I was nearly flattened by one of the many hurried drivers here as I got off a tram . This happened last night while I was on the way to a friend's house to help her sort out a spyware problem with her PC – ( she got messages in English, which she does not know, thus making the whole experience yet more traumatic, especially as she had some important work to finish too) but I digress.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
Trams are wonderful ecological forms of transport, however, at certain points their rails are located towards the middle of the roads; this means that cars can 'undertake' them, and many do. This is a wee bit dangerous in itself, but getting stuck behind a tram can be frustrating, I know. However, this undertaking stuff gets very dangerous when it occurs while the tram is stopped and is thus letting people off and on. There is a great risk of descending passengers being splatted by an over-enthusiastic driver. Of course, children do use the trams here, and children always tend to be in a rush, like the drivers, only children are not as robust as cars and thus tend to get more badly dented. However, the drivers who charge about do not consider such eventualities as, of course, it will never happen to them, or will it.
Moral: If you happen to be enjoying Milan by tram, watch out as you get off, look right, or something that was never supposed to have happened to you might.
