Wacky news Ban of Vespa in Genoa?


It seems to be just the older ones they're banning.

Makes no sense to me to ban the newer ones that aren't so polluting, just as it makes no sense to me that younger people aren't buying them as frequently, especially in cities like Genova or hill villages and towns.

Bicycles are impossible on that kind of terrain, if you're walking long distances it's tiring, and there's nowhere to park a damn car, even a small one.

Genova: my favorite Italian city for lots of reasons, but extremely frustrating to navigate until you get used to it. I drove there to see family. BIG MISTAKE. The car spent four days in the garage. Then I couldn't get out of the city. Just kept going around and around because of all the one way streets. I could SEE the DAMN entrance to the highway but couldn't access it. Believe it or not, I paid one of the young boys at a restaurant to drive with me to just about the entrance ramp. Where there's a will there's a way. Oh, and if you're arriving from eastern Liguria, as I did, you have to drive on top of these sky high areas over gorges and then what seem like hundreds of pitch black gallerias that were bored into the mountains. All at extremely high speeds of course. It was worse than driving Highway 1 in California or the Amalfi coast. I was white knuckled the whole way. The next time I took a boat from La Spezia. :)

A now funny memory, which was panic inducing at the time involved me getting literally "stuck" in my car. on a tiny street leading into the town square of Pontremoli. Vehicles are banned in the square, and while I might have chanced it, I was going wrong way on a one way street and there were two policemen in the square. Italian male gallantry notwithstanding, I don't think it would have gone down well. :)

Thank God for the Italian tendency toward anarchy. An old man came out and told me to back up until I reached a set of very shallow stairs leading to an alley, and with him standing there and directing me, I managed to make a three point turn up the stairs and head the other way. I came back the next day with a bottle of wine for him. :)

Looks manageable, right? Just imagine it narrowing precipitously right around the corner.
Via_Garibaldi_pontremoli_Tuscany-1024x683.jpg



Places like that demand a scooter. Imagine what you save on gas too.

I'm also prejudiced because my father couldn't afford a car in Italy, so we went everywhere on motorcycles and scooters. Loved it. Still do.

As for pollution, as I said, go ahead and ban the old ones unless they can somehow change the motors, but let's not lose sight of the big picture, as most people do in this climate change focused world.

One supercargo ship pollutes as much as millions and millions of cars. Those tourist ships docking in the ports of Genova and La Spezia bring business, but they also bring pollution. Venezia is deteriorating partly because of them. I doubt they'll be banning them. Older people who love their Vespas can be pushed around more easily.

Europe and the U.S. are also not the big offenders. Go hound the Chinese and the Indians and the Russians.

How I love them:

vespa-lead.jpg


vespa+2cv.jpg
 
It seems to be just the older ones they're banning.

Makes no sense to me to ban the newer ones that aren't so polluting, just as it makes no sense to me that younger people aren't buying them as frequently, especially in cities like Genova or hill villages and towns.

Bicycles are impossible on that kind of terrain, if you're walking long distances it's tiring, and there's nowhere to park a damn car, even a small one.

Genova: my favorite Italian city for lots of reasons, but extremely frustrating to navigate until you get used to it. I drove there to see family. BIG MISTAKE. The car spent four days in the garage. Then I couldn't get out of the city. Just kept going around and around because of all the one way streets. I could SEE the DAMN entrance to the highway but couldn't access it. Believe it or not, I paid one of the young boys at a restaurant to drive with me to just about the entrance ramp. Where there's a will there's a way. Oh, and if you're arriving from eastern Liguria, as I did, you have to drive on top of these sky high areas over gorges and then what seem like hundreds of pitch black gallerias that were bored into the mountains. All at extremely high speeds of course. It was worse than driving Highway 1 in California or the Amalfi coast. I was white knuckled the whole way. The next time I took a boat from La Spezia. :)

A now funny memory, which was panic inducing at the time involved me getting literally "stuck" in my car. on a tiny street leading into the town square of Pontremoli. Vehicles are banned in the square, and while I might have chanced it, I was going wrong way on a one way street and there were two policemen in the square. Italian male gallantry notwithstanding, I don't think it would have gone down well. :)

Thank God for the Italian tendency toward anarchy. An old man came out and told me to back up until I reached a set of very shallow stairs leading to an alley, and with him standing there and directing me, I managed to make a three point turn up the stairs and head the other way. I came back the next day with a bottle of wine for him. :)

Looks manageable, right? Just imagine it narrowing precipitously right around the corner.
Via_Garibaldi_pontremoli_Tuscany-1024x683.jpg



Places like that demand a scooter. Imagine what you save on gas too.

