401(k) account into an IRA down on my list of things to do before moving to Italy. I thought, for sure, this was something I could just do once I got here. Thus, lessening my stress level a tad before getting out of Oklahoma. Whoa, was I wrong. Italian law is set up so that foreigners cannot, apparently, open any kind of retirement account (or anything resembling one) while living in Italy. Interesting.

That was the first time I was told that, if I had been stationed somewhere else, like Germany, I would have been totally fine.

The most recent time I heard this phrase was today. Remember, we got into a car accident on Saturday. A car accident that was not at all our fault. I was talking to our USAA representative today about the accident, and the other party, who is also a USAA customer. I casually asked what kind of system we would have set up for the other party paying for the rental car that we are most definitely going to need for the body work that the car is going to need. [By the way, taking care of things like this in Italy is never a quick affair. You need to factor in the fact that most mechanics are going to take long holidays for just about EVERY holiday that pops up. AND, they don't work in the middle of the day for several hours on end. For a handy little siesta time called "riposo".]

Anyways, my lovely USAA claims representative pipes in with the fact that we won't be getting a reimbursement for any vehicle that we would be renting. "Why not?" I asked incredulously. "If you recall, the accident was not at all our fault, and it's a severe hassle that we are going to be without one of our cars during this whole thing."

"Oh," she said (and I should have seen this coming from a mile away). "It's against Italian law for insurance companies to reimburse anyone for a rental vehicle. Unless it's a vehicle you use for a business. Like, if you were a door-to-door salesman. If you lived somewhere else, like Germany for example, this wouldn't be an issue."

Sigh.