el rinconcito

I was expecting some quotations of cabinet-grafitti
Doh ... expectations eh?
There is no wireless support here in public libraries and reservation is required if you want to be sure to have a terminal at your disposal.
I rarely make use of them and would never trust it either.
Better safe than sorry.

Here libraries do not have computers. Sometimes books. Italians do not read books and most don't know how to use a computer. Libraries are mostly used by kids to "study" (read meet girls/boys) and seniors to read their sport newspapers without buying them.

Here everything that is "public" does not work, it is just a way to employ people in fake jobs, soviet style and everything that is "private" is mostly a fraud, political and/or mafia style. There are exceptions but... for tell you one, A girl I know told me today she is spending 750 euros a month for keeping her son in the kidergarden while she works because there aren't free slots in the public places. In the same time here there isn't any official support for unemployed people.

First, language. In italian your "library" is called "biblioteca" that comes from greek and means "place where books are preserved/exposed". The word "libreria" instead means the book shop.

Here libraries are responsibility of the city offices. Italian and towns are called "comune (sing.) - comuni (plur.)", the world comes from the late middle ages and back then it had more or less the same meaning of the ancient greek "polis", an indipendent city-state and its surroundings. There was also the word "signoria" that means the same of "comune" but means there is some sort of dictator in charge. So you say "comune di Milano" (comune of Milano) and you mean the local authorities and/or the territory they are in charge of.

There are two different ideas on how the "comuni" should be financed and how many services they should provide on their own instead of the State. To make it short, in the center and north of Italy there is the idea of decentralizing as much as possible, so you pay some taxes to the local administration and they take care of lots of services. In the south instead there is a much weaker confidence in the local authorities and the idea is everything must come from the central State.

One more subtile difference is about religion. You know the protestants belive in the direct access to the holy writings, meaning everybody reads the bible on his/her own. This leads to the idea that people can use books in general to improve their lives. It is somehow the "manual" approach. Like you are fat and then you get a book "how to lose weight".
In the catholic tradition people can read the holy writings as well but there isn't much point in it because there is always the priest around that reads and explains them. Same goes for "culture", it comes from above, meaning you go to school to read books. So if you are fat you don't read the book but you go to a doctor (or the priest).

About money, basically we are a poor country, a banana republic. Then the problem is to define the priorities and then being able to follow a project. Like any banana republic most money is spent for the politicians, the generals, the big bosses and their friends or in some nonsense "dig an hole and fill it" job, while some basic services are non-existent.

wooow it cozy place.