- I stopped at over ten different parked cabs at a taxi stand to finally get one to let me take a picture of his meter with tariffa 2 on. The other cabs said no because it's a "very sensitive subject".

There are a lot of scam's out there, but this one must be the slyest, most common, unexpected of them all. I learned about this when I got in an argument with a taxi driver about a high fare. He reasoned me out with a secret that many people dont know about when taking a ride in a cab in Rome. He said to me "If I wanted to rip you off I would have put on Tarrifa 2 (2nd fare)". So I inquired about this "Tariffa 2" and he explained to me what most cab drivers do with people who seem to them as foreign or just plain dumb. On the display where your fare is located, there is a number placed to the middle-left corner of the screen which should be the number 1 (one). When the number is not 1, but 2, that means that "Tariffa 2" is on.

Tariffa 2 means that you are paying double the amount you should truly be paying. The fare add's up much quicker per kilometer to make it double the price of what would be Tariffa 1. This was origanlly established for cab rides far outside of Rome, because of all the gas being used, and should be only put on after getting passed the "Grande Raccordo Annulare". The Grande Raccordo is a highway that circles around Rome's farthest borders. You can see it on any map as the red circle around the city, but I highly doubt that any of you will take rides outside of the Grande Raccordo. Look at the names of the little towns at its borders indicated with white dots. Are you trying to get to one of these places by taxi? If you want to get to any of these places take a train.

What do you do then when encountered with this problem? Well, since I found out about this 6 years ago, I've encountered it 3 times when in a cab with friends visiting from America. I rarely take cabs though, and even rarely with foreign friends, so 3 times of encountering this is a lot. What I did in this situation was point out that tariffa 2 was on and to remove it immediatly. I speak Italian though, and it's easier for me to express my anger to someone, but in your case express firmness with any manner you know and just repeat something like "NO TARRIFA DUE!" if you didnt already by now just get out and take another cab. These guys get really frustrated when you catch them. It's actually wiser to take another cab at this point unless you're really stranded.

Taxi's begin to become a huge expense when taking them all the time to get back home. I use my motorcycle to get around the city, and if you want to really know Rome I recommend you do the same by renting motorino/moped. Then again, you have to be a good driver to survive in Rome's traffic, so it's up to YOU!