driving in rome

part one
some general thoughts...

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death race -
roman drivers are killers

We're going to update this section soon to reflect drastic but very welcome new legislation and highway law enforcement that's just been brought in by Italian government to make driving here safer.

In the meantime, here's a weather warning -

Summer Heatwave Warning:

It is extremely hot in Rome in Summer - When driving, or more specifically, when parking, use one of those windshield sunshades (available to easily buy in numerous places around the city for only a few Euros) to cover up the windshield and prevent the sun shining in - Temperature in a closed car in Mediterranean sunlight can reach lethal temperatures. Do not leave babies, children or pets in a closed car in sunlight, even for only a few minutes - Even if the windows are left open, they could become very ill, or die from the extreme heat build-up.

If you wear glasses or sunglasses, do not take them off and leave them on the upper dashboard near the windshield. They could heat up so much that the lenses may begin to warp. Even if they don't distort in this way, the frames will heat up, giving you a nasty burn across the nose and eyebrows when you put them back on. This heat build-up only takes a few minutes.

Likewise an exposed steering wheel can burn your hands or be uncomfortable to grip when left unshaded in the sun. The same goes for mobile phones - Don't leave them on the dashboard in the sun - they could get internally damaged, or burn your hand (causing you to let go quickly and drop it) when you pick it up.

Also do not leave aerosols (such as air freshners, spray-on body sun-screen or asthma inhalers) in direct sunlight in the car (or in the house) in Italian summer sun - They could explode.

And now, back to the main topic of Italian driving conventions...

First, some Italian road accident statistics - The weekend before last there were 1500 motor accidents on Italian roads, which included 80 deaths. 261 people were killed in car accidents in Rome alone in 2006. Of course, death isn't always the worst thing that can happen to a road accident casualty; Legs can be lost. Arms, noses, genitalia. Eyes, teeth. Tongues. Braille is learnt. Children never walk again. Etc etc… 80 deaths out of 1500 accidents doesn't mean that 1420 people simply got up and walked away, does it?
This weekend there were only 40 deaths. Next weekend, who knows? A regard for the normal habits of road safety is curiously absent in Italy. These were not bank-holiday weekends. Just normal Saturdays and Sundays. Happy little bands of Italians all whizzing down the freeway in their customary fashion - Never using the rear-view mirror, never wearing seatbelts, never giving turn-signals, never leaving more than two car lengths of space between them and the car in front, not even at 80 miles per hour. Never slowing down in the rain. Always overtaking where the road-markings say not to. Always cutting in on you too soon after they've overtaken you, always letting their babies play, un-strapped on mummy's knee in the front seat, always talking on their mobile phones while overtaking. And always dying in their cars, in this tiny country, about fifty of them each weekend, and maiming a few hundred more while they're at it.
On the motorways (freeways) people cut in on you from the inside, or even from the hard shoulder, or overtake with inches to spare, nearly forcing you off the side of the road or into the armco. Sooner or later they will kill me or my children or other innocents.

You are fifty times more likely to die on the roads in Rome than you are in London or Los Angeles.
One preferred method of death on the roads in Italy is to simply mow down pedestrians. One famous incident a couple of years back involved a bus full of people which swerved off the road after approaching a bend too fast. Nobody was hurt, but the bus was slightly damaged so all the passengers got off the bus to look at the damage and marvel that they were still alive. Seconds later, another vehicle which was also approaching the curve too fast simply drove into the group, killing nine of them. This was the classic Italian road-death scenario - pedestrians meandering unheeding in the middle of a road and a motorist driving too fast and probably not even looking in front of him at the time anyway.

why is it like this?

The four main points of highway safety can be summed up as 'Don't speed', 'Look where you're going', 'Be considerate of other road-users' and 'Try and make at least some use of the smidgen of intelligence you were born with because human life is precious'. Italians however have demonstrated with all the weight and credibility of a scientifically controlled experiment that they don't give two hoots for these life-saving guidelines.
We don’t understand how they can gamble with their lives like this. It may be some ingrained fatalism inspired by Roman (and we stress the emphasis on 'Roman' here) Catholicism - "Que sera sera": "What will be will be" - including motor accidents... It appears they have never been taught that there is actually a way to travel by motor car without it being a matter of luck as to whether you reach your destination in one piece or not.

This then is how Romebuddy introduces our section on Driving in Italy. We have always enjoyed driving, but after moving to Italy we were so petrified that we almost gave up completely, and it took over a year to conquer enough of our fear of Roman driving conditions and begin to venture out alone on the main Italian highways. Even now we still often refuse to be driven by an Italian, having confidence only in our good British selves as drivers.

disadvantages for tourists

As far as getting around Rome goes, driving is really the most boring method for the tourist anyway, as the city's roads are hopelessly congested and poorly surfaced, so you'll spend a lot of time in traffic jams, and more time trying to avoid hitting anything than looking out the window at the sights.

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italian driving instruction

As I write, there’s three teenagers in a car in the street outside, teaching each other to drive. There’s no L plates (P plates here, indicating a learner driver) and I doubt if any of them are even provisionally licensed. The police do nothing about such things. Fourteen year-olds can go out on mopeds without a helmet, and take a pillion passenger. They die like flies. It’s weird. It’s such a contradiction to the culture which places so much adoration on its children, yet they care nothing for their safety.
True to Italian bureaucratic craziness, on the evidence, Italian driving instruction and the national driving test appear to involve no emphasis at all on safe driving methods. Instead, driving licences are awarded following successful completion of a written examination which tests the candidate's memorisation of the regional code letters used on car registration-plates.

...more about driving in rome