All right Ruthie, maybe you can get Becky to read this to you during a class, and you can imagine it's me on one of my typical rants during stretching. The driving we have witnessed since coming to Rome has been, at the very least, a demonstration in stunt-driving if not suicidal tendencies. You have to be damaged between the ears to even think of attempting to negotiate Rome on the roads. In Chicago, we are known for being aggressive drivers. My first experience driving in Colorado was like pulling on teeth.. people drive UNDER the speed limit... AHHHHH!!!! But I would rather grind my teeth to dust trapped behind cautious-Colorado drivers in the middle of a snowstorm over Independence Pass than have to dodge Death by getting from one side of Rome to the other via scooter. Just so you know, we didn't even attempt it. Forget about Roman Holiday and any romantic notions you have of peeling around town on a Vespa. The rule of scooting and riding bikes in Rome is that there are NO RULES! Sure, they'll stop at red lights and such, but their adherence to typical road laws end there. I don't care how quickly the traffic is moving, they will drive between lanes, on the sidewalk, on the shoulders of the roads, weave through traffic with the kind of surgical precision only seen in video games. They will drive the wrong way down the road... yes, on the other side of the line... so they can merge into the turn lane at least ½ to ¼ mile away. And the cars do it too!!! I even saw an ambulance pull this off!! I can't tell you the number of times we've witnessed cars driving into oncoming traffic to whip around the bus. One day, we were walking to the bus stop on our way back to our campsite, and the light showed both a green right-turn arrow AND A GREEN FOR THE WALKWAY!!! Who programs this stuff!?!? At that same intersection, we saw 3 cars lined up to make a right turn NEXT to each other... like a parking lot. The person who got to make the turn was simply the most aggressive of the 3. And I think these principles of impatience, alpha-driver syndrome also apply to getting through the freakin' subway. I'm really happy that we've been staying at the campsite outside of town. After running through Rome for 6-8 hours/day, the mellow atmosphere at the cabin is such a welcome relief. However, the COMMUTE to the cabin sucks all kinds of unpleasant stuff. The central Terminal in Rome is a maze of stupidity. To get from one line to the next (of which there are only 2, A and B), you have to walk through the mini-mall, up the steps, around the corner, between the temporary particle board walls, back down again, get funneled through a corridor to an escalator that only accomodates 1 and a half people, around 3 more corners, and then corral yourself onto the platform with the 3,000 other folks who are trying to get home... NOW. It reminds me of the movie of that woman with autism (Temple Grandin) who redesigned the manner in which cows are corralled... keep winding them through a series of tunnels and lull them into a sense of security before taking them off to the butcher. And then of coarse people are fighting their way on and off the trains, trying to squeeze in every last possible person. It frightens me, honestly. You hear about people getting trampled at soccer games and holiday sales, but there is a real danger of this daily at the Roma Termini. Unbelievable. I'm sure that NY and Chicago has its moments, but I'd put Rome at the top for most aggressive commuters.
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