My first time in Italy (Rome) but not by bike

Well last week I took a midweek trip to Rome with the family, we flew and hired a car (so not with the bike). Had a great time, beautiful city and we had great weather :thumbup:

Anyway it was my first time in Italy but it was imediately obvious that many Italians ride bikes, OK most of them are larger scooters but also plenty of motorbikes. I saw quite a few FZ's as well, which really surprised me as this is the first post in the Italian Forum . Most Italians spoke good English as well :thumbup:

Here's a pic of one of the FZ6's in Rome, this guy kindly let me take pic:



Come on (italian) guys, let us hear some noise :rockon:

I agree. Rome is amazing. I went for a week a few years ago.. Didn't hire a car. Public transport is excellent, trains, subway, buses and trams. We weren't so lucky with the weather, had a lot of rain, but it didn't bother us too much.

I noticed how much the Italians like their bikes, as you say, particularly the big scooters. They do tend to ride very aggressively though. Also remember a lot of riders wearing suits and similar clothing (when the rain stopped!). Rather them than me, but each to his own, as they say! The bike in the photo looks very similar to mine.

Fawlty said:

I agree. Rome is amazing. I went for a week a few years ago.. Didn't hire a car. Public transport is excellent, trains, subway, buses and trams. We weren't so lucky with the weather, had a lot of rain, but it didn't bother us too much.

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I agree the public transport is good, and very cheap (€1.50 for 100 minutes of Metro, Bus and/or tram), but we were staying at a holiday park just on the outskirts of Rome and my father in law was with us and he has back problems, so I drove to the nearest tube station and parked there (but we could have easily taken the bus).

Fawlty said:

I noticed how much the Italians like their bikes, as you say, particularly the big scooters. They do tend to ride very aggressively though. Also remember a lot of riders wearing suits and similar clothing (when the rain stopped!). Rather them than me, but each to his own, as they say! The bike in the photo looks very similar to mine.

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In the car I found keeping in the middle of my lane was the safest thing to do, and to check my mirrors constantly as they ride through any space there is, whether left or right, but I loved the fact that this was simply accepted by everyone else :thumbup:. As you say most people on bikes just wore their work clothes, but they all wore helmets.
Nice Pic, now we need some italians to start posting photo's of their own bikes :thumbup:

It's been many years since I've been to Rome, but a few years ago I used to travel to Venice every few months for work. Very nice and yes, they love their scooters. You see some pretty exotic ones everywhere. The parking lot where I worked would be about 1\4 full of just scooters. They do drive a little on the aggressive side, but unlike the US, they seem to be paying attention.