h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There is another rule, followed by all Italians: if you drive on a highway you MUST keep your car on the white line separating two lanes, to drive on one lane only is considered bad manners. Oh, and remember to keep your vehicle no more than 3 feet from the vehicle in front of you, specially when driving at more than 160 kms/h (the speed limit on highways is 130 kms/h, I think)

There are some special rules to keep in mind when driving in italian cities.
The markings on the roads, which in other countries give the information about how much lanes the road has, are only a kind of challenge for italians to show how much could be there, if only everyone would drive as smart as they do. The aim is to make the roads broader than they are. In Florence for instance, where five lanes are marked for one direction, you will easyly find seven lanes used.

The italians really are cool. You have to keep this mind when driving there. The first rule is: GO!!
The second rule is: Do not hesitate!!
The third rule is: Do not look back!!
When you want to change the lane when being on a very broad road, just mind rules 1 to 3 and do not wait until someone gives you a gap, or you will have to wait until the rush-hour is over.

Another rule on the Italian public highway is that when two cars travelling in opposite directions need to use the same narrow stretch of road at the same time (for instance, a narrow bridge); right of way is determined like so: Both drivers must stop at a point on the narrow stretch, preventing the other from passing. Both drivers must then continue to sound their horns, possibly with added hand signals and profanity, until such time as one party backs down or runs out of fuel. Right of way is given to whoever can keep up this endurance test for the longest period.

As an Italian driver, I consider myself an expert in Italian driving rules and (that goes without saying) in driving.
This takes me to the first and most important rule:
The Italian driver considers himself (or herself) as the best driver in the world (apart from Schuhmacher, Barrichello and few others) and all his fellow road-users as little more than idiots.
The second rule is ALWAYS drive in full attack mode. If Italian football (soccer for the American miscreants) were inspired to Italian driving style, we would have 7 center-forwards and 4 wings playing at all times. The best way to express this rule is "always attack the space in front of you".
Third rule, which surprisingly applies also to female Italians, is never let anyone put in doubt your macho pride.
These rules lead to a series of behaviours like:

- In an empty three-lane motorway, NEVER let yourself be seen in the slow lane (rule 3)

- If you are driving on the motorway at the customary 120mph and someone in front of you overtakes someone else blocking your path in the process, flash your headlights, assume an offensive body language (with gestures wide enough to be seen in the rearview mirror) and put your front bumper within a couple of inches of the rear end of the offending (slow) car.

- If you are the slow car driver (maybe because you cannot afford a faster one, or because you are driving your old grandmother somewhere), once the idiot (rule 1) trying to overtake you by force has achieved the 2in distance from your car, tap lightly with the left foot on the brake, in order to switch on the stop lights and scare the idiot into an emergency braking.

- If all the regular parking spaces have been taken, park on the pavement. If the pavement is already full, create a second (or third) row of parkings (creative parking). In Milan and Turin I have seen cars parked right in the middle of the road, just because second-row parking would have blocked the tramway tracks.

- If traffic is blocked in the middle of an intersection and the traffic lights are about to swtch to red, do your best to get to the middle of the crossing. This particualr behaviour leads to an Italian peculiarity, the "Svastika traffic jam".

- NEVER stop at pedestrian crossings. Respect for pedestrians is a sure sign of lack of thestostherone (rule 3). The only exception to this custom is when the would-be road-crosser is a shaggable chick (for obvious reasons).

Uhm... *smile* ...you're from the south, right... Well, actually I don't think you're Italian at all, but IF you were an Italian you'd be from the south... The driving manners of the northerners are a wee bit more civilized, you see (but not much, I admit that), especially on the thestostherone myth part. Some of them brake for cats and children, and some of them even brake for ME! And... yeah... most of them even have their shirt buttoned up to the third or even second last hole, and wouldn't even DREAM of hanging a tacky plastic madonna in the rear view mirror...

You can say only stupid prejudice about Italian people. Look at yourself!

As an Italian (an quite proud of being one) I feel the need to knock down some incorrect stereotypes being recently posted.

1) Italians are, indeed, quite prone to driving in "full attack mode", this being regarded as the correct, standard driving attitude - not a matter of bad habits, but part of the Italian culture.

2) The numerous dents and scratches on cars in Italy are not caused by car accidents. They are in fact mostly a result of deliberate vandalism (happens mainly in big city parking lots. Do not be scared).

3) In Italy, speeding is regarded as a crime only by police officers. The reason for this being the ridicoulously low speed limits on virtually all roads (the limit on a 500 mt. straightforward road often being no more than 50km/h).

4) In Italy, hairpin bends are as common as marble lorries. This means very common. Warning - do not drive in narrow mountain roads if you haven't already practiced with professional sports driving

“Driving” in Italy is a misnomer –it is called avoidance.