Banking bureaucracy

Banking in Italy is an interesting game. This morning, like so many mornings, I set off with my list of things to do. By lunch time, I had managed to achieve one thing - go to bank.
This was not due to the length of the queue. But because I needed to change accounts to a residents account. This means that I can pay less tax and commission on every activity. But I have a sneaking suspicion that this is really just in compensation for the amount of bureacracy it takes to open the new account.
And to close the old one. For which there was a fee of close to E40.
I also needed to track down the money from Hong Kong that had gone missing in December. It turns out that - in error - this had been posted to another person's account. The error has now been corrected and whoever the person is that was momentarily richer over the Christmas period, I apologise profusely! I will certainly be checking the balance on the account carefully from now on...
By the end of the 2 hours something that I spent in the bank, I had at least managed to start my new account, to close the old one, to sign up for internet banking, to transfer all standing orders and to eat 2 free caramels (with all their sweet wishes for the New Year - get it?)
Fingers crossed that the 20+ signatures that were required to make this happen were sufficient and that I can now look forward to trouble-free and lower commission financial transactions in the future.
But I am not holding my breath!