We tore down one street, where you could make a convenient illegal left turn into oncoming traffic and grab a spot in a quarter truly unreachable by car.
They’ve since put up a little curb and a median to restrict us more wily drivers.
We debated double-parking -- it’s only 2 hrs -- Yeah, but what if someone needs to get out? I could get towed.
I thought about putting the car in nose first and pulling it up onto the sidewalk but, we were in a zone with little parking people ticketing by the hour.
So I then made an illegal left turn, went into the bus-only lane to go into the no-traffic Villa Borghese park to my favorite hidden parking place. Besides having my license plate probably photographed 3 times (tickets efficiently arrive by mail), we discovered they’d turned my hideaway into Resident Only parking! Again, a risk of ticket, or even worse, The Boot.“Boy!” I said with disgust, “What’s come of this place? Bus lanes, no illegal turns, no double-parking…I wish it were the old days when people could just park anywhere they wanted to!”
“Yeah,” my friend retorted, “But, remember when you were the one who couldn’t get the car off the sidewalk because you were triple-parked in? Or, you couldn’t walk down the sidewalk either because of all the cars?”
I don’t know, but with all these rules and regulations – being enforced no less – I may have to move to Somalia. Although it seems it's still the case in Naples.
3 comments:
I found this in (International Living):
In Italy, you never have to worry about finding a parking space. Simply double park, put your hazard lights on and sip your espresso in a nearby cafe!
The couple in the blocked car on Via de Pretis can't possibly be Italian, much less Napolitani. Once the trash bin was moved out of the way he had a full TWO options for getting out of there - the most obvious would have been to back out to his right after the white Panda left, the other, now that he had a bit of room to manouver, would have been to go left over the median in a u-turn into traffic on the other side, neatly avoiding the lamppost. This should have been obvious to any italian child, much less a full grown italian man (as if such a thing exists) with a driver's license (an assumption on my part, of course). Also - the lack of lengthy argument with the offending turquoise car's driver definitely indicates a straniero!
I find it so fascinating that the parking and ZTL enforcement in Rome works with such blinding efficiency - you will get the ticket in the mail but nothing else will arrive the same year it was sent. Why can't they apply the same level of technology and efficiency to ANYTHING else?
anna l'americana
Anna, loved your comment! You're so right: You have to file your taxes right on time, but, you will get your tax refund in 10 years' time...
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