‘Most Roman thing ever’: City repaints parking bays around cars … then fines drivers

Rome: When Stefano Angeloni parked his run-down Honda on Rome’s Via Catullo, the white lines on the parking bay made it clear he would not have to pay.

But when the 65-year-old dentist returned the next morning, the lines had turned blue and a €29.40 ($48.30) fine was placed under his windscreen wiper.

He was not the only victim of the overnight council parking blitz.

Car owners have had new traffic lines painted around their vehicles and then been fined by overzealous officials for being parked illegally.

Council crews descended on streets in the Italian capital and, with a few daubs of paint, transformed free, legal parking spaces into paid spots overnight.

Rather than removing the parked cars, they painted around their tyres.

Free parking spots are marked out with white lines in Rome, while paid parking places are designated with blue paint.

Among the residents affected was Angeloni, who had parked his car legally in the upmarket Prati district.

There had been no advance notice of the change, he said.

Angeloni filmed the spot with his phone and posted it to social media, thinking it might elicit comments from friends and family.

But the clip went viral, with more than 40,000 views and thousands of comments from sympathetic Romans. Some said they had encountered the same sudden overnight parking changes in other areas of the capital.

“Look at this. I left the car within white lines. A day later and they have painted them blue. Obviously they couldn’t lift up my car – nor the other ones. The white lines have turned blue. The result? A lovely fine. Fantastic, right? We live in a fantastic city,” he said with irony in the video clip.

‘Most Roman thing ever’

While some residents found the episode amusing, others responded with weary resignation.

“Most Roman thing ever,” one wrote on Instagram.

An Italian woman commented: “I love the way they painted around your tyres. That takes skill.”

Another said: “The spots under your car tyres are still white so I think you could contest this ticket.”

Angeloni acknowledged that he could have challenged the fine, but decided to pay it because the car belonged to his sister-in-law and he did not want her to be lumbered with the hassle.

The corporation that manages paid parking spaces in the city, known by its acronym ATAC, admitted that its workers had acted with “an excess of zeal” in painting around parked vehicles. Fines issued to Angeloni and others in a similar situation would be cancelled and refunds issued, it said.

The company said it would give residents and drivers more notice when parking rules were changing.

Parking in Rome is already a daily struggle, with drivers often spending half an hour or more looking for a free spot, without overnight paint jobs suddenly changing the rules.

Parking illegally in any available spot is endemic, as is double and even triple parking. Drivers routinely find themselves boxed in by other cars and resort to sounding their horns repeatedly to attract the attention of whoever has blocked them.

The Telegraph, London

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