Roman Traffic Time

Dear Family and Friends,

As many of you may know, from either firsthand experience or by talking to those who have visited the eternal city of Roma; the driving here is something else to behold. To the average American, entering the city during one of the 4 daily rush hours is similar to walking into swarm of birds. You just hang on tight, pray to God, and hope that the birds see you.

Below is a picture of a street to give you an example of what I mean.

As mentioned above, the average Roman has 4 rush hours.
1. Going to work.
2. Coming home for lunch/naptime.
3. Going back to work.
4. Coming home for the day.

In a city the size of Rome with its millions of people and not much space, its easy to see how this situation quickly becomes a problem.

Seeing all these cars and motorcycles on the road made me wonder, how much does their gas cost? When I found the answer to this, I was in amazement and left wondering how there are any cars on the road at all!

A LITER of gas costs 1.50 Euros. This may not mean anything to some people, but let me roughly translate it into American. 1 GALLON of gas in Rome costs about $12.00 US Dollars. People here drive a lot. So before we complain at the pump, take some time to be thankful for a 4.00 gallon of gas.

Here is a gas station in Rome, very odd indeed, but it does save space. And yes, they are all like this.

I have learned that one way the residents of Rome cope with these outrageous gas prices is to have much smaller vehicles. An assortment of small cars, scooters, and motorcycles can be found buzzing around the city. Many of you have seen my little green Honda civic hatchback, which is pretty much the smallest car on the road in Iowa. This car would easily be a mid-sized car in Rome. Here are a few tiny cars I have run across in the last week.

This model is my personal favorite. It’s probably half the size of an old Volkswagen Beetle, but twice as cool.

Rachel by another one of these monster machines.

This is officially the smallest real car I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I didn’t stand by it to give perspective on the size, but to give you an idea, the car parked in front of it is a Honda civic.

With the lack of space in Rome, innovative parking has become an art form. The cars around here would give a Des Moines traffic cop a heart attack.

Here is your average, everyday double park (I have yet to see a triple park, but I’m sure it will come).

One car parked on the median? No problem.

A fleet of cars parked on the median? No worries!

Park in the middle of the street? Perfectly fine.

I must give this guy credit. What a great parking job, can get in and out as easy as pie.

This next picture is just shocking though……

Driving on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, in a personalized Mercedes/Humvee concoction?

Oh wait a second, that’s the Pope……..well I suppose he can do that.

On a more serious note, here is a video that Sister Lisa, one of our formators, showed the other day. Click here for like to Youtube Video "Canossian Guys"

It was made by three Canossian volunteers who are working in Timor at the moment. The woman that took the pictures started a program called "Canossian Guys". The purpose of this program is to reach out and give members of street gangs another avenue to take in life. She does this by teaching them about music. Up to this point it has been quite successful. If you could keep them in your prayers it would be greatly appreciated.

In Christ,
The Egan’s