I dont think Rome is nearly as crazy as its made out to be. The Romans go quickly but competently - as a pedestrian, Ive never feared for my life stepping out into a crosswalk there. If I rented a scooter (as my daughter and boyfriend - teenagers - did on a visit a few years ago) Id stick to side streets and stay off the major avenues. She found the scooter a little hard to handle and fell of hers - they wound up riding together on one scooter. Rome is so walkable and the public transportation so good that I really cant see the point of renting one, unless you just want to have some fun with it.

Just...don't...do...it.

From a post of mine a couple of years ago:

During a visit to our Rome office some years ago, I noticed we had several Vespa's, used primarily to courier contracts and mail around Rome.

I had ridden the things in my youth and mentioned that I would like to use one to ride around Rome over the weekend. The office manager turned white and suggested that I save time and jump out a window to commit suicide that way, unstead of messing up one of his machines in the process.

To make a long story short, I pulled rank and took it for the weekend. I had a ball. . a little scary at first since the Roman auto drivers apparently can not see these things . . but once I realized they would run over me if given half a chance, I adjusted my driving to stay out of the way. I was brushed once by another bike, but otherwise the weekend was accident free.

I had a ball buzzing around Rome and by the second day, was driving just like the Romans do. All in all, I would just as soon see the sights on foot, but it was a nice one time experience!

Rich