TOGosto is about to turn to the end and unfortunately, the most intense chapter of the holidays closes. The moment of the counter -exodus has comethat migration that marks the end of the summer and which sees millions of people who, after savoring the sun of the beaches or the coolness of the mountains, fall towards the cities. A phenomenon that transforms our highways into rivers of machineswhere the patience of motorists is put to the test.
CONTAESODO: between red stamps and traffic words
The next weekends, peer, are announced particularly critical. Anas and Autostrade have already hoisted The red stickeror kilometer queues, forced stops under the scorching sun, for Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 Augustas well as For the last weekend of the month, 30 and 31 August. Starting from today, Friday, the first movements began, with over 23 million registered transits.
When the roads become parking
To facilitate this great return, Anas has prepared an extraordinary plan: Over 1,300 construction sites have been closed or suspended until 8 Septemberrepresenting more than 83% of those normally active. About 2,500 people between technicians and operating staff are operational on the roads, while the operating rooms work H24 to monitor the traffic situation in real time. Yet despite all these organizational efforts, the counter -exodus remains an experience that He tests the resistance of anyone who puts themselves behind the wheel these days. The forecasts, however, are clear: the next two weekends will be characterized by intense movements of vehicles, with particular concentration in the central hours of Saturday and Sunday morning.
The next weekends will be as a red stamp for the summer counter -exodus, with millions of Italians returning from holidays (Getty)
The universal traffic vocabulary
It must be said that, the classic counter -exodus of these days is not an exclusively Italian phenomenon at all, but in reality, brothers all over the world has. Each country has developed its own language to describe these moments of road paralysiscreating a real vocabulary, capable of telling not only the traffic itself, but the entire human experience that derives from it. Language, which often exceeds national borders and becomes common assets.
From black stamps to the “Loan avalanche”
In Italy we know our “black stickers” well, those that indicate the most critical days. It is a classification that resumes the logic of weather alertstransforming traffic into an almost climatic phenomenon, with its disturbances and its anticyclones. The Germans, on the other hand, with their linguistic precision, to define the same concept, They coined the term “Blechlawine” – Loan avalanche. A powerful image that perfectly makes the idea of that metal mass that descends unstoppable along the highways, overwhelming every prediction.
From Japan to Spain to Brazil
On the other side of the world, in Japanthere is not exactly the counter -exodus from the holidays, But there is the “U-Turn Rush”, during the Obon, the party to honor the ancestors. The opportunity changes, but the phenomenon is the same: masses of people who return to the cities of origin and then make a reversal towards urban centers. The SpaniardsInstead, they institutionalized the phenomenon with their “Operaciones”: “Salida” for departures, “rhetorno” for the return. Military similar terms, almost as if traffic was a battle to be fought with strategy and organization. And perhaps, after all, it really is. In Brazilin megalopolis such as San Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, The “engarraphation”, literally bottling, has become an integral part of urban culture. The Brazilians have developed an entire philosophy around this phenomenon, creating ironic expressions such as “traffic is a turtle bottling” to describe the exasperating slowness of their roads. Finally, the British with their pragmatism, They simply speak of “Traffic Jam”, transforming the jam into a total block metaphor.
Counter -good: the return ritual
Returning to our latitudes, the counter -exodus, as well as to the great traffic, also represents a sort of rite of passage that marks the end of summer. For millions of Italians, The next weekends will be intense days During which, they will have to deal with travel times that could double or triple compared to normal. For those who have to travelthe advice is always the same: start in the less critical hourspreferably in the early hours of the morning or late in the evening, have water supplies and keep calm. Because in the end, despite black stamps and “sheets of sheet metal”, the summer 2025 will end as always: with everyone at home, ready to start again.