I'm also prejudiced because my father couldn't afford a car in Italy, so we went everywhere on motorcycles and scooters. Loved it. Still do.

As for pollution, as I said, go ahead and ban the old ones unless they can somehow change the motors, but let's not lose sight of the big picture, as most people do in this climate change focused world.

One supercargo ship pollutes as much as millions and millions of cars. Those tourist ships docking in the ports of Genova and La Spezia bring business, but they also bring pollution. Venezia is deteriorating partly because of them. I doubt they'll be banning them. Older people who love their Vespas can be pushed around more easily.

Europe and the U.S. are also not the big offenders. Go hound the Chinese and the Indians and the Russians.

How I love them:

vespa-lead.jpg


vespa+2cv.jpg
Thanks for this interesting story. Like very much to read them.

Hope I can "discovery" Genoa myself some day in the near future. :)

Your description naturally corresponds well to the articles:
"In Genoa, though, the Vespa is part of the furniture. Perfectly adapted to nipping in and out of the alleys of the historical centre, it is not the retro fetish object it has become in Milan or Rome, let alone London or New York. “In Genoa, it’s not a fashion,” says Nicora. 'We use it.'
Vespas slip seamlessly into the tightly parked ranks of two-wheelers that flank the city’s streets, lining piazzas and courtyards, and underneath the flyover on Via Aurelia. Everyone uses them: tattooed millennials, bespectacled housewives, grannies riding in tandem. There is none of the free-for-all traffic slaloms you see in other Mediterranean cities such as Marseille; they slot in an orderly fashion into the traffic flow. Vespas seem vital here: public transport coverage is thin in Genoa, with a single, eight-station metro line, and the Ligurian hills, rising steeply up from the port, aren’t bike-friendly."

The second one:
"While the classic Vespa is an iconic design everywhere, in Genoa the model is ubiquitous. Scooters in general play a vital role in the city, where public transport coverage is sparse; the city’s single metro line has only eight stations."

I don't know why, suddenly I felt like I shoud buy a Vespa (a "green" one, of course). Probably a fetish, as the article mentions. Lol

You mentioned supercargos; and I just remembered to have read that another important vector of polution are airplanes, and they're many. Making them "green" seems to be a big challenge though.

@Pax
Indeed. I was surprised on how much polution an oldie produces:
"The earlier two-stroke engine burns a mixture of oil and gasoline, producing as much pollution as 30-50 four-stroke engines according to some estimates"

And they're many in Genoa. The measure of authorities is understandable.
 
Thanks for this interesting story. Like very much to read them.

Hope I can "discovery" Genoa myself some day in the near future. :)

Your description naturally corresponds well to the articles:
"In Genoa, though, the Vespa is part of the furniture. Perfectly adapted to nipping in and out of the alleys of the historical centre, it is not the retro fetish object it has become in Milan or Rome, let alone London or New York. “In Genoa, it’s not a fashion,” says Nicora. 'We use it.'
Vespas slip seamlessly into the tightly parked ranks of two-wheelers that flank the city’s streets, lining piazzas and courtyards, and underneath the flyover on Via Aurelia. Everyone uses them: tattooed millennials, bespectacled housewives, grannies riding in tandem. There is none of the free-for-all traffic slaloms you see in other Mediterranean cities such as Marseille; they slot in an orderly fashion into the traffic flow. Vespas seem vital here: public transport coverage is thin in Genoa, with a single, eight-station metro line, and the Ligurian hills, rising steeply up from the port, aren’t bike-friendly."

