László Varga

Today I went to make a bank account at Intesa San Paolo. It was my first time, so it was kind of new to me (I was not even sure if with my scarce Italian I would be able to even explain what I want).

I encountered my first strange object right at the entrance of the bank: the entrances here are not what one would call a conventional door. It is a cylinder-shaped double door: which opens up at a push of a button, you step into the cylinder, the outer door rolls in, then the inner door opens (rolls aside) and then you can get in. If anyone has seen the Jetsons, think of it like the strange elevator they used in their homes… 🙂 , it looks exactly the same! One of my colleagues told me that yes, it is nice and safe, but try getting in with a baby in a pushchair. He said for these purposes you can just sound the bell and an employee will let you in on a special, normal door, where you can fit in.

After getting in, things went a bit more smoothly: the employees seemed very friendly and advised me what kind of account to open to suit my need (well, which banker wouldn’t just to get the client 🙂 ). The bank-agent advised to open up a so called “SuperFlash” account, which is actually not an account, it is like a pre-payed card, owned by the bank. You will get a card, but you will not have your name on it, rather a user ID which you receive when signing up for this special account. It is ideal for people who want to use it just for a brief period of time, since it will automatically expire (you don’t have to close it). You also get your card and internet access info instantly, so no worries about that. Another big advantage of it is the fact that it is not actually an account, so you do not have to pay the regular account-taxes to the state for it. Here in Italy, if one has a bank account, he/she has to pay a tax of €8.00 every 3 months to the state just for having it. In case of this new special account of Intesa, you only have to pay the €9.90 yearly fee for “renting” the account. The whole process took about an hour, since these were the first special accounts they ever did (we are the little white labrats 😀 )

Theoretically a non-resident customer needs the following documents for an account:
– ID Card
– Codice Fiscale
– Passport
An important thing for people from countries which are a member of the EU but are not in the Euro zone (not using the Euro): from the banks point of view, you are not an EU citizen so only your ID card will not be enough, bring your passport along, too. They told me, that their software is a bit outdated and cannot handle this kind of situations. The interesting thing is that I have some colleagues, who actually had their account made without their passports… curious isn’t it? Well, it is Italy 😀 !

Genova celebrated the inauguration of two new cruise-ships today: Costa Luminosa and Cost Pacifica. For this occasion the aerobatic demonstration team of the Italian air force, Frecce Tricolori, has returned (last time they performed in Genova in 2004) to the city.

The show was held in the area between Porto Antico and Fiera di Genova, though most of the acrobatic presentation was done in front of Fiera di Genova (although my flat-mate said it was visible quite well from Nervi also). Luckily we picked Fiera di Genova to watch the show. The high-point of every act was literally in front of us.

Although Frecce Tricolori has 9+1 planes (the largest in the world), we could see 9 planes performing. Anyway, this was spectacular also, the way the pilots managed to synchronize the planes in a close formation at that speed was astonishing. They have drawn different shapes in the sky (with the Italian flag the most used motive) and did some high speed near-miss acts. The whole show lasted for 30 minutes during which they did 10-12 circles with different acts. The grand finale was of course the best: they flew further away and returned with their front lamps on, and when they got close enough they have let the red-white-green smoke go at maximum output, drawing an impressive rainbow-like Italian flag on the sky.

One of my friend has already seen another air-show and he said he was quite astonished at that time, but this has surpassed the other one by miles 🙂 . If you ever get the chance to see these guys perform, don’t miss out on them, they are worth it. (Photos on my Picasa account)

Taking the example of a lot of European cities, The Long Night of Museums has been organized here in Genova also. I have mostly seen privately owned museums since now, so I think it was really about time to visit other museums, too. The time to pick the visits couldn’t have been better: the entry fee into the state owned museums was completely free this night. The night of the 16->17 May was the fifth edition already of the Notte Tempo nei Musei.

We started off at around 8 o’clock in the evening to avoid most of the heat of the day. We took as starting point the museums of Strada Nuova: Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Tursi. There was a prescribed route through the 3 museums, with guides at every corner to tell us where to go in the ever complicated maze of corridors, rooms and stairs.

Palazzo Rosso was full of very nice paintings, sketches of a sculptor presenting 20’th century ideas and of course the frescoes from the top floor. Palazzo Bianco was next in line with a very nice garden, again paintings and frescoes and a clothes exposition. The last palace was Palazzo Tursi presenting paintings, sculptures, a porcelain exhibition and a coin exhibition. This last exhibit was very interesting presenting coins from the 12th century also.

After the museums of Strada Nuova we went to the Royal Palace Museum (Museo di Palazzo Reale). It had a very nice garden and imposing facade, but sadly we were told at 11:15, that all tickets were out ( !?!? ) for the last entry, so we were kindly rejected from entering… So much for the nice line of kind people we have encountered till that moment…

After this all museums slowly started to close and after a nice stroll in Porto Antico we decided to head home. Other than the museums, this little night-walk provided an excellent proving ground for my camera’s night photo capabilities. I shot every picture with manual settings… but I think I still have a lot to learn: Picasa account.