Scooter News When in Rome Do as the romans do and that means a scooter. Even if just for a day, you can really belong in the eternal city.
Words & photography by ALEC SIMPSON “What you are now we used to be, what we are now you will be.”
Out of context the statement is a bit odd, but at the end of a crypt, decorated with human bones and underneath a grim reaper stuck to the ceiling, also made from human bones, it was just plain eerie. I wasn’t sure how literally I should take it either, as I had never been a Capuchin monk, nor was ever likely to be one. That one of them, in a few years of obvious madness, had decided to dig up his dead colleagues and predecessors to create wall paper like decorations and chandeliers from their bones, confi rmed in my mind that they were never anything like me.
As I wandered out of the crypt and back into the daylight, it took me a few moments to remember what I was doing here in the Piazza Barberini. I was planning to ride a scooter around Rome for a day and I’d found a place to rent one, just a block over from the Capuchin church.
There are a couple of scooter rental companies in Rome, most capitalising on the cinematic history of scooters in Rome. They all offer anything from basic rental to Roman Holiday tours. Few of those indulging their Gregory Peck or Audrey Hepburn fantasies while zooming around the Colosseum seem to realise the irony in their pleasures. The phrase “Roman Holiday” used to refer to partaking in the gladiatorial spectacles of Rome’s past, just a little death and misery for entertainment.
I’d been to Rome before so I wasn’t after a tour, or a lion-feeding, but rather the thrill of riding a scooter in a city that is dominated by them. It also meant I could visit a few places on either side of the city in only a few hours. The hotel staff recommended the local rental agency and, as it turned out, it was a good recommendation.
 The owner of Scooters for Rent, Bruno Zarlenga, was polite, easy-going and clearly explained the insurance situation, as well as the no-go areas in the city, such as the Trevi Fountain (Anita Ekberg I’m not). It is one of the oldest scooter rental companies in Rome,
having started in 1979. I was also to discover that renting a scooter in Rome is actually reasonably priced, so long as you don’t crash or have it stolen.
The Scooters for Rent fee includes third party insurance, but doesn’t include any insurance for damage or theft of the scooter itself. This is the usual practise for Roman scooter hire companies, and most companies require a credit card deposit of between 500 and 1000 Euro [$845-$1690] (depending on the scooter) that is refunded when the scooter is returned undamaged. If the scooter is stolen you will be liable for 25 per cent of the value of the scooter, so make sure you are given a decent cable and lock. Theft is rife in Rome and not locking your scoot is an invitation to thieves. Bruno had a few options for me on the scooter front, the cheapest a Kymco 50cc at 30 Euro [$50] a day, a Piaggio Liberty at 50 Euro [$85], a Vespa LX125 at 62 Euro [$105] and a 250cc Honda for 103 Euro [$175]. Being a sucker for stereotypes I opted for the LX; surely in Rome it was the only choice.
 With the rental details out of the way it was time to hit the Roman roads and experience the allegedly evil traffi c for myself. The fi rst thing I did was ride into the Piazza Barberini to get accustomed to the way Rome’s scooter riders lane-split and do a few laps of the fountain for good measure. Like anywhere you have to do what everyone else does until you get a feel for the environment. Once that’s under your belt you can ride with confi dence, images of dead Capuchin monks aside.
Being a sucker for a good coffee with a grappa chaser, I headed to the other side of town across the Tiber River. The little Vespa sliced up the traffi c with the best of them, although some of the blokes on maxi-scooters looked at me like I should have been on something bigger and manlier. But, importantly, the girls all smiled, so two guesses as to which scooter would be more fun. Must have been the cool light blue paintjob. Once on to the Viale di Trastevere, it’s a few blocks from the river before turning right into the many lanes and small roads that make up the area called Trastevere. It doesn’t take long before you meander into the Piazza Santa Maria and its numerous cafés as well
as what is believed to be the oldest Christian site in Rome. The Santa Maria church is fi lled with incredible mosaics and ornate decorations, and even has the occasional service in Latin for those truly not wanting to understand what’s going on around them. Happily, the church bypasses bones as decorations.
 For me this part of Rome is appealing for its many bars, cafés and restaurants, not to mention its active alternative arts culture. It’s a part of the city that’s very open with lots of university students, making it easy to meet people and get a feel for what it might be like to live in the city. Sitting outside drinking coffee in the sun and watching the world walk past at Bar S Callisto is one of my all-time favourite pastimes, and it’s equally good at night. From Trastevere, I headed across the river again, past the Isola Tiberina to the area known as the Capitol. Here the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuelle II – an imposing, white and relatively new building (1911), built to celebrate the fi rst king of a unifi ed Italy – and the Musei Capitolini live. It’s earned the nicknames of the “typewriter” and the “wedding cake.” It’s certainly not the most beautiful building in Rome.
