Old Man Takes Odd Driving Shortcut In Rome

Like a real life scene straight out of The Italian Job or Mission Impossible, an elderly man in Rome drove his car halfway down the famous Spanish Steps. A bystander who witnessed the whole thing filmed the little hatchback driving onto and down the famous stairs, probably sensing something weird was about to go down.

Watch a woman fail her driving test in epic fashion.

Authorities reportedly tested the man to see if he was drunk, but he wasn’t. In other words, he was just some old guy who got confused. Considering how younger drivers sometimes mistake railways as roads, only to get their Jeep stuck, that’s actually not too difficult to believe.

The poor guy told two security guards who approached him that he was just trying to get to work. It had to have been early in the morning, judging by the complete lack of sunlight.

Those security guards called police, who responded to the rather bizarre situation.

We have to wonder if the old guy was just following his phone’s navigation when he took the “shortcut.” Sometimes our GPS has tried to take us through some interesting “roads.”

That car had to have been really stuck because authorities couldn’t drive it out of the place where the old man stopped. Firefighters eventually called in a crane and hoisted the vehicle out there, creating quite the spectacle for tourists and residents.

An 81-year-old man drove a car down Rome's iconic Spanish Steps before getting stuck halfway down.

The driver tested negative for alcohol and told officers that he was on his way to work.

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Offering a steep pathway between Piazza di Spagna and Piazza Trinita dei Monti, the Spanish Steps are popular with tourists visiting the city. That made the incident all the more shocking for those who have visited Rome and probably recognize the staircase.

Say what you want about America’s big cars, but this sort of think would never happen with a Cadillac Escalade. The thing wouldn’t even fit the entrance to the stairs, let alone get halfway down. But since the elderly man was driving a little European hatchback, he was able to get surprisingly far.

Image via CBS News/YouTube