A stereotype about Italians is that they don't know how to be in a queue – well, here’s an Italian who turned queuing into a business...
Giovanni Cafaro, 42, a degree in Communication and no job, stands in line for people who do not have the time or patience to wait, and charges 10 Euro an hour for it.
"I am the person who will wait in line for those who don't have the time or desire," he explains. “Banks, insurance companies, post offices, medical offices – I’ll take anything. The queues to pay the IMU (a property tax) are my daily bread."
Cafaro, who is originally from Salerno and has lived in Milan for 12 years, says he issues a regular fiscal receipt and his services are in increasingly high demand.
"I've had calls from Rimini, La Spezia, Naples," he said. "If all goes well, I'll expand and set up an agency."
Cafaro lost his job at a clothing company last summer when its employers moved operations to a Eastern European country. He sent 500 resumes since. Nothing came of it.
“So I invented a job," he says. "I can speak English and I have a degree, but there’s no way I’m moving aborad. It would be a defeat. The future is here. My future is here.”