It’s then a short ride up the Via dei Fori Imperiali to the Colosseum. As you ride along it’s the full Roman experience. The striking remains of the ancient Roman Forum are on your right, more ruins being excavated are on your left, and the Colosseum looms into sight up ahead. It’s quite easy to fi nd somewhere to park your scooter if you are going inside, but if you plan to walk through the Forum you will come out a fair way from your parking spot.
Just make sure you lock the scooter up, preferably to a pole. From the Colosseum, if you head back the way you came, you’ll fi nd the beautiful Palazzo Venezia on the Piazza of the same name, just in front of the typewriter. Thought to be the fi rst renaissance building in Rome, it has fantastic proportions and was where Mussolini addressed crowds during the fascist period.
 You won’t be able to continue down the Via Del Corso to view the other sights at this point; I was stopped by a madly gesticulating traffi c cop. Instead take a left on to Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and head down to the Piazza Campo De’Fiori for the open-air market and fl ower stalls. From there it is only a few blocks to the famous Piazza Navona and the streets of contemporary new fashion shops that surround it.
After the Piazza Navona it’s only a hop, skip and jump into the Piazza Della Rotonda and its impressive Pantheon. It’s free to go in and while you can marvel at the beauty of the stonework and architecture, you can also marvel at the fact it is still standing after almost 2000 years!
In the surrounding streets, like almost anywhere in the city, you can drop into fantastic delicatessens and pick up excellent variations on prosciutto crudo as well as heaps of different Italian cheeses. It makes for a cheap and very tasty lunch. For those that think there is only one type of prosciutto, prepare to be amazed. The gelato stall in Piazza Della Rotunda is also particularly good, but then gelato is probably good everywhere.
If you continue down the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II you will cross the bridge of the same name, which takes you into the Vatican City. The impressive fort you see as you cross the Tiber River is the Castel St Angelo. Originally Hadrian’s tomb, it was fortifi ed over time and even has a corridor to the Vatican palace so previous popes in trouble had a place to escape to.
Via Concilazione is the extra wide boulevard that takes you up to San Pietro (St Peters) and its Michelangelo-painted dome. From there it’s a zig-zag down one-way streets to the Vatican Museum. Here you can park your scooter over the road and head into what is truly one of the world’s most impressive art museums, incorporating the Sistine Chapel. Have I mentioned locking your scooter up yet...? You will also have to leave your helmet in the foyer cloakroom, so you have to walk through the entire museum even if the crowds become maddening and, yes, the Sistine Chapel is at the end.
 Because you have a scooter you can also explore the areas around the Vatican and indulge in a bit of direction asking in order to fi nd your way back to the bridge into town. It’s a pretty simple ride up to the Piazza Di Spagna or Spanish Steps to marvel at the prices some people pay for clothes and wonder what all the fuss is about compared to everything you have just seen.
At this point I could have headed straight back to Scooters for Rent, but instead I rode up towards the Villa Borghese and the top of the Via Veneto. The Via Veneto runs between the Villa Borghese and my starting point at Piazza Barberini. Apart from being one of the most expensive strips in Rome, it is also one of the few places in old Rome where scooterists can give it some on a few bends. I had watched the wannabe Rossi’s on my walk down in the morning and thought it best that I should also have a run. At the last set of lights I gunned the little Vespa past an electric bus before fl icking around the bends like they were made for it. As I rode past the church of the Capuchin monks I waved – I couldn’t imagine any of them having as much fun as I was and I wouldn’t be joining them just yet. I managed to arrive at Bruno’s door within minutes of our arranged time and it felt great to have at last ridden around Rome on a scooter. I hadn’t embarked on a “vag” hunt (a friend’s phrase for hunting down all the Carravagio paintings in Rome, you fi lthy-minded readers), nor had I walked the length of the Forum or visited the Palatine, but I certainly got a great taste of the city in a few short hours. Rome was not only the centre of the Roman Empire, but Christianity for a long time as well. As such it is so layered and so dense it can be almost incomprehensible. But don’t believe those who suggest it is just a museum full of tourists, or that there’s only one way to see the sights – on a tour bus. It may be dense with history – some if it very strange – but it is also full of contemporary life, and a scooter in Rome is a ticket to the city no public transport system can match.
Bruno Zarlenga, Scooters for Rent, Via della Purifi catzione, 84, Roma
+39 (0)64 88 54 85 scooterrent@hotmail.com
As published in TW SCOOTER MAGAZINE - 16/07/2007
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