Driving in Italia

Bongornio!

As the designated passenger, it is my duty to report on the general driving and road conditions in Italy.

 

Firstly, Cameron is doing a great job of driving. We picked up the car from Florence Airport (fantastic tip Sue) a few days ago. It is a little embarrasing to admit that we have the smallest auto you can get, but Millie the Micra - all 1.2 automatic litres of her - is doing a great job of  ferrying us around. She's not fast but she is economic. She's also not of high quality build, but luckily she's only ours for another week or so.

 

Within an hour of taking the wheel Cameron had adopted a range of Italian driving traits. These include:

• neglecting to indicate,
• "creating" lanes on roundabouts; and
• setting the speed limit via a combination of multipliers and the cars around him.

We are yet to fully master overtaking while in an "overtaking prohibited" zone, and alas, Millie is not keen on doing the 130 k + limits on autostrada. But apart from that, I have to say that driving here is remarkably stress free. People let you into lanes if you need to be there - without you needing to indicate - and overall, as long as you don't stay in the left lane they are happy to overtake (see previous comment about overtaking in prohibited zones). There is no road rage; perhaps that is saved for the football??

 

There are some crazy, crazy cars here though. A couple of the Fiats are beyond belief (honestly, no one could be seen in them unless the car was free!). Within minutes of Cameron saying that there weren't too many "hotted up" cars, we saw 3 Porsches and a Ferrari. I have to say that I wouldn't drive a Ferrari in Italy ... every car here has dents, and they are going to be expensive to get fixed. We did get overtaken by a Hummer the other day though ... and we saw one today negotiating Siena. I say negotiating, because the roads are shared with pedestrians, and the buildings are kind of close ...

 

Over the next week we will do some more driving, and I will let you know how  Cameron goes. If we get back, and he has forgotten how to indicate, it will not be my fault ...

 

Vanessa