Not for the first time, Italy's leading dailies last Monday carried intriguing front pages pictures showing an assortment of cyclists, roller-bladers, horsemen and pedestrians strolling up and down the car-free centres of the country's biggest cities, including Rome and Milan.
In most of Italy, last Sunday was a beautiful mild and sunny day, prompting many to take advantage of a ban on cars by the mayors of more than 100 cities. With smog and pollution levels sometimes almost twice permitted EU levels, the mayors say they have little alternative but to introduce such measures.
Yet city officials and environmentalists know that Sunday shutdowns are merely symbolic. With a 34 million strong army of cars, Italy has a 1.6 car/inhabitant ratio that is topped only by the US.
Environmentalists point out that 50 per cent of Italian car journeys cover less than four kilometres. Yet, they argue, only a serious commitment to improving transport infrastructure (not just trams, buses and metros, but also bike lanes in a country largely blessed with a mild climate) will persuade Italians to leave the car at home. As of now, delays, infrequency and occasional strikes bedevil much public transport while cycling in many cities is nothing less than a high-risk venture.
All the indications are that Italians are becoming even more car-addicted. A recent report by the Italian Automobile Club suggests that Italians are ever more hopelessly addicted to their modern day chariot. They refuse to kick the habit despite roads getting ever more crowded, despite the average annual cost of running a car (tax, insurance, petrol, parking and maintenance) going up by 19 per cent to €4,414, despite 51.4 per cent of motorists claiming to miss at least one appointment a week because of traffic.
The number of motorists who define travelling by car as a daily "indispensable" has actually gone up by 13 per cent, while 40.9 per cent say they used the car more often in 2003 than in 2002.
Compared with your average morning out on Rome's Grande Raccordo Annullare (ringroad to you), the race for the first bend in a Formula One Grand Prix is a doddle. Yet ever more Italians want to get out there and rev it up - 19 per cent of motorists say they will be buying a new car this year with which to joing the madding fray. No idle promise this - last year Italians bought a staggering 2,251,307 new cars, including 46,699 BMWs, 70,732 Mercedes, 50,988 Audis and 17,609 Volvos. The most requested extras are satellite-tracked anti-theft devices and navigation systems, the latter useful in extricating yourself from the traffic jam you're in, and finding a new jam in which to spend the rest of your morning not getting to work.
Having bought that new car, of course, Giovanni really wants to see just what it can "do". So, it's hardly surprising that 60.4 per cent of motorists want the speed limit on the autostrada raised from 130 kph to 150 kph.
Through the fog of fumes, there is one beam of light in the shape of the new points penalty system introduced just last summer. For what it's worth, nearly 40 per cent of motorists claim to have slowed down since it was introduced.
A final thought - what do you do in Italy when the roar of the old turbines simply gets too much? Well, there is Venice, although we are reliably informed that the costs of gondola maintenance have gone through the roof this year too.