Ecopass Milan

January 8, 2008 · Filed Under Milan · 7 Comments 

As you may have read/seen, Milan’s council has introduced its own brand of pollution limitation measure, know as ‘Ecopass’. Basically, to enter the central area of Milan by vehicle between 7:30am and 7:30pm from Monday to Friday, as of 2nd January 2008, it is necessary to pay for and display an Ecopass ticket.

The price of said ticket varies from 2 to 10 Euros, depending upon the ‘Euro’ class of your wheels. In simple terms, cars with super low polluting engines will pay 2 Euros a day, whereas if you have a super polluting runabout, you will have to fork out 10 Euros to enter the centre. But there is more, if you have a very old car(petrol or diesel pre-Euro , or a pre-Euro scooter or motorbike, then you cannot even buy an Ecopass until the 15th April. I’m not sure what you need to do if you have one of these vehicles and live within the Ecopass area - sprout wings, I guess.

Well, I don’t need the wings, as I have no car, or pre-Euro vehicle, so I don’t need to worry about the Ecopass. Well, although I will not worry about buying the things, I will, instead, hope that pollution levels fall, in what appears to be a horribly fumy city.

Today, I had to cross Milan from outside the Ecopass zone, to somewhere well within it. I was a little curious to see whether traffic levels had been reduced as a result of these things. So, were they? A little, I would say. Although rush hour traffic, seemed pretty much like it was before the Ecopass came along. It is early days yet though, even if today was the first ‘real’ test of the scheme.

I shall watch carefully, and note whether the buses and trams move more fluidly than before, and whether waiting times for buses et al, reduce. We’ll see.

Apparently, the ever ingenious commuters are climbing out of bed earlier and arriving in the Ecopass area before 7:30 in the morning, in order to avoid paying for a pass. Then, I imagine that they will stay at work until 7:30pm before heading for home. For most manager/professional types, this will not be much of a problem, as most of them work until 8 or much later. For the rest, I don’t know. It depends a lot on their wallets and stamina.

Then again, it remains to be seen just how long the enthusiasm for enforcing this scheme will last. The Ecopass may go the same way as the ‘anti-dog-poo on the pavement initiative’, which, judging by the amount of excrement on the side walks here, appears to have died the death.

But then again, the pollution levels here could well be leading to the premature death of many of the city’s population, so this Blogger in Milan hopes that this scheme actually has some effect.

Here is some information in English about the Ecopass

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Rom or Romanian?

November 10, 2007 · Filed Under Italian news · 6 Comments 

As I wrote a few days back, Italy has taken measures to extradite European Union citizens who have been involved in criminal activities here. The Italian law enforcement spotlight has been shining heavily on those from Romania, and the police have been rounding up Romanians by the dozen in preparation for having them sent back to Romania.

I’ve noticed that the press here has been becoming a little confused, and it is evident that they are not really sure of the difference between Romanians and the ‘Rom’. Just to make matters more confusing, which indeed they are it has to be said, both Rom and Romanians come from Romania! Indeed, one may think that ‘Rom’ is a diminutive form of ‘Romanian’, but this is not the case.

Just in case someone was wondering, the ‘Rom’, who hail from Romania, are really a nomadic gypsy type population, whereas ‘Romanians’ are those from Romania, who, in the main, are not nomadic gypsies. In fact, the ‘real’ Romanians regard their ‘Rom’ counterparts as being something of an unwanted underclass, and Romanians do not really like to be associated with the ‘Rom’. I told you it was confusing.

It becomes worse. Both true, shall we say, Romanian illegal immigrants, and the Rom live in favella type encampments, found, as far as I believe, throughout Italy, but I’m not sure that both Rom and Romanians can be found living side by side in the same shanty towns. Whilst the Romanians are quite recent immigrants, many of the Rom have been in Italy for a long time.

Around Milan, the Rom, not the Romanians, are well organised and raise funds through busking, cleaning car windows, and begging. They, the Rom, are not averse to a little fund raising petty crime either, as anyone who has seen the groups of unkempt kids carrying newspapers and surrounding tourists in an attempt to remove wallets, cash and cameras, will know. I have seen these people in action, and while she was with our son, even my other half was approached, (nothing happened, Cristina is very streetwise) - but this incident illustrates that these little gangs don’t solely prey on tourists. Most travel guides contain warnings about these nasty little gangs. Well, these gangs are part of the Rom network.

