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LIVING IN ITALY

Disappearing PECs: How lost emails can land you with big fines in Italy

Ever get the impression that your important emails to Italian authorities just mysteriously vanish? You're not alone - and a missing PEC can prove expensive and stressful, as Silvia Marchetti explains.

Disappearing PECs: How lost emails can land you with big fines in Italy
You'll need to beome familiar with Italy’s registered email (PEC) system. Photo: Mario Laporta/AFP

In recent years in Italy we’ve all had to learn to use a PEC; a registered email to send important documents and messages. It’s been hailed by Italian authorities as a time-saving, equally-legal substitute for registered mail with an eco-friendly impact, reducing the amount and cost of paper and postage.

However, although it has been introduced to help people better communicate with public offices and reduce bureaucracy, PEC can sometimes be a nightmare and is not always reliable. Emails often seem to go missing or never get a response. 

EXPLAINED: What is Italy’s PEC email and how do you get one?

It’s slippery ground. When I was fined for speeding I had to send the police office a copy of my drivers license and personal data to confirm I was actually the driver at that specific moment. I sent everything with my PEC to the PEC address on the police document and paid the fine.

My PEC system said my message had successfully gone through but the recipient had rejected it because their mailbox was full.

I thought that wasn’t my problem.

But last week I received a certified mail from the police stating that I have to pay a new fine of 311 euros because I had failed to send the requested personal data for identification.

I called the police office. In a very impolite tone a woman said it was “weird” they never got my PEC because they “always do”, so in her view it never went through and I should have sent a registered mail. 

So my PEC operator had successfully relayed the message to the correct PEC address, but the sender’s PEC system did not download it. The woman told me that if I didn’t get a “certified relay message” acknowledging police receipt of my PEC message, it was my fault. Practically, it’s as if I had never sent the message in the first place, and got fined because of that. 

“You should have kept re-sending the same message over and over again until you got the OK message from our PEC mailbox”, said the policewoman. 

I tried resending it again four times, including with another non-PEC address, and again I got an auto-reply saying ‘the recipient’s PEC address is either wrong or the mailbox is full’.

Whenever sending a PEC with your PEC you should always get two confirmations, ’sent’ and ‘delivered’ with a green checkmark, just like when upon receiving a registered mail you need to sign before the postman hands it to you so the recipient knows you physically got it. 

With a digital PEC, that signature is the confirmation of ‘delivery’ to the recipient. So if you don’t get the second confirmation, or it does land but says ‘mailbox full’ or ‘recipient address unknown’ (with a red cross), you have a problem – even though the system said it was indeed ‘relayed’. 

READ ALSO: How to use your Italian ID card to access official services online

In order to avoid these risks, the only way to make sure your message reaches its target is to revert back to traditional ‘posta raccomandata con ricevuta di ritorno’ (registered mail with return receipt). It remains way more safe and reliable.

Debating with public employees in Italy leads nowhere. The policewoman cut the conversation short by suggesting I appealed against the latest fine to the local court by writing to the same PEC mailbox which was full. 

From the way she said it, I had a feeling that such appeals against a PEC email not correctly notified to the police because of a full mailbox or system errors are quite the norm when dealing with fines, and that the police are confident they would be ok in front of the judge.

Several colleagues of mine have had the same problems. A reporter in Molise sent a PEC message to his telephone provider communicating that he had changed residency and was no longer the owner of the land line, but the message did not go through. He only found out weeks later when the operator kept withdrawing money from his bank account to pay for the monthly phone bill. 

Courts have started to tackle PEC issues following appeals by irritated citizens whose emails seem to have vanished. 

However, there are contradictory verdicts over who wins between a quarrelling ‘sender’ and ‘recipient’. While a 2018 verdict by the Supreme Court of Cassation states that the holder of a PEC must keep the mailbox operative and that a message is considered ‘relayed’ even if rejected by a full mailbox, according to another recent ruling the sender must make sure any message to a public office actually lands by reverting to registered mail so as to enable the recipient to be legally notified of it. 

A piece of advice: when it comes to messages involving trials, appeals, or sending payment or proof (for a fine, bill or tax payment) particularly to the police or any other public office involving sanctions, traditional mail will spare you anxiety, frustration and money. 

Member comments

  1. Italian bureaucracy at its finest. Invent a complicated tech solution to a complicated problem to show you are innovative, but end up making the process more unreliable.

    No other country in the world has an equivalent of pec, yet everyone seems to get on just fine.

  2. I think you could make an appointment with your local Giudice di Pace. He has the power to suspend that fine until he is able to hold a hearing (which could be months, but so what?). Since no one from the police department is likely to show up for the hearing, he’ll probably toss your fine.

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EASTER

‘No Friday off and food galore’: What to expect from your first Italian Easter

If you're spending your first Easter in Italy this year, how might it differ from your home country? The Local’s readers tell us about their first Pasqua in Italy and the things they found most surprising.

