Technology Has Arrived!

Taking a break from the travel information, here’s a post on some of the technology challenges of “Living in Rome.”

When my wife Jeff (yes, that’s her name – No, it’s not short for anything) first came to Italy she took our Nintendo Wii with her – a great sacrifice on my part! Unfortunately, we found out that our USA Nintendo Wii WOULD NOT WORK in Europe… or pretty much anywhere else outside the US. Moreover, none of the games would work either… And none of our DVD’s would work here. For a “techie” like me this was a tragedy. NO Wii, NO DVD’s, NO ESPN… I moved immediately to RESOLVE some of these issues.

So when I followed her over…the first thing we bought was a TV. Yes, our American TV’s would not work over here either. In the US we’re on the NTSC system and it appears that 95% of the world is on the PAL system (this is like a metric curse – only in electronics!). Even my CDMA cell phone (Verizon, of course) would not work in Europe – suffice to say, nothing we owned worked in Italy. Because I did not have a job yet, Jeff pointed out, “You don’t work in Italy either.” She had a point.

So we bought a TV and a €24 DVD player. We bought these at a shopping mall located about 15 miles from our apartment. We rolled our goodies – a 32” Samsung LCD TV, DVD player, and multiple forms of Euro wiring, plugs, and adapters – through the mall in our shopping cart. (This is a good idea!!! To get a cart, you have to kick in 50 centesimo but you get it back when you lock your cart to another cart – another good idea!).

Anyway, we “rolled” our goodies out of the mall and to the adjoining train station. Then we hauled the 4’ x 4.5’ TV box and multiple bags onto the train into town. At Trastevere, we switched trains (Jeff was muttering things at me… I went to my “Italian mode,” non capito, non capito!). After about six more stops in the 2nd train we got to our stop. We hauled the BOX (it was probably 5’ x 6’ by now…) down the stairs, under the tracks, up the stairs on the other side —- and out to the bus station. Then we waited for our bus and hoisted everything through the narrow bus doors. We rode the bus, filling rapidly, down the Via Cassia to our stop… then we “powered through the crowd,” further eroding American-Italian relations…

From there, we walked from the bus stop to … THE HILL!!! Hey, at least we were going DOWN the steep hill to our apartment. Small arguments and name calling ensued on the journey down the hill. I think Jeff got the upper hand in that (I did not know enough of “those words” in Italian yet…). We did finally get the TV home. But it was too big to fit in the elevator at our apartment so we had to carry it up six flights of stars – more name calling… I think some of our neighbors were joining in at this point. Finally I hooked it up – and all was forgotten – until we figured out the only channel we get with ANY English on it is MTV. But the DVD worked… but of course now we had to buy DVD’s here… and that was back UP THE HILL!

Anyway, back to the Wii. Since we have no TV, it seemed even more necessary to purchase a Wii. If Wii’s were scarce in the US, they were nonexistent in Italy at the time. I went to every mall and every Gaming store that I could find. I guess the general reaction was SHOCK that I would even ask about a Wii system. “Finito” is what I heard – which basically means, “No… no way… no how… it ain’t here… sold out… or you’re SOL.“

But whenever I’d ask, “When are you getting in more Nintendo Wii systems,” the answer was always the same – Domani! That means tomorrow. Okay, I was gullible enough to believe that in Italy, tomorrow WAS tomorrow… So when I showed up the NEXT DAY, the vendors thought I was nuts…. Okay so DOMANI does mean TOMORROW, in the far distant future of tomorrows! I’m convinced that everything happens in Italy DOMANI – I’m just not sure when that is…

But the reality is that to live in Italy you often hear “piano, piano.” This means slowly, slowly… To Americans it means PATIENCE. Things do move more slowly in Italy and more often than not… it’s not a bad thing! You just have to adjust… I finally found my Wii – and of course, now I see them everywhere! But I did learn “the” answer to many of my wife’s “suggestions. “Sure honey, I’ll get to that DOMANI!”

Now though we have the ultimate “expat” techno feature – a Slingbox. This XMAS we went back to the States for a brief visit. I purchased a Slingbox and hooked it up to my son’s DirecTV in Atlanta… and just like that, one year without US TV was OVER! I’m sure there was a parade somewhere! I came back to Rome a few days before my wife so I had some time to “break in the Slingbox.” My wife called me over the New Year’s Day Holiday and I was watching college football – then she called the next day… and I was watching more college football…….. and then she called…. Okay, I watched A LOT of football! Not to be outdone, when she came we watched together (okay, so it wasn’t football). But with the 6 hour time difference we soon suffered, Slingbox-somnia… Yes, you can really live on two hours of sleep a day. The novelty has worn off but we are still very popular in the neighborhood. We had a full house to watch the inauguration, I stayed up till 5 AM to watch the end of the Super Bowl, and we “digitally taped” the Oscars for friends. Our greatest joys are just to see the news – in English and of course, ESPN! So in a year we moved from not finding a Wii to establishing a US based tele-media empire! For a techie like me, I now feel at home – and it’s not even DOMANI yet!

Above are a few of the power tools you can use. Click on any for more information. There are many more power adaptors, converters, and transformers available through our Travel Store or check out Magellan’s Travel Supplies, and amazon.com.   Non-USA Guests can search for power-related items at amazon.co.uk.

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