All the roads lead to Rome.... has a new meaning today

Everyone's heard the saying “All the roads lead to Rome”. While normally that is considered to mean that...well... all road lead to Rome, at least in the time when all roads were actually build by the Romans. Then all roads literally lead to Rome. Today this saying has maybe a bit different meaning..

My definition is a bit different. Yes I admit that my road as well has lead to Rome, well total of 3 times. This time a bit longer time, for some 5 months. After one month in Rome I have noticed the biggest problem in Rome. No it is not the mafi... you know what I mean... but it's the roads. All those roads that lead to Rome.

There is some 8 million people leaving in Rome. Seems that all those 8 million have a car... well maybe not all of them, since it is not legal for children to drive (some do anyways I know). The roads in Rome are ancient, some from literally from first century C.E. Unlike in Toronto where roads are literally straight... and tens of kilometers directly to one way... none of the roads in Rome are straight. Maybe that is the reason why the traffic in Rome is so bad, so slow.

Last Saturday it took us 1 hour to driver some 35 km, to the other side of Rome. Sure there was a Juventus and Lazio (Rome) finals football-match. Sure we did not know that when we head on our way. We did see that the traffic on the motorway was standing still, so we took to the small-roads... with the others who thought the same way. On the way back home late in the evening it only took some 30 minutes for the same trip.

If you want to get from A to B in Rome, you might have to take two or three buses, a metro and maybe a train. Journeying for just some 25-35 km inside Rome can take as long as 2 hours. So make sure that you live next to or near your work/school. You don't want to spend 3-4 hours a day in public transportation. While you are on your way, have a book with you, to use your time more wisely. Anyways you'll be exhausted when you come home after all that Journeying, so you don't have energy to do much reading at home for sure.

Metrolines are good in Rome, but unfortunately there are only 2 lines, the A and the B lines. It is not like in most big cities where metro-lines cover most of the city. In Rome that is not happening. One metro goes from West to East and one from South-West to North-East. Also metros stop working at 9pm except on Saturdays. So they do not help much when you are traveling home in the evening time. No wonder people here have their own cars... just to be able to get home in the evenings.

Also another very Roman thing is to strike. Bus strikes are very common. You don't want to get stuck on the other side of the city on a day where there is a strike, so take a habit of checking out from www.atac.roma.it pages in case there is a strike for the buses. On a strike-day the busses normally run in the morning and again from 4 to 8pm. During the day or late evening you are on your own.. literally. No buses so you better make sure you are home in time! I once almost didn't make it home. Would have been nice to walk 10km in the evening. Most likely I would have gotten lost on the way... That road would not have lead to Rome...

The traffic is something that controls the life of people in Rome. It is as usual topic here as the weather is in England... You might have a plan what to do for the day and then the traffic changes your plans totally. You never know how your day turns out to be, it all depends on the traffic... all those roads leading to Rome...