The Oldest Streetcar Station

I spent the last week in Rome, mostly as part of a guided tour of the ancient city and its monuments, ruins, temples, churches, and so on.  Most of these you may have seen before, or can easily look up.  But I had an hour free at one point to take a streetcar ride, and wound up at a terminal that has got to be about the oldest in existence.  At Porta Maggiore (the "Bigger Gate") several tram lines meet and transfer passengers, and the lines wind around like spaghetti through these magnificent arches which date back to the second century.

You can see tracks in front and streetcars behind this triumphal arch proclaiming the greatness of the Emperor Claudius.

At least one of the routes is narrow gauge:

Here's a narrow gauge train:

And a dual gauge diamond:

On the route that went towards our hotel, these appear to be the oldest type of cars in operation.  They are certainly fond of articulated equipment.  And I haven't bothered to look up any details about the system as a whole. You can just regard these as postcards.

A seven-section articulated train:

And this one appears to be five sections:

Most of the time they're stuck in Roman traffic, like everybody else.  Sometimes I could see the motorman waving his arms in frustration, pounding his fists, and making rude gestures at all the idiots around him getting in the way -- taxis, buses, trucks, autos, bicycles, motor scooters, pedestrians -- it was hilarious.

In any case, that was an interesting break from the rest of the tour.  But I'll be glad to get back to more familiar types of equipment soon!