Best Car Parks in Rome

Yes, where is the best car parking in Rome? Half on and half of a pedestrian crossing. This is because as long as no-one actually parks on the crossing you are less likely to get stuck in the car park. There are no guarantees, however, that someone will not park in the small space between the cars already hanging over onto the crossing markings.

The parking fascinated me. In the streets, cars double-parked along one or even both sides.  The cars, in nearly all cases, were very small so more could squeeze into the available space than we are used to seeing. Corners were another popular option. Parking parallel to the corner or just straight at the gutter or half on the gutter or any direction you can fit for the more creative drivers. So about corners, few cars lined like Roman soldiers but every car is at a different angle.

Back-in parking

Island areas at intersections marked with white paint rather than raised platforms were also popular.  The islands were filled up with cars like a tightly fit jigsaw. Towards the outside ones hanging over the white lines were then followed by the obligatory double parking around completely outside of the island collection of cars.  With the cars facing this way and that they needed to be peeled away for the cars in the middle to drive off. I assume it is last to arrive has the best chance of not being stuck in the middle of the painted island.

Park super close to other cars

On top of just parking all over the place cars parked very close together. Anyone that left a slightly wider space provided a gap large enough for one of the thousands of popular scooters to park. A bigger gap was space for two scooters. A 3 scooters size was also room for a car. Scooters also dominated the pavement and designated scooter parking areas.  The blue lines defining where each scooter should stand were faded and difficult to see.  Scooters did not adhere to the allotted spaces anyway so it did not matter that they were faded.  By parking closer together more squashed into the limited space.

Most of the scooters were not the Italian Vespa model but brands like Honda. For cars, the models were predominately European. Mini Coopers were at the larger end of the sizes and had more chrome and extras like fancy wheels. Do you think I can find my Vespa pic? Leaving it a while until the blog is written is not a good idea. However, the holiday comes first!

Very infrequently you saw a large BMW 4 wheel drive like the ones you see outside Australian private schools with Mums picking up kids. These were outside upmarket designer brand stores.

So where is the best car parking in Rome? Half on and half of a pedestrian crossing of course. Beep beep! Any parking tips for places you have visited?