I love traveling in Italy, but I’m generally on the cautious side when it comes to getting around. My preferred mode of transportation is my own two feet, closely followed by public transit like buses and subways. I typically try to avoid taxis, though rideshares like Uber have made hailing a ride a bit more predictable.
On a trip to Italy last year, I was traveling with a group of first-time visitors who were hell-bent on renting scooters. We were in Naples—a city I had visited several times before.
Now, scooters are undeniably part of the romanticized Italian aesthetic, woven into the cultural fabric of the country right alongside espresso and historic piazzas.
However, I genuinely despise scooters. They are inherently risky, and renting one in an unfamiliar, high-traffic European metropolis is a recipe for disaster. Naples is not some laid-back, slow-paced island destination where you casually coast down quiet coastal roads. It’s a dense, pulsating urban maze where local riders aggressively dart into any gap wide enough for a front wheel.
Road rage and impossibly tight squeezes are standard operating procedure on Neapolitan streets. Even if you have years of riding experience back home, put your pride aside and explore Naples on foot or by metro.
And if you’ve never driven a scooter in your life and plan on using the chaotic streets of Naples as your proving ground—give yourself a swift reality check before you step onto the pavement.
