The Google Street View car causes a stir in Rome

For many Romans, these are jittery times. For the first time in a generation, the mayor of the Eternal City, once a left-wing stronghold, is on the political right. Gianni Alemanno, a former neo-Fascist, swept to power late last month on a tough-on-crime platform that included bulldozing encampments of Roma people, expelling supposedly violent foreigners and installing London-like surveillance cameras around town.

So a group of Romans can be forgiven on Wednesday afternoon for assuming the worst when a black car sporting a massive, rotating video camera, slowly drove down Viale Trastevere, a busy thoroughfare, filming everybody in sight. On cue, pedestrians shuffled off the street and into bars, out of sight of the offending vehicle, no doubt wondering if these are the new intrusions that must be endured after a sudden shift to the right.

Your correspondent managed to snake through a queue of cars at a traffic light to get a better look at the vehicle that upset so many mid-afternoon espressos. A new type of video surveillance vehicle aiming to capture random Romans on a sunny afternoon? Nope.

It was the seemingly more benign Google Maps vehicle. After snapping a few photos on my Nokia N95, I was asked by a group of pensioners who was driving the offending vehicle. "Google", I informed them. "They are filming the city, street-by-street", I added. They just shook their heads in bafflement.

Just then the Google car swung left and I followed, in a very slow pursuit. The identical scene unfolded before me: Romans stumbling into shops and bars, hoping to be out of view of the camera's lens. I cannot wait to see when Google Earth will have a street-level view of Rome. Don't be surprised if you see the backs of a lot of Italian hurrying for the door.