The second one:
"While the classic Vespa is an iconic design everywhere, in Genoa the model is ubiquitous. Scooters in general play a vital role in the city, where public transport coverage is sparse; the city’s single metro line has only eight stations."

I don't know why, suddenly I felt like I shoud buy a Vespa (a "green" one, of course). Probably a fetish, as the article mentions. Lol

You mentioned supercargos; and I just remembered to have read that another important vector of polution are airplanes, and they're many. Making them "green" seems to be a big challenge though.

@Pax
Indeed. I was surprised on how much polution an oldie produces:
"The earlier two-stroke engine burns a mixture of oil and gasoline, producing as much pollution as 30-50 four-stroke engines according to some estimates"

And they're many in Genoa. The measure of authorities is understandable.

Genova is not for everyone, I hasten to add. It's a working city, not a tourist city, a port, and like all ports, it has its seedy areas with insalubrious smells and prostitutes on the corners, things like that. Think of Mestre being right on the outskirts of Venezia for a comparison.

You have to know it, and its locals, to appreciate it. Despite its small size, it has the feel of a city like New York, bustling and diverse.

It's also difficult to know, as are its locals. The latter are famously reserved, private, sardonic, cautious with money, but then they've had to be. A harder place to scratch out a living is difficult to imagine. They're also great readers, have given birth to a lot of abstract thinkers, not artists.

It's a vertical city, suspended between the mountains and the sea. To get from the port and city center to apartments and houses they've built funiculars and even elevators which climb the mountain for you. Leading off from them are lanes or creuze, some really tiny, leading to vine covered houses and miniature squares. It's a city of hidden gems and secrets, much like the people. :) At the very top are piazzas with a view of the city and the sea, or parks, and fields.

5964767435_69f614b297_z.jpg


san-bartolomeo-dellolivella-2.jpg


san-bartolomeo-dellolivella-12.jpg




Of course, there are some more horizontal areas, like the gorgeous Nervi and Boccadasse.

Boccadasse
Europa-0868.jpg


Nervi
foto_nervi_019_porto.JPG


For those who like seafood and fresh herbs and vegetables and light olive oil and good wine, the food is fabulous, imo.
 
I had my fill of going the wrong way in a one way street and Google Maps directing me to take them in my recent trip to Italy. Genoa would be great to visit with a professional guide driving a mini-bus ;).
 
I had my fill of going the wrong way in a one way street and Google Maps directing me to take them in my recent trip to Italy. Genoa would be great to visit with a professional guide driving a mini-bus ;).

You should have your wife do the city driving. It might help. Even in Rome, which has a much flatter terrain, I had google maps directing me to take streets where I was going the wrong way on a one way street, or just leading me in endless loops that never got me onto the highway and out. I was beside myself as I had to get out to the airport, return the car, yada, yada...

Italian male gallantry in the form of a traffic policeman came to my rescue. He got in the car with me, directed me for four blocks, and voila, there was the ramp! A heartfelt thank you was the only thanks I could give.

A kind garage owner saved us when we got stuck as a family outside Todi. My husband, bless him, was finding letting me handle all arrangements irritating, I think, so when we went to fill up the car, he said he'd do it, while I went into the auto grill. I don't know if it's the same now, but the nozzles for diesel and gas were the same. I don't have to explain further, right?

Of course, it was a Sunday! We somehow got it up into Todi to a garage, closed. My husband said he'll never forget that the garage owner, in to finish up a few things, was dressed in a starched white coat like a lab coat. :)

That blessed man put the car up on the lift, drained out all the diesel, and refilled it, showing my son all around the shop while we waited. He even told us to follow him in the car to the exit ramp, no doubt thinking we were mentally deficient unfit parents. :) I still send him a Christmas card.

It's those kinds of experiences which we all remember, although at the time they were harrowing.

On the trip from eastern Liguria to Genova and beyond, you're either on these elevated bridges or you're in a galleria. If you're not good with transitions from bright sunlight to pitch blackness, you're in trouble.

ponte-morandi-1350-1.jpg



My problem is that I always need a car to see my scattered family, or I'd take the trains and buses.
 

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