Saturday, March 28, 2009

Chain Reaction


Yesterday morning Mario Rossi (the Italian equivalent of John Doe) wakes up late and has to rush to get to work on time. He works in the center of Rome and drives to work. He frantically looks for a parking space but can't to seem to find any--- WAIT! What's that? A spot on the crosswalk on the street corner. It may be an illegal spot, but Mario Rossi is late so he doesn't care. Shortly after, a bus is driving along its route and needs to turn onto the same street Mario Rossi parked on but lo and behold, the bus can't make the turn because (wait for it).... Mario Rossi's car is in the way! So the bus gets stuck, passengers on the bus can't get to their stops hence they end up late for work, traffic starts piling up behind the bus making even more people late, and the whole neighborhood is in chaos. And all this happened why? Because Mario Rossi, being the typical Italian he is, doesn't bother to think ahead, doesn't try to see the big picture, instead he only cares about his own immediate needs and has no concern for his city or fellow city-dwellers. My advice to Mario Rossi, wake up earlier and take the bus, jackass!

6 comments:

Emmina said...

I know hundreds of Mario Rossi's ;-)

erin said...

hilarious. just found your blog and man can i ever relate to what i've read so far... it's a crazy town, with mega ups and downs. i'm in a rut too...

Anonymous said...

Nice.

I've been living in Italy for 7 months now, and one thing that became very clear early on was that Italians (as nice as they are) are deeply engrossed in themselves. Oy vey.

monika.page@hotmail.com said...

There are a lot of Mari Rossi's in Florence too - perhaps they are related.

Kataroma said...

Yep I think just about every Roman is a Mario (or Maria) Rossi.

I'm reminded of this many mornings when I'm woken up by constant honking outside because someone has been parked in while the offending car's owner dashes into the bar "to get a quick coffee" (or, even worse, to go inside one of the apartment buildings). I can only imagine how irate I'd be if I were late for work because some idiot had parked me in.

Romerican said...

Emmina- I bet Milan is full of 'em too!

Sweet Life w/ Olives- Welcome! Glad my post amused you. Yeah, ups and downs are all part of the fun of living here, aren't they?

Anon- "Deeply engrossed in themselves" is putting it nicely :)

Monika- They were all cut from the same cloth!

Kataroma- Ah, good ol' double parkers who justify themselves with: "I just stopped for a coffee" or "I just had to buy a few things at the store" or "I just had to go to the post office and the line was 45 minutes long, it's not my fault". So unaware of their surroundings it amazes me!