I week ago I was told that the Comune, in its infinite wisdom, had imposed parking restrictions on Via Silla and the new car park in Piazza Paraterra. Under the new rules, parking will still be free but guests will need a time disc (disco orario) and parking will be restricted to one hour, or you risk a fine. A disco orario is often supplied in Italian hire cars as they are used as a means of calculating parking time throughout Italy. Some of the other street parking in Capena (particularly at the top of Via IV Novembre and around the Comune) is restricted in a similar way.

As an update, Elisabetta has been to check it out and it seems that the signs have gone up but nothing is going to be enforced for at least another 3-4 months. In the meantime all the locals are up in arms and the plan hopefully won’t happen at all. It wouldn’t be  the first time the Comune has back-tracked in the face of public outrage. The mad one-way scheme that involved negotiating a practically 1:1 gradient springs to mind… and that didn’t last long either!

The message is that for the meantime everything is fine and if anything changes I will give an update. There are in any case plenty of unrestricted, free parking places in Capena elsewhere though not quite so convenient for the house (about 5-10 mins walk away). There is a big free car park down Via Mattatoio – see http://g.co/maps/h5mrm.

Taking a broader view, in lots of ways we should be happy that the Comune is trying to do something to ease the traffic and parking situation in this mediaeval village where the roads were built in the days before cars at a time when the only traffic consisted of donkeys and the odd horse and cart.