Italians can be fined for using gestures to express their road rage but are free to use their full vocabulary of obscenities, according to a ruling by Italy's supreme Court of Cassation.
This because it was the opinion of the high court that certain gestures represent a real threat.
The case in point regards a 62-year-old driver from Perugia who was found guilty of making threatening gestures against another driver who had passed his vehicle. In its ruling on Wednesday, the court lowered the fine levied against the gesture-making driver from 51 to 20 euros.
This is not the first time that the supreme court has set the guidelines for road etiquette.
In a recent opinion, the Court of Cassation ruled that drivers who illegal park in such a way as to block even one other vehicle committed "private violence" and were thus subject not only to fines but also risked a prison term.
(Photo: The late Alberto Sordi in a scene from the Fellini film Il Vitelloni).
