Milan taxi drivers to serve as tour guides

ROME (AFP) - Milan taxi drivers are being supplied by the regional chamber of commerce with English lessons on cassette, a map and a cultural guide to their city so they can serve as tour guides for visitors, one of the organisations involved said.

"The aim is for Milan taxi drivers to change, when needed, from just sitting behind the wheel to becoming cultural guides who can supply tourists and business travellers with anecdotes about places of artistic or institutional interest," explained Aldo Sironi, head of the Milan branch of the confederation of Italian cooperatives, the Confcooperative.

Twenty percent of Milan taxi passengers are tourists, most of them foreigners, according to a survey by the Lombardy region chamber of commerce and the Confcooperative.