Drivers taking liberties with Rome’s narrow streets and tight corners now have a new patron to thank if they get pulled over: Pope Francis. At a meeting in Rome this week, the Pontiff asked Italian traffic police to show a little more understanding for Italy’s more inventive drivers, while criticizing a modern “lifestyle” of “haste and a competitiveness” for “turning the streets into Formula One tracks and the traffic-lights into the starting block of a Grand Prix.” “Mercy is not a sign of weakness”, the Pope told Italian police.