#13: An Italian Emergency Department
It's been an eventful week here in Italy!
Following the triumphant return of David, visa in hand, he quickly made contact with the ever-dependable Tony the Fixer and has already converted his visa into a Permesso di Soggiorno application. We are now all officially residents of Italy and are no longer at risk of being turfed out of the country by any enthusiastic border officials or other bureaucrats. Phew!
We also had our first experience of the Italian healthcare system. Poor Leo had some kind of stomach upset, which wasn't so dramatic except for that after a few days he started to get quite dehydrated and unwell from being unable to keep anything down. So on a rainy Saturday night, I headed off to the emergency department (pronto soccorso) at the local hospital with il poverino.
Upon walking into the reception area, we found ourselves in a small room full to bursting with the usual crowd of sad faces you expect to see in an ED at midnight on the weekend. What we didn't see was any kind of staff member or medical professional. Of course my phone had no reception, so I couldn't even use the translate function to ask for assistance.
Eventually I appealed for help from some of the other people waiting, none of whom spoke English. Once it was established that I was there to seek medical attention for Leo, the whole room sprang into action. More than one person hauled themselves out of their chair to bang on the door into the ward and shout that there was a child who needed to be seen. Eventually a doctor came out and ushered us through, ahead of everyone else in the room.
It's testament to the Italian love of children that not a single person looked even remotely unhappy with this development, more satisfied and relieved that the child was being taken care of. I can only imagine the grumblings and side-eyes we would have received had the same thing happened back home.
Leo was taken up to the paediatric ward and admitted. They ran all sorts of tests, put him on a drip and showed us to a private room with a big cot for him and a single bed that folded down from the wall for me. It was all exceptionally clean and efficient. And even at 2am there was an interpreter on hand to help the doctors and nursing staff.
The level of care and attention was amazing, and at the end of his stay the following afternoon there was not a single euro to pay. We just provided our Medicare card number and it was all covered through the public health system. Incredible.
Leo is completely fine now, and back at school this morning after a couple of days at home to rest.
I spent a whirlwind 24 hours in Rome last weekend. Of course I made it a mission to eat some plates of classic Roman pasta - carbonara and cacio e pepe. I explored the new areas of the Roman Forum archaeological site that have recently been opened to the public, visited a museum I had never been to before (Palazzo Doria Pamphilj - absolutely amazing!) and otherwise spent my time wandering around the city. It was fabulous, but also incredibly noisy, busy and oftentimes quite dirty. The traffic was absolutely wild. When people speak about crazy Italian drivers, no doubt they are thinking of the Romans.
The end result being that I had a great time, but came home very glad we made the choice to live in a town like Lucca. It feels so serene, clean, safe and perfect for family life in comparison.
Lots of love!
Kate
