Monday 23 June: Top ten traffic blunders of Italy

On my way to a museum today, a guy riding a Vespa cut off my bus. The scooter guy was talking on his cell phone while he did it. This got me thinking of the many almost-accidents that I’ve witnessed in Italy. Here’s my list of the top ten traffic blunders I’ve seen:

1. A scooter cutting off a bus (see above).

2. Two chubby boys of about 11 or 12 careening on a scooter through the crowded streets of central Naples against traffic (the legal age in Italy for scooters is 16).

3. Taxi driving the wrong way down the tram tracks as a tram approached from the opposite direction (this was on my way from the airport to Rome; the driver assured me he’d get off the tracks before we collided).

4. Taxi driver leaving the road and driving between the outdoor tables of a caffè (with Gary in Sorrento).

5. Woman driving a scooter in downtown Rome putting on mascara with one hand (in Piazza Venezia).

6. Two pedal cars of teenage boys chasing each other down a steep hill, taking a turn on two wheel, and heading into two-way traffic (street leading from Villa Borghese to Piazza del Popolo; see my 26 April post).

7. Bus squeezing through a street so narrow and crowded that people eating at a restaurant’s outdoor tables had to get up and move their table over (in Trastevere).

8. Several people ignoring numerous signs and barriers to keep off the tracks and jumping down about three feet to train tracks, crossing them while oncoming trains had the green light to approach, then climbing back out on the other side, because they didn’t want to use the underground tunnel (Stazione Trastevere).

9. Man riding against traffic on a bicycle with no chain or brakes by pushing with his feet (Via dei Fori Imperiali, Rome).

10. Four people on a single-person scooter: the driver, a little boy standing in front of him holding the handlebar, a woman riding behind the driver, and an infant in the crook of the woman’s elbow, dangling out over the oncoming traffic (Spaccanapoli, downtown Naples).