> but I find it annoying that if I drive at 50 km/h in a low-vis, twisty and narrow hill road the car before me will almost invariably ignore the safety distance to signal displeasure towards my slowness.

I guess you meant the car behind you.

It is called tailgating.

It is very annoying, I agree, but if I can offer en explanation, in those conditions to overtake you wanna cover the less possible distance, being closer to the car in front of you is a way to make it possible.

Having said that: compared to the population the most dangerous cities in Italy are, in order, Genoa, Florence and Milan.

That could explain it too.

To deal with a taligater, according to the experts, you should

> Brake slowly before stopping. Avoid tailgaters when possible by changing lanes. If you cannot change lanes, slow down enough to encourage the tailgater to go around you. If this does not work, pull off the road when safe and let the tailgater pass.

Yes, tailgating, exactly. I'm mostly talking about narrow roads where you need to slow down and maybe go a bit outside of the paved area to let another car pass in the opposite direction; these are common in the hills of Tuscany and overtaking is impossible. My approach if I'm not in a hurry and there is just one car behind me is to slow down to 10 km/h until the tailgater gets the message.