Central Post Office

At the end of the square, behold the central post office. It may not look like much on the outside, but I assure you that inside it is a modern wonder. The "poste italiane" have done a lot over the last couple of years to update their efficiency and image (they even have a jingle!). In an Italian post office you can do a lot more than buy stamps (actually, it's a lot easier to buy your stamps at the tabacconists, go figure...). You can mail letters and packages, do banking, pay bills, pay your traffic fines, pick up your old-age pension...let your imagination run wild. In the past, when you walked into the p.o. you had to jockey for position in a mass of people to see who could bully their way to the next available window first. Now, we are so civilised...when you enter through the double sliding doors (I wonder if they x-ray you while you wait between one door and another?), you have to punch several buttons on a machine, indicating what services you require. The machine duly spits out a slip of paper with a number that tells you what window to go to. There's still always a mass of people in there. And there are still fights over whose turn it is, but at least you have your slip of paper to prove that it really is your turn! Number 89 comes before number 98, right?