‘True’, Romanians have become involved in petty, and more serious crime, but not as a result of falling in with the Rom, at least I do not believe so. In general Romanians come to Italy in search of a better life, whereas the Rom just come here to live and operate as they always have done, in other words, as gypsies. As you may appreciate, distinguishing between these two groups that have the same places of origin can be a little mind boggling at times. Hence the confusion in the some of the Italian press.

The enforcers of law and order on the other hand, are not attempting to differentiate between Rom and Romanians, and are doing their level best to use the recent government initiative to round up and send home both Rom and Romanians. Both are now personae non gratae as far as the Italian authorities are concerned.

With regard to Italians in general, I think it would be true to say that both Rom and Romanians will not be missed particularly. Although this whole thing must be making the lives of the honest established Romanians quite difficult.

We shall see how long this extradition initiative endures, but, as is often the case here, the enthusiasm, if you can call it that, of the authorities will probably wane in a few months time, and it is probable that both Rom and Romanians will creep back into Italy. Back to square one.

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Did you hear about ‘Vaffa’ day here in Italy?

September 12, 2007 · Filed Under Italian news, Life in Italy · Comment 

Beppe Grillo, the Italian comedian who was excommunicated from Italian TV many years ago after he made a few quips about the behaviour of certain politicians, and who runs one of the most popular blogs in the world, organised ‘Vaffa’ day. ‘Vaffa’ if you did not know, is short for ‘vaffanculo’, which means something like ‘fuck off’, and Mr Grillo wanted to tell the politicians in Italy where to go. In Mr Grillo’s (and many others) eyes Italy has become ‘Shitaly’.

The ‘Vaffa’ event seems to have had some success and the media here has been reverberating with stories of Mr Grillo’s performance down in Bologna, and the mud he has stirred up. There was even a follow up to Sunday’s goings on today in the evening news. Apparently, Di Pietro, one of the few decent politicos in the Living Museum managed to wind up Fausto Bertinotti, a supposed communist (he has a pretty good income for a commy - so is obviously one of those commies who is more equal than the others - ‘heart on the left, wallet on the right’ (wonderful definition of an Italian commy!), to quote Mr Grillo) , and speaker in the current Italian parliament. The reason for Bertinotti’s indignation? Di Pietro stated that politicians who have been convicted by the courts should lose the right be ‘promoted’ to senators in and this take a seat in Italy’s upper house of parliament. Seems fair enough to me, after all politicos are not really renown for their honesty, and court convictions would seem to indicate that, at least in some cases, certain politicians are not honest enough to command the respect, and be able to represent the interests, of a nation. Bertinotti sort of evaded this issue, saying that it was the first time he had ‘officially’ heard of it. Yeah, yeah. This kind of leads one to the conclusion that Bertinotti is possible acting in collusion with some of his not so honourable colleagues. He certainly is one of the ‘old school’ politicos, so, if this is the case, it would not be much of a surprise.

Good old Mr Grillo - he has stirred up a hornets nest and much buzzing is now taking place. Parliamentary reform is, once again, being mooted. I think even the politicos were surprised by the support for Mr Grillo’s initiative. Let us hope that something tangible comes from it. After all, I know of no other country in Europe where the politicians are held in such a bad light, especially by the young. Many of the current faces and names in Italian politics are a bit like a bad smell that just refuses to dissipate. Result? Italy goes backwards, round in circles, up and down, but rarely forwards. And, to put some icing on the now stale (rotting!!??) cake, the current bunch hanging around in parliament is on about yet more tax rises, which seems to be the only thing they are capable of implementing. Is someone’s Swiss bank account falling below the 100 million Euros mark possibly? Nah, perish the thought. After dodgy Craxi’s ’skimming’ of public monies, no one would be daft enough to do the same thing again, now would they? Unless, that is, they all worked together? No, no way that this could be the case. Only it may explain why Bertinotti is trying on a few delaying tactics . Maybe, possibly, he wants to give a few ‘friends’ a little more time to dunk a few incriminating things in the wine vats. No. Daft thought.

Whatever happens, and do not hold your breath. When changes happens here it slowly oozes though the system, so nothing will really happen for the next 600 years or so, in which time the current Italian PM will most probably still go by the name of Prodi/Berlusconi. Do not believe me? Hop in your time machines and check it out!

It really is, in my opinion, quite something when a comedian becomes just about the only person proposing realistic changes in a country which is a so-called democratic republic. I mean, is this Grillo fellow trying to be funny or something?

Edited 24.04- coz I did not like the first draft.

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