A mix of the modern and the ancient.

While Italy has some of the most amazing antiquity I have ever seen anywhere it also has some of the best modern urban interventions to deal with this issue that I have ever seen. One of the most entertaining and interesting for me was the Minimetro that takes you up to Perugia. After a short walk from the train station you are confronted with a very modern looking "train" station. This Minimetro seems to be very similar to the much larger tram systems (such as the ones in Rome or Portland or SF) but on a very small scale. Each car carries from 15-20 and any more would be too packed. These cars then start off from each station going from sometimes being above the ground on supports to being underground and there are stations at both types of places. People were comparing the experience to Indian Jones at Disneyland and I do have to admit this was my favorite type of public transportation so far. The Minimetro was not the only new way built to get people to the top of the hill though. Many of the hill towns are building lines of escalators that ferry people to the top from the bottom. These new systems (at least from my experience in Perugia and Assisi) seem to be very used and successful in being people movers. While I don't necessarily see something directly in the U.S. for these systems what I did notice was how good the systems were able to integrate with the existing urban fabric and this should be copied when and if these systems or similar ones are built in the U.S. This mix of old and new is definitely something that can be copied to the United States if done right. (although compared to Italy not much is old at all in the U.S.) I hope we can copy this example though. Much can be learned by these examples and hopefully people will pay attention to them.
Until next week,