Two wheel culture

Ah, Italy. Land of the Moped.

This trusty if unstable two wheeled design icon can be seen transporting families of three and four on a daily basis. Children hold the windscreen or the handlebars, and their grip is all that keeps them on the machine. Maybe it is an early lesson in personal responsibility.  

In a rare concession to safety, I note that the driver is now obliged to wear a helmet, something I don't remember from our visit to Firenze in 2000.

Italian roads are an exciting mixture of Coaches, Cars, Mopeds and Pedestrians. They paint white lines and dots on the roads in Italy, but quite what function these markings serve I cannot detect.

They also put up signs to show that narrow pathways are not for wheeled traffic. These signs seem to be merely advisory, and are generally open for debate.

If you are a pedestrian in Italy, my advice is: Look both ways all the time, and perhaps consider staying at home.