'No Friday off and food galore': What to expect from your first Italian Easter

For many Easter-celebrating people around the globe, this is a time to be with family, eat lots of chocolate, and maybe participate in a church service or two. But of course, traditions in each country are different.

After living in Italy for a while you might get used to seeing a certain dove-shaped cake (la colomba), the lack of a certain Easter figure (the Easter Bunny) and eating fish instead of meat on Good Friday.

But the first Pasqua (Easter Sunday) and Pasquetta (Easter Monday) you spend in the country will always come with its surprises.

No day off on Good Friday

Like many people who move to Italy, Robbie Sossi told us he was “absolutely astonished” to find that Good Friday was not a public holiday.

“We sent Easter cards to everyone, only to be met with quizzical looks when we next saw them. Families try to outdo each other in the chocolate Easter egg stakes too. I had a chocolate overdose headache for a week afterwards.”

One reader, Karen Short, said: “I too was surprised Good Friday wasn’t a public holiday.”

READ MORE: Why is Good Friday not a holiday in Italy

Abruzzo-based Stephanie Elms agreed and said: “Good Friday was a bit of a surprise for me because I know Europe has a few more holidays than where I’m from in the States, so I assumed it would be a holiday, but it isn’t.”

“It would have been nice to get an extra day like they have in the UK, but I’m not complaining. I get to celebrate Easter in a beautiful country and that’s enough for me.”

Freezing cold and rainy weather 

When thinking of Mediterranean weather, sunshine and warmth is normally the first thing anyone would expect. But many people arriving in Italy for the first time are caught out by the unexpected cold.

Veneto-based artist Linda Winter said that, when she first arrived in Venice 18 years ago, she had a bit of a shock.

“The air was still chilly with the damp from the lagoon as I stepped onto the platform at Santa Lucia. Never having visited before I had imagined the fashion police would stop me from entering if I was anything less than elegant.

“The reality was that all the Italians were still wearing a heavy coat and at least two scarves. I froze.”

She advised anyone coming to Italy for Easter to wear a coat and wrap up warm. 

“Early Easters are by their nature cold, even though as I write this sunshine is pouring through my open door. Now I hang onto my coat.”

Easter eggs in a workshop.Photo by Fred TANNEAU / AFP.

Food galore

Food is of course a huge part of the celebrations in Italy. As in many countries, roast lamb is usually the meat of choice for an Easter Sunday lunch – but not everyone enjoys it.

Lazio resident Zoe Joanne Green said she finds the tradition of eating lamb “brutal”, adding: “I’ll spend Easter trying to distract myself so that I don’t get annoyed.”

Valeria La Capria said torta pasqualina instead is one Italian veggie option not to be missed.

“I’m also vegetarian, there are some great traditional dishes such as the torta di pasqua, made from spinach, ricotta and filo pastry.”

The tart is typical in the Liguria region of the country and traditionally had 33 layers of pastry, one for each year Christ was on earth. 

READ MORE: Nine lesser-visited Italian villages to see over Easter

Tuscany resident Andrew Green said la colomba, a dove-shaped cake, is different from anything back home. 

“For starters it’s a lot bigger and less sweet than what we usually eat in the UK,” he said. You can find them in pretty much every supermarket you go to.

“Back home we only really have hot cross buns and Easter cakes that are full of chocolate. There aren’t really any chocolate cakes here for Easter, but there is chocolate. Anyway, I prefer colomba instead and it was a nice surprise when I first ate it.”

Different regional events

That’s not the only thing Andrew prefers either. He said he loves the different events each Italian region has to offer. 

“I stayed in Florence during my first year and there was a huge parade which was really cool. Obviously I knew nothing about it at first.”

The parade Andrew referred to is the Scoppio del Carro (Explosion of the Cart); a centuries old tradition where an old wagon is filled with fireworks and set alight outside of Florence’s Santa Maria del Fiore on Easter Sunday.

“The atmosphere of the whole city was alive and there was a huge buzz to the place. It was stunning,” Andrew adds.

Abruzzo-based Heather May also enjoys the events different regions have to offer, and said the nearby Madonna che scappa (the Virgin Mary who runs away) in a town named Sulmona was her personal favourite.

“It was nothing like I’d ever experienced before,” she writes. “It’s like a pantomime – one of the saints knocks on the door of a church at one end of the piazza, to tell the Madonna that her son is alive, she begins to march across the piazza (held aloft by holy men clad in green and white).

“After a swaying march of some minutes, she spots Christ at the other end of the piazza and the men break into a run – it’s quite a feat of athleticism! Doves are released, her black cloak drops to reveal a white dress and Handel’s hallelujah chorus plays as she encounters her son. It’s quite exhilarating even for protestants like myself.

Wherever you’ll be celebrating, Easter is bound to be special, but we hope these tips and anecdotes are useful to anyone spending their first Easter in Italy this year. Buona Pasqua.

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