[OT beyond any repair] House numbers (was RE: ISO 3166 (country c odes) Maintenance Agency Web pages move))

[Marco Cimarosti]

John Cowan wrote:
> [...]  House numbers in North America (and in France
> also, it seems) have a few bits of meaning: the least-significant
> (numeric) bit tells you which side of the street the house is on,
> [...]

It is the same in Italy. I was quite surprised to know that also in other
countries even and odd numbers are on the opposite sides of the road.

I am curious whether another "rule" valid in Italy also applies in other
countries: here the numbering always starts on the end of the road which is
nearer to the center. When visiting Italian cities, I know whether I am
walking towards the suburbs or towards the center by the looking whether
house numbers increase or decrease.

_ Marco