The letter you see above from RAI, the Italian TV networks run by the Italian government, was delivered yesterday by our post woman. Here's a little tidbit you should know about if you are ever thinking of living in Italy- if you have a TV in your apartment, you must pay a special tax to the Italian government of 112 Euros per year, just to have the luxury of plugging the TV into an antenna. Isn't that something? Fortunately for us this wasn't a shock . (It was a shock when we initially saw it spelled out in our lease! ) Can any American imagine getting taxed on their TV's every year??? Tomorrow we'll be making a stop at the Post Office to pay the RAI tax. There's something every day, huh??
Speaking of something every day- this morning a little after 9am I was sitting in bed enjoying a cup of tea while checking email on my iPad when I felt a slight vibration. It lasted only about half a minute. I thought it was unusual, had no idea what it could have been and wondered for a second if it could have been an earthquake, but quickly dismissed it. I put it out of my mind, until later this morning when I read the newspaper to discover there had been an earthquake of magnitude 4.9 this morning centered in the Mantova, Parma, and Emiglia area that reportedly was also felt all over the Veneto area. I can confirm that, I felt it. Did anyone else?
9 comments:
Karen, welcome to our world! Here in the UK you need a TV license too, and it's about the same price.
Re the 'quake', I've gotta ask:
Did the earth move for Mike too? :-)
(Sorry, couldn't resist)
Rob
Rob- thanks for making me laugh!! Sorry to say the earth did not move for Mike, he was already up and working!
I don't think any Americans would go for a TV tax in America. It's unAmerican!
Can you use your lap top to watch TV things? That seems extraordinary to tax watching TV especially Italian TV which I find incredibly insane... WOW and earth quake! Anything larger would be quite a mess there I should think!!!
Get yourself an 80 year old, Rob. My mother-in-law lives with us (no m-i-l jokes - she's great!) and they are exempt from paying the licence fee for any televisions in the house.
Finland is going to introduce a media tax for financing the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation as well, higher than that of Italy and for everyone over 18 to pay, no matter whether you own a TV or not. Sounds like a real Soviet system to me...
I was at work and the floor started to "bubble" under my feet. Then it continued and the whole office started shaking. My colleagues started to run for it, but I just sat in my place saying "stay calm" trying to think if I could make it to the stairs to get out of the building.
It lasted about 10 sec, but it seemed like 10 minutes.
Then it stopped, but it did feel like it was still shaking.
Pretty bad experience, but this is not the first one
Cheers!
Actually if anyone in the US has cable TV...just read your bill...you are taxed monthly for watching that TV. I couldn't believe all the taxes and fees they ad. Almost as bad as the airlines.
Michelle- yes, I remember those on our cable bill, and they are on cable bills here also. However, we don't have any cable. So just to have the f-ing TV sit there, we pay TV tax, or pay a fine.
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