SmokeAsesh
New member
In Italy, the rule is: there are no rules.....Especially if they don't make sense!
I'm indebted here to the author Bepe Severigni (journalist and commentator on the Italian psyche) but what i've learnt is that Italians will always show a flagrant disregard for rules if there is no logic to them. Example, smoking in public places: despite protest from 'civil rights activists' (read 'smokers') on the day it was enacted there were no protests, no acts of civil disobedience and the fabric of italian culture did not cave in; Why? because it made sense (why inflict cancer-causing smoke on others??!!)
With road rules, however, if it makes no sense then it's not adhered to -
- Why have only 3 lanes when you can clearly fit 4 cars across? (and 3 bikes and a dozen scooters....?)
- What's with the 'no Parking' signs when you can always use every conceivable spare square foot of earth to fit a car onto (and yet they never impede a walkway, nor ever across a driveway....)
- why stop at a red light when I can easily turn into a gap of traversing traffic?
Once you get into the Italian mindset (they drive '3-handed' - one on the wheel, one on the gearstick and the other on the horn!!) you actually begin to be amazed at how, amidst the seeming chaos, traffic in congested cities simply "flows" far better than in anywhere else in the western world......in fact, once i return home after a couple of weeks in Italy i get frustrated by having to obey the rules again.....
jdw
I'm indebted here to the author Bepe Severigni (journalist and commentator on the Italian psyche) but what i've learnt is that Italians will always show a flagrant disregard for rules if there is no logic to them. Example, smoking in public places: despite protest from 'civil rights activists' (read 'smokers') on the day it was enacted there were no protests, no acts of civil disobedience and the fabric of italian culture did not cave in; Why? because it made sense (why inflict cancer-causing smoke on others??!!)
With road rules, however, if it makes no sense then it's not adhered to -
- Why have only 3 lanes when you can clearly fit 4 cars across? (and 3 bikes and a dozen scooters....?)
- What's with the 'no Parking' signs when you can always use every conceivable spare square foot of earth to fit a car onto (and yet they never impede a walkway, nor ever across a driveway....)
- why stop at a red light when I can easily turn into a gap of traversing traffic?
Once you get into the Italian mindset (they drive '3-handed' - one on the wheel, one on the gearstick and the other on the horn!!) you actually begin to be amazed at how, amidst the seeming chaos, traffic in congested cities simply "flows" far better than in anywhere else in the western world......in fact, once i return home after a couple of weeks in Italy i get frustrated by having to obey the rules again.....
jdw