Bouncing back and forth

After two months of intensive dutchization - a seven-week intensive course*, and work, and house - at the end of February we travelled south. A whole week of family and friends and (a lot of) food.
It was a tour de force of meetings and engagements and things done and to do, and we came back home completely exhausted. Seeing friends once is just not enough, you find yourself wanting more and more and more... And you end up like an histerical spinning top :)
Home is home, as they say - it's friendly and warm and easy (I know, I'm trite - bear with me). And leaving is as hard as ever.
If any of my couple of readers have been through this before, pleaseplease tell me: does it get usual with time? Or should I get used to the idea of an emotional rollercoaster ad libitum? I can do that, I honestly can, but I'd like to be prepared ;)

BUT:
Back north, yesterday we went to the town all to humbly request my inclusion in the population registers. I'll just share with you some impressions, nothing serious

• The town hall is a beautiful and beautifully restored old palace
• When you arrive, the lady at the information desk - really nice, btw - checks your appointment and gives you a number (just like the - broken - machines down south, huh?)
• The office itself is a former yard, covered with a glass roof. There is a small garden in the middle and a lot of benches to sit and wait, with even toys for the kids (just like the stinky corridor were 200 people wait - standing - and scream at each other)
• The tills are open. They are tables. There is no bulletproof glass, and no microphone to speak to underpaid and bored uneducated people.
• The employees are educated, kind and really help you! You forgot a document? No problem - your papers are stored on the side, they remember it exists (!) and wait for you to bring it in, without another appointment, without scalding you and without insulting you.
• While filling in the form, the employee (who of course epeaks a very good English) turned the computer screen towards me - just to note (oh, and she was filling the form on the computer! I did not have to write a single word, apart form a signature)
  
• I have been asked if I want to vote for the European elections, which I can do from here as well
  
• The place is silent, the people are kind and nobody waits more than 15 minutes. There is even an evaluation system in place for the users to rate the service
  
• Ah! Last but not least: the place is clean, really clean
  

Now, do me a favor: go to the same office in the town hall in Turin (or anywhere else south of the Alps) and try to request - as a foreigner - a new residence, with a missing document. Then come and tell me.. or rather don't, I can picture it perfectly myself.
I am thinking about organizing educational group tours in Italian public offices.

PS. In the supermarket there is a copy machine. Open to anyone, in the hall. It works with coins. It works! And doesn't even have graffiti all over

*Passed with flying colors! The new course starts on Monday, I'll be overdosing on grammar again :D