Rome

what a wonderful place ... some highlights from this week's visit

- more monuments and history that can be believed - the Coliseum and the
Sistine chapel (wow)
- ice cream
- two wheelers everywhere
- the double white line in the middle of the road is the official two
wheeled overtaking lane
- the food
- the people
- the Italian language
- when you cross the road you just march out and hope the traffic will
slow down - after a couple of goes it becomes second nature.
- the world's most stylish police forces and agents, posing around
everywhere.

the lowlights

- a rather poor hotel
- getting caught in torrential rain last night and getting soaked to the
skin. At least the locals on the bus thought I looked funny - which on
reflection I did.
- unbelievably crowded public transport but it does work very well all
things considered.
- an excessive amount of security everywhere. It's clear that the
Italians believe they are next on Al Qaeda's list.

Now when can I go back?

 

On Friday 30 September 2005 23:11, Paul Corfield() wrote

The gap between the scooter on the centre line and your car is the official
cyclist's overtaking lane.

Don't remind me!
<vbg>

 

Heh. As (almost) pointed out by Ferger, the Carabinieri are controlled
by the Military, not the Municipality.

ITYF they can press their own trousers ...

BTW, They also have the best cars and bikes (and the most flamboyant
uniforms, natch) ;-)

P.

 

This form of state promoted competition I could not quite understand.
Still it was the Polizia that delayed the plane on the way home for "an
extra security check".

Well they were on BMW bikes so Lozzo may disagree. However they do seem
to revel in driving round in what appear to be the best BMWs, Audis and
what appeared to be the full national output of Lancias.

 

Excellent, really glad you went.

snip highs and lows

Heh.

One of the local travel agents are doing 3 days, flights and hotel for
£108 sort your own transfers out. I'm very tempted to take the kids
out of school and go. I love Rome.

 

The Carabinieri have Guzzis. The reason they have two hard panniers is
that they need one to keep their soft hat in when they're on the bike.

As for the cars, the Polizia di Stato recently acquired a Lamborghini,
for ``first aid (especially plasma and organ transport), so it has a
defibrillator''.

 

When a friend visited me there, he was creaming himself at the sight
of a bin-woman turning up in her little Piaggio rubbish collector,
perfectly made up, with a nice pair of ear-rings.

 

Yep, they look after local crime and traffic accidents (obviously not
busy there then , one step up from traffic wardens really and drive
Fiats so they're bound to have an inferiority complex !

They have Land Rovers too. Not cheap over there.

LOL. yes. They used to ride a lot of Guzzi's too.

Cheers,

Paul.

 

It doesn't take long before Italian girls turn into their mothers.

 

Oo, yes, forgot about that.

http://www.omniauto.it/foto.php?id=3586

HTH

Paul.

 

That's the Polizia Municipale, local police, not to be confused with
the Polizia di Stato, state police, who are no joke (a few of them
have been blown to bits working as bodyguards for judges). The local
polis tend to be easy going types: in Genoa, while the Carabinieri et
al. were beating the crap out of people, the local cops were pointing
the back streets and escape routes.

 

Sophia Loren's a grandmother.