Hey Zeppo- re: Italy mandatory

HA HA! That was great. Glad I wasn't sipping coffee while I watched or I'd be windexing my monitor right now.

Thanks, Jon

Same here, that was funny.

Disagreed about the smoking though, since Italy made smoking illegal in public places, absolutely everybody is abiding by the law (unlike in France where I live). You will never smell smoke in a restaurant or bar again in Italy. I know, I still cannot believe it, but for once everyone decided to obey...

Mike, That is good news indeed. I get really bothered by smoke when I'm eating or drinking. All us ex-smokers do. :-)

Wish we could get on the ball and do this in the US. My state, Pennsylvania, is really struggling to make it happen.

Jon

Mike Tommasi wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

Well the video is at least 5 years old now, but I love it especially about lines and driving, though I have learned to avoid eye contact with Italian drivers, they stop if they don't think you can see them!

Contact when driving in Italy, especially south of Siena, happens through the horn, you use it constantly in very short blasts the way a bat uses his ultrasound emitter as a kind of sonar, you honk and listen for the quick little replies. Italian driving is about awareness about the cars around you. The rules of the road are there, but there is one important overriding rule, "we are all trying to get to where we want to go as efficiently as possible" - hence you get all kinds of interesting phenomena, such as spontaneous new traffic lanes separating the slow cars from the people in a hurry, it is all about very advanced fluid autodynamics, and it usually works, until somebody blinks or gets a call on cell, then all hell breaks loose.

I've seen that behorehand, but then it was gone from the web.

Thank you very much for bringing it up again!

M.

Mike Tommasi skrev i snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net dette:

Not my experience. I think the borderline for realy exotic driving habits is very precicely located at Fiume Garagliano (borderline between Campania and Lazio). South of that there are three priorities: me, myself and I.

:-)

regards Jan