Put this Bureaucrat in Charge of Italy!

Rome is a blast!  History everywhere, a delicious pastry shop around every new corner, fantastic trattorias surround us...but the user interface is horrible!  The customer service is a joke.  Here's one example from today's primary destination, the Capitolini Museum. 

The layout of Capitolini Museum combines with the worst maps and signage that I've ever seen to create a feeling of being constantly lost.  I understand these are old buildings, but even the cafeteria showed a complete lack of understanding of the purchasing process.  There is a menu at the entry, then a surly cashier who would rather count money than answer questions, and around a corner, there is a delightful selection of sandwiches.  So, every customer walks in and walks to the sandwiches.  They shuffle nervously for several minutes, peering over the counter at the cashier, some pleading with their eyes, the others saying "Scuzi?".  The cashier turns and snarls "you must pay first, menu over there!", indicating the plaque on the wall by the entry.  The "customers" then sheepishly walk back to the door, and look at the menu.  Unfortunately, based on the descriptions on the menu, it is virtually impossible to figure out which of the delicious looking sandwiches that you've now already seen is identified by the cute name on the menu.  So, you either have to take a flyer and order a "Pantheon" and hope you like it, or you have to say "Scuzi?" again and interrupt the snarling cashier, then point to a sandwich and inquire "Vas ist das?", pretending to be German since everyone hates them here, and you're already feeling hated so why not go all-in?  The cashier snarls the answer, you order it and pay, trying to give exact change so that you don't have to get "the look" that says "stupid turista, can't you count?"  Finally, you get your sandwich.

So, after all of this, I realized that I had seen evidence that there is one brilliant bureaucrat somewhere in this city who gets it.  We're tourists, we're lost, we don't speak Italian, and we need signage we can read and understand.  What better way to tell us where we are than this?

That's right, somewhere in Rome, there is a public servant smart enough to label the trash cans by location.  Brilliant!  As I tossed the cup from my 4th gelato into the bin, I suddenly knew exactly where I was on the map.  It was a feeling unmatched at any other time today.

More later on the museum...now it's time to go to the world's best deli, so I'll leave you with the world's worst case of foot odor.