Italian Drivers....again

So I know I've mentioned it before but the last few weeks have made me even more aware of how truly TERRIBLE the driving situation is here. Any of you who have ever had to drive with me know that there are quite a few habits that other drivers have that I DESPISE. (Lauren if you're reading this, you are well versed in my road rage!!!) For example:

1. When driving on the Autostrada(highway), Italian drivers like to keep their options open in case a faster lane opens up and they can zoom off into the sunset. Unfortunately they do this by driving their car half in one lane and half in the one they might want to go into at some point. This means that if you are driving in the lane that they may or may not want to go into then you are forced to slow down to avoid running into the left back portion of their bumper. Your options are then to beep(which generally does NO good), creep closer until they finally see you in that thing they call a side mirror(this is assuming they actually HAVE one left on the car) and they move back into their lane, or undertake them in one of the other lanes if its not jammed up with gigantic trucks driving nose to bumper. I generally opt for undertaking, or creeping up closer which I HATE doing because I dislike driving so close to someone at that speed. Then I usually give them a very Italian hand flick gesture which seems to mean "You are a total idiot get it together" and I gun my little Fiat 500 past them :)

2.When someone overtakes you here(usually on the highway) they seem to find it necessary to cut back into your lane as CLOSE as they possibly can to your front bumper. This nearly gives me a heart attack EVERY time they do it as it looks like they are coming right into the side of your car. Now one would think that they do this because a Ferrari or an Aston Martin or some fabulous car is flying up behind them but no.....generally there is no car to be seen behind them, its just the way they roll here!! And it's REALLY annoying.

3. The roundabout. Commonly called a traffic circle in my neck of the woods. Now roundabouts can have multiple lanes in some of the bigger ones, but around here they generally consist of two lanes. You go into the inner lane to go AROUND the roundabout to a second, third or fourth exit, moving to the outside lane when you want to exit. Its confusing at first but QUITE simple really once you've  done it a few times. Except for some reason the Italians seem to think that they can just create lanes in the roundabout so sometimes there will be a third, and even fourth lane going around which just causes complete chaos. Then they also like to just ignore the whole right of way thing that most people driving in the roundabout get, and they just drive into the mix expecting everyone coming around to stop because hey if you don't you'd t-bone them. THIS makes driving in a roundabout here rather stressful since the usual rules apparently do NOT apply!!

4.The Shoulder....aka The ambulance lane.  Here they have a great little system of electronic sign boards on the roads so if there is an accident ahead you know about it and you then understand why the traffic is backed up. SO....deciding that you are more important than everyone else and cutting into the shoulder to drive and then NOT getting out of the way when the ambulance responding to the accident is flying up your ass is absolutely unforgiveable! It makes me see red, NOTHING gets me more annoyed than people blocking the way of an ambulance. I could go on and on...and to be fair this is definitely NOT just a problem in Italy, Canadians in their big stupid trucks are just as bad!

5. The parking situation. It seems to be a "thing" here that they all want to park as close as possible to the entrance of a building because god forbid we have to walk 10 steps further to the open space 5 stalls down. I was keying something into my GPS, it was pouring rain out and I had just gotten into my car at the metro station. There were lots of spaces further out from where I was and someone had the nerve to beep at me TWICE to inform me that they were waiting for my parking space! This annoyed me so much that I shut off my car and gave them the "Italian hand gesture"  in a very annoyed way and they gunned it off down the parking lot to park 5 spaces away.........SERIOUSLY.

Wow...well that might be it for now!! I feel much better :)