½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

Hate to say it but my driving has become more ½ûÂþÌìÌà after driving for two weeks in Italy a month ago. Gone are the days when I would give way to a waiting car or wait patient (wrong spelling) for a gap, just go for it now and I'll now try to park in the tightest spaces. Love it :eek:

we're definitely into the gesticulations when speaking / and driving is getting more and more italian by the day

Earlier this year, I attended a memorial service for an English friend who had been killed in a motorcycle accident whilst on his way home from his London office. It happened just a few days before Christmas, which is the same day as his birthday. The eulogies were deeply moving as he was a great bloke struck down in his prime and survived by a wife and two young kids. I, along with his English male friends, was struggling to keep a grip of things whilst his ½ûÂþÌìÌà friends were crying openly. Afterwards, when we were having drinks and eats I heard an ½ûÂþÌìÌà friend chatting to his wife on his mobile recounting how strangely unemotionally we English had behaved - I remember thinking [I]funny old world [/I] -because for me it had been intensely emotional. I know we are all supposed to have changed since the death of Lady Diana but I don't believe it and think that that part of our national psyche, for better or worse, is something very deeply rooted and I am actually comfortable with it. [I]Vive la difference[/I] as the French might or might not say! Surely we can enjoy Italy and ½ûÂþÌìÌà food without becoming ½ûÂþÌìÌà just as the many foreigners from countless countries who are currently enjoying England probably don't all like mushing peas and binge drinking but might adopt some attractive English traits instead.

[QUOTE=Aliena]A few days after returning from Naples, I was driving in Liverpool with my best friend.. I was dashing here and there, cutting up old age pensioners (not literally!) and making international hand gestures to half the population... when she looked at me and said.. "what the hell are you doing, why don't you look in the mirror?"

With a look of utter amazement I replied "What mirror?" ;)

:) :)[/QUOTE]

The higher death rate on ½ûÂþÌìÌà roads has already been discussed on this forum and it is almost certainly caused by a combination of faster driving and poorer road signing coupled with less well designed intersections. However, something I have not seen discussed is [I]road rage[/I]. In England it as an ever increasing violent menace but in Italy it seems to be a way of blowing off steam so that the boilers don't explode.
Sociologists say that people behave more rudely towards other car drivers than they would ever do in real life. This because they are to some extent coccooned and separated from real personal contact, which requires more circumspect behaviouir. Anyone noticed the similarity between road ragers and some of us forum scribbblers?

[QUOTE=sdoj]The higher death rate on ½ûÂþÌìÌà roads has already been discussed on this forum and it is almost certainly caused by a combination of faster driving and poorer road signing coupled with less well designed intersections. However, something I have not seen discussed is [I]road rage[/I]. In England it as an ever increasing violent menace but in Italy it seems to be a way of blowing off steam so that the boilers don't explode.
Sociologists say that people behave more rudely towards other car drivers than they would ever do in real life. This because they are to some extent coccooned and separated from real personal contact, which requires more circumspect behaviouir. Anyone noticed the similarity between road ragers and some of us forum scribbblers?[/QUOTE]

took the words right out of my mouth... but and heres the but.

its no bad thing.. really
at least you get to hear people say what they really think,without the threat
of a smack in the mouth.
and no this doesn't apply to me..... :)

Funnily enough I read the oppposite that Brits going and living in Italy is decreasing, because perhaps we are all slightly more pro-½ûÂþÌìÌà we might not notice it. The figures where something like only 2% visited/moved to Italy down from 3%. Mostly we're moving to France, Spain and Florida, and visiting Greece, Spain, Turkey, US and France most. Italy was low, low down on both visiting and living both figs about 2%.

Lets face it Italy isnt the cheapest place (compared to Spain, Greece and Turkey forinstance), and because of that, the slightly more rerfined Brits go, its rare to see a massive pink bellied youth with tats clutching a tin of stella on a Tuscan beach.

If you have kids the moneys even tighter, a cheap holiday to the balearics is what a lot of people can only afford and is a quick and easy flight.

We are certainly trying to become more ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ...............!!!!!