Driving in Italy

Last year an English friend told me that he was travelling with his family to Italy. As he passed the border he was shocked by the increased speed of the cars. It seemed like everybody knew they weren’t in Switzerland anymore. That was Italy, the country where, as far as driving is concerned, everything is allowed.

If you stop to let someone pass on the zebra crossing the driver behind you might insult you because you dared to stop instead of just going ahead ignoring the poor pedestrian.

This is why it could be safer not to use the zebra crossing, because there you’ll become an easy target for cars. My mum sometimes prefers to cross somewhere else instead!

Italians who visit England have a terrible shock when the cars actually stop at the zebra crossing to let them cross.

Some big cities have a big problem with parking spaces. Some people leave home to go to work and they don’t really know when they’ll be back because it might take hours to find a parking place.

Leaving a message for the rest of the family has become a habit in Italy so as not to waste time searching for where the car has been left. There are times when it is possible to forget and start panicking thinking that the car has been stolen or the police have taken it away.

“Sotto casa” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHGigSBHrGA an awarded short movie by Alessio Lauria plays with this stereotype.

In the short movie a man finally finds a parking place just in front of his house. The event is so exceptional that he decides to call his wife and show her that he managed to park the car near the house. They are so impressed by this that they decide to conceive a baby that night thinking that their future could be better.

Bruno Bozzetto’s “Italians versur Europeans” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHWBL9_alKs

plays with other stereotyped aspects of Italian behaviour about parking and driving in Italy but also queuing and other things.

An English tourist who arrives in Italy on what they consider to be a nice day has not taken into consideration that those few drops of rain for an Italian, especially one who lives in Rome, can be considered practically a tragedy. It means that you have to take your car along with thousands of other Romans and sit in it for hours thinking why do all these people go out today, if only half of them stayed at home the traffic would be better.

Cities like Rome or Naples might make you think that you are a on a formula 1 circuit where the rules are, you have to get there first! People might pass you on the wrong side of the road and you must be ready for this event. Control desperately all the mirrors you have in the car and if possible put some others! The only direction you can be sure no one will come from is above…

It might be even more dangerous to respect the speed limit because other drivers will have no patients with you, If you respect the speed limit you might be hit by the care following you. As a matter of fact speed limits are usually only a suggestion, but when you least expect it you might be fined for “eccesso di velocità” (speeding).

In any case, while comparing driving in Italy and abroad, we must remember that not all Italian drives are so disobedient and not all English drivers are so obedient!

Giulia Lombardo