Hitting the town again

The Masters in Tourism and Leisure finishes for Christmas today so they are heading out for their Christmas party. Some of the MBAers are meeting up with them later, some not, but either way there is a meeting at Bar Stella near Piazza Unita at 10pm. I imagine we will hit the bars for a while and may even do some dancing...
Mandracchio is our local nightclub and it is about as cheesy as discos get. I have been a few times so far, with my friend Walter who is irresistible to many Triestine ladies, so is always fun to be out with!
Mandracchio is a perfect example of Italian bureaucracy.
Situated in the corner of Piazza Unita, it is easy to spot the club. There is a pig pen for the smokers outside – no smoking inside in Italy anymore, so its always occupied – and there are 2 bouncers on the door.
Although these are bouncers in the loosest sense of the word, they are not very discerning as far as I can see. If you are daft enough to want to go in, you can.
You queue up, and get a ticket from the boys in black as you pass them.
This says “Drink” – which is an instruction, not a suggestion.
Then you are in!
Down the stairs to the coat check – an obligatory service in this part of Europe where the temperature inside the clubs is approaching 33 degrees and outside its currently 8 degrees at night (and falling).
At Mandracchio, it’s Euros 1.50 to leave your coat, for which you get another ticket.
You are then able to hit the dance floor or go for a ‘giro’ – a prowl around the place looking for likely candidates to dance with. The music is Europop at its corniest, but the great thing is that everybody dances.
This process continues in rotation (giro, dance, dance, giro) until it is almost time to leave.
At which point Walter tears himself away from the ladies and we go to get a drink.
The drinks are 7 Euros, whether you ask for a coke (Walter) or a vodka and orange (me).
And you have to hand in the “Drink” ticket.
The drinks arrive along with another ticket.
“Exit”
Again, we take this as an instruction, not a suggestion.
So out past the guardaroba (hand in other ticket, get coat) then up the stairs to the bouncers.
Who take the Exit ticket, then we can leave.
In other parts of the world, they just charge you a cover charge to get into the disco. I think it can only be here in Italy that hitting a nightclub involves 3 official documents and 5 official transactions.