Driving taxi in Rome

Arriving in Rome can be something if you don’t know how your hotel is going to be. When we arrived this was supported by a railroad strike this meant that we had to take a taxi. For me taking a taxi in Rome gives me the same sensation as having someone reaching down in your pockets from start to stop of your ride.

We stood in a queue for about 30 min before we had a taxi. The scenery in the queue was as out of a Fellini movie; people were in general very calm and smiling and talking a lot to each other in an Italian way, all except of some Italian suits, most of them women though!, that had to be somewhere else in a hurry and that were totally stressed. Along the queue you had also the normal hustlers, unofficial taxis trying to make an extra buck on cheating tourists. The hustlers all looked like crooks, and I would recommend them to work a bit on their appearances’.

The taxi driver that we finally got was everything that you could imagine of a man on traffic steroids. He started with the traditional “I don’t know that hotel routine” spending some extra time. When he finally found the hotel, he drove like a maniac – we were both suddenly in a Grand Theft Auto the new version. It was the fastest city drive I ever had seen; it reminded me of the car chase in San Francisco in the movie Bullitt from 1968. As long as our taxi driver was on the road touching with at least two wheels I didn’t mind.

We reached the hotel in 15 minutes and the meter had gone up to 18,90 euro when he stopped; it was steaming still. Then the fun started again, he started with some luggage calculation and suddenly we were at 26,90!!; some suitcases and I even lifted them both in and out! I gave him 30€ and he just took the money and left! I was just laughing, welcome to the city of players.