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Question about Taxis and ZTL Zones

Posted by (Boston, MA) on

This is kind of a strange question but trying to settle a debate.
On a trip to Rome my wife and I ventured by foot outside of the tourist area after touring the Colosseum.

When we realized we had strayed a little too far and were lost we decided to go a bit further and then take a taxi back to our hotel at the Pantheon. We have taken taxis previously and they went right to the hotel but this time the driver who spoke to no English and us virtually no Italian knew where we wanted to go but ended up dropping us off quite far from our hotel and literally kicked us out of his taxi. He seemed to be saying he could not go any further and we must get out now.

We discovered later in situations where the person's English was as good as our Italian my wife speaking Spanish allowed us to be able to communicate well enough to solve any problems and has helped us bridge the communication gap many times as enough words are similar for things to roughly make sense.

Anyway I am convinced we were dropped off far from where we were wanting to go due to some ZTL limitation where he as a taxi cab driver from another part of town could not go into the other part, though no knowledge if that is true with official taxis in Rome. My wife feels we in some way offended him and so he got mad and kicked us out.
We were laughing in the backseat at our ourselves about getting so lost.

Posted by
32212 posts

There could be several explanations for the Taxi drivers actions. I'll have to leave the ZTL question to others but AFAIK Taxis are permitted to drive into ZTL areas for the purpose of dropping off or picking up passengers.

Based on your description, my impression is that due to the language issues, the driver may not have had a clue where he was going or where your hotel was. He may have simply brought you to the general vicinity of where he thought you wanted to go and then not knowing what else to do, ejected you from the Taxi. I've encountered incompetent Taxi drivers in Rome in the past, and some of them have no clue how to find specific addresses there. On one occasion, the idiot driver couldn't even find the address with a GPS and a phone call to his brother-in-law! It's unfortunate that Taxi drivers in other cities in Europe don't have to qualify with "the knowledge" as they do in London.

Posted by
1829 posts

I really don't know for certain but it was a marked taxi of some type not a private car.

Maybe as stated he did not know which street to drive down himself or did not understand where we wanted to go. I would think the Pantheon is quite well known by all but he dropped us off a good distance from there. The fare was 20+ euro, meter was running and there was traffic so would have been higher so no financial reason to kick us out which was not far from Piazza Venezia when we exited the cab.
We suspected at the time and my wife still thinks he thought we were making fun of him since we were having a conversation and laughing the backseat. Despite our lack of the Italian language I don't think we would be perceived that way.
Still the ride shortened our walk home a good bit but we have both wondered since this day what happened.

Was also not the last time getting lost walking about in Rome, for whatever reason we had a heck of time staying on the correct path but we were never in a rush so was part of the enjoyment and after this day I kept a map with me and we looked for signs to find ourselves before continuing for long way the wrong direction.

Posted by
15193 posts

Taxi drivers in Rome are licensed by the City of Rome, which has by far the largest land area of all municipalities in Italy and encompasses areas outside of the beltway. It would not be possible for you to walk beyond the city limits unless you walked for hours. In any case, all taxis, regardless of which municipality they were licensed, can use both the ZTL and bus lanes in Rome, while in service. For example if a taxi from Civitavecchia needs to take a client to a hotel in Rome, he can enter the ZTL.

Regarding the possibility the taxi driver might be lost, that is somewhat hard to believe, especially because we are talking about a major landmark (Pantheon) not a minor street in the outskirts.
Taxi drivers in Rome must pass a 4 part exam, which includes the following subjects:
A-Mechanics
B-First aid
C-Location of main streets and landmarks in Rome/itinerary directions
D-Principle of Business Law (Contract law, tax law)
The complete test is below
http://www.provincia.roma.it/sites/default/files/20140403AvvPubbElencoQuizesamiRegioneLazio_0_0_0.pdf

There is no way a taxi driver would not know how to get to the Pantheon. There are streets and piazzas, however, where not even taxi drivers can enter. Those are not just Limited Traffic Zones (ZTL) but rather Zone Pedonali (Pedestrian only zones). Piazza della Rotonda, in front of the Pantheon, is one of them. However taxis can easily drop you off near it, like Piazza della Minerva.

I don't know exactly why he left you away from the Pantheon. My thinking is that there must have been some traffic and he thought that it would be faster (and cheaper) for you to walk the last few hundred yards than to stay on the taxis in traffic. If he left you near Piazza Venezia however, it wasn't far at all from the Pantheon, it's just 5 min walk. In that case he thought he was doing you a favor and instead you took it the opposite way. See what communication lost in translation can do?

Posted by
1829 posts

Not sure, but thank you for the more detailed information Roberto
Could definitely have been that he was telling us traffic was bad and it would take longer to drive than walk and was doing us a favor and we misunderstood.
The walk back was not bad it was just at that point we were tired from walking all day so wanted to pay for the luxury of getting drop right next to our hotel.

There was a meter inside the cab so assume it was an official taxi.
We ended up taking an unofficial taxi from the airport one time in Italy and it was one of those things I read about it but fell for anyway.
Agreed to a price with one person who swore the price was fixed and delivered us to a waiting car. Nice Mercedes, no meter. When we get to the hotel the driver demands more money than agreed upon. Double actually. I yelled at him since I knew I was being scammed and gave him a 10 euro tip and told him he was not getting any more he was pissed but relented and let us get our own bags out of the trunk and leave since I was going to cause a scene and not give in and he was not going to intimidate me.

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