Parallel and perpendicular parking

Being the proud owners of a Toyota Yaris at home, we love being on a continent of tiny cars. We actually saw a television commercial for the Yaris on Tuesday, which neither of us can recall ever seeing in the States. Motorcycles and scooters abound as well. So far we've seen only a handful of small SUVs and slightly more minivans, though most of those seem to be taxicabs.

The crowded streets and small cars in Rome lead to some unusual parking spots. In the spirit of The Murray State News' frequent bad parking job feature, here are some of the more creative (and sometimes downright impressive) attempts we've come across.

Entire streets often have cars double parked, as this one does. One of the mysteries of Rome: What happens if you are parked on the inside lane?

A tree complicated this double-parking job for the outside SUV. They both look like sharks trying to eat a guppy, in my mind. 

With a Smart car, it's easy to just back into a spot that won't otherwise work. A fairly common solution.

What is that, 2 inches to spare? The scary thing is, the tree seems to have been whittled out to accommodate bumpers.  

These cars were actually touching. Touching. 

This electric car, which I would describe as a jeep/dune buggy hybrid, is called a Twizy. The site says you can fit two people, but you would have to really, really like the person.