 |
 |
     |
||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Direct
access to our |
|
Subscibing to all required utilities It is most likely that gas, electricity and telephones have been turned off in the property you have selected. You will be required to sign new contracts with the local companies. Without a permesso di soggiorno and codice fiscale you cannot sign a contract. Bills are generally issued every two months. Payments can be made at the respective company offices, in post offices or through your bank. Water Supply The local Comune (municipality) controls water supply. Water charges are included in the general expenses in apartment buildings. Independent houses with their own water meter receive bills after meter readings. . It is customary for Italians to drink bottled mineral water. Electricity and Gas supply Electricity may be supplied by ENEL (National Electric Energy Authority) or by the Municipality depending on the location of your home. The electricity supplied is 220 volts, 50 cycles AC, bear this in mind if you are bringing electrical appliances with you. Either buy appliances that operate on 220 volts or you will have to get transformers. Some apartments do not have enough current to operate more than two major appliances. The electric meter can be upgraded but you will pay more for units of consumption. Cheaper residential rates are charged if you present a residence certificate. Gas is supplied by the local Municipality or by an authorized company. Gas is widely used for cookers and independent central heating. Water heaters are either gas or electric, gas heaters are cheaper and give instantaneous hot water. If you bring gas appliances with you have the jets and nozzles adjusted to the local supply before installation. The Italian Telephone System PRONTO – Hello, CHI PARLA ? Who’s speaking? is how you answer a call in Italy. The telecommunication system is rapidly changing in Italy. Most probably new carriers may be operative when you move. At the moment Telecom Italia handles most services. It will provide you with your phone line, phone directories and a very useful booklet called Tutto Città which contains city maps, useful phone numbers and postal codes for every road. A variety of hand-sets and answering machines are available, you can either buy them or rent them. They can be seen on phone books and requested or you can go to a Telecom sales outlet if you want something more sophisticated. Dial 187 to apply for a phone line and accessory services. If you are not an EEC citizen things become slightly complicated. You will have to send a written application by registered mail, Raccomandata, including photocopies of your documents and prepaid postal receipt for installation charges. Bills arrive every two months, they have to be paid within the date mentioned on the bill. There will be fixed charges for the phone line and rented hand sets besides the cost of the Scatti (units). Payments can be made through your bank or in a post office. Fixed telephone services were deregulated in September 1998. The following companies are now on the market, others will soon follow:
Mobile Phones Mobile phones are very popular in Italy, they are used indiscriminately almost everywhere. Presently three major companies supply this service:
Public Telephones Public telephones can be found along major roads and Piazze-squares. Cafes and bars with a yellow telephone dial sign have a public phone inside. Pay phones accept coins or disposable debit cards worth L.5, 000, L.10, 000 and L.15, 000. Tessera Telefonica –phone card, can be bought from news-stands, tobacconists, bars and from dispensers in stations and airports. Television Television set owners are required to pay an annual tax - Canone d' Abbonamento. TV sales are automatically reported to the government. The tax is paid at post offices in the month of January; fines for non-payments are high. The annual TV license for 1999 amounts to L.171.600. The Italian TV system works with the PAL standard. If you bring a TV with you buy a European system model or an international, dual- system set. Most buildings have a central antenna that receives broadcasts in Italian from the state-owned RAI (Italian Broadcasting Company) and numerous private channels. The RAI owns three channels: RAI Uno, RAI Due, RAI Tre. Major private channels are: Canale 5, Italia 1, Rete 4, Telemontecarlo, TMC 2 and a host of others that can be seen nationally or only locally. Some areas in the north can receive Antenne 2 in French and TSI from Italian speaking Switzerland. If you wish to see programs in any other language , you will need a satellite dish Antenna Parabolica. If you are lucky your building will have one otherwise you will have to get it installed. Inform the building administrator or your landlord before having one installed. With your dish antenna and receiver you will be able to see free channels provided by satellite operating companies, most popular ones in Europe are Astra and Eutelsat. Some of the channels you can see are: CNN (news), RTL, and Pro 7, Channel 5, Sat 1, TV5 and numerous other free channels. A digital decoder will give you a wider choice of channels, such as, CNN, Sky News, NBC Europe, Onyx (French), Canal 24 Horas (Spanish), RTL (Greek), Deutsche Welle and a number of Russian, Hungarian and Polish broadcasts. Pay-TV is available on subscription to providers, decoders can be rented or bought from the same companies. Providers in Italy are STREAM and TELE+. STREAM provides both satellite and cable TV. Subscriptions give you access to their Pay-per-View programmes. It has digital interactive programmes, as well. TELE+ offers a variety of subscription contracts. A digital decoder allows you to subscribe to their D+ channels and Pay-per-View programmes.
|
|
|||||||
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|