Travel Tips

Rome is a city that amazes and shocks in one. This statement is true in many aspects but none more so than in transport. The way that the italians drive shocks most people and the amazing part is that it somehow works.

Another enjoyable aspect of the transport side of rome is the diversity of modes of transportation. There are of course thousands of mopeds and motorbikes on the road- each more desperate than the next.

One thing that amazed me was how carefree even moped riders would just cut off cars in the middle of a round-about- preferably riding one-handed whilst the other hand nurses either a mobile phone or a cigarette.

My favourites would have to be the 3-wheeled “cars”- a moped with a chassis thrown on top for rain protection and not much else it would seem. These are closely followed by the various cars that are basically 2 seats and 4 wheels- that is it. I thought the smart cars were amusing until i saw the italian variations!

When an italian says mini-bus, he doesn´t mean a van- he means a mini-bus. These things cracked me up. Seating few more than a taxi, still shaped like a bus and electric. The importance of introducing electric vehicles became apparent to me after taking off from leonardo da vinci airport- the smog over the city made it disappear from view almost instantly.

...italian stretch limo...

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...and the mack trucks took up their positions on the grid...

...spacious interior- sleeps one and a half...

...dont start me on the italian drivers...

...the safest mode of transport i saw in all of rome...

...one of the ultra-stylish mini-buses...