Scooters and other fine cars

I'm sure most of you know that the scooter is the national bird of Italy. They are literally everywhere and driven by all walks of life (mental note: update the phrase "walks" of life). They view the spaces between cars, pedestrians and curbs as their own personal hiway and will weave their way through traffic. We met someone who said it takes her 40 minutes to get to work by scooter but it would take her an hour and half to do it by car. You see, cars have to stop; Scooters find a way to keep moving. I'm not sure who's in the wrong if a scooter hits a pedestrian. I wouldn't bet against the scooter.
If you look close, you'll see that this driver has his suitcase between his knees. We have also watched someone drive off with a full 10 foot ladder over their shoulder. I have to give them credit for persevering. Hat head is enough to keep me off a scooter.
As cool as the scooter is, I've found my favorite car and they are also everywhere and remind me of a simpler time. It is the Fiat 500. It's the car the Germans would have made if they hired lazy Italians to design the VW Beatle and a Scotsman to manage the budget.

To their credit, there are a lot of beautiful Italian Alfa Romeo cars as well. Instead of driven by cool people like Emilio Iovio, most are driven by chauffeurs of the Italian government.

The other sight that is fairly common is a Smart car parked perpendicular to the other cars. Apparently they are as long as most cars are wide.
You do see big 6 and 8 cylinder cars here, but I'm going to guess that the average cylinders on the road is under 3. While that has to be good for the environment, we feel sick every time we throw our used wine bottles into the common trash. Rome has absolutely no recycling program. A local blamed the mafia, much the way we blame John Ferguson or Brian Burke for the Leaf woes.