Driving the FAT Car

My oldest son called our rental car the FAT car. I didn't get why, beings it was like a tiny clown car. But then, I figured it out. We were driving a FIAT, and my newly reading son missed the I. The car was perfect, it was our training-bra car. It was small enough to fit, but did it's job. And in the streets of Italy, size matters, especially when you're like us and go off the beaten path to explore.

When you see pictures of people standing in streets with their arms outstretched to tough the walls of the buildings on both sides, this is not just one or two touristy spots in Italy where you can do this. These narrow streets are ALL over. You may be on a regular two lane street that narrows into a single lane, and the next thing you know, you are in a cattle chute. Add to the narrow streets the fact that they are going in between homes, so you have the random person stepping out their front door into the path of your car, and it makes driving a harrowing experience.

I had been worried about the traffic circles ever since watching the Griswold's in their European vacation, "hey kids, Parliament". It turns out they're really not that bad. But then, we are in Italy, and at least we're not driving on the wrong side of the road. That would definitely take some getting used to. The only time traffic circles get to be tricky is when the roads are slippery. People in Italy don't realize that you have to actually slow down your driving in icy weather. You'll see Puntos and Fiats zipping all over the place. When we were driving the rental car, I was a little worried about being crashed into, but now that we have the Jeep, they just bounce right off of us.

Speaking of bouncing off of things, we have been very lucky so far in our driving exploration. There were only 2 times that we were almost hit by a bus. The first time was when we drove to Venice. Until we came here, I didn't even realize that you could drive to Venice. I figured it required boats. But, no, there is a long bridge that takes you out to the historical area. It was there that wreck number 1 almost happened. We went on a very busy day. Mistake number 1. It was also one of the first major tourist areas we attempted to drive into ourselves. DH was navigating and I was behind the wheel. In Italy, there are bus lanes and car lanes. Somehow I got into a bus lane. It took me onto a bus parking lot. All of a sudden, I was surrounded by busses. I knew it wasn't where I wanted to be, so I swiftly went to turn the car around, into the oncoming path of a bus. The driver slammed on his breaks and blasted his horn, the passengers gave me the international sign of "thanks for making our bus driver slam his breaks" and I started to cry. It was one of those frustrational, "I'd rather be on a beach" cries. DH typically does not know what to do with me when I get this way, so he was just offered to drive. I composed myself, and we found an open parking area. Success at last.

The second time we almost were hit by a bus was a similar situation. We were going to Bologna for the day. Bologna has a central area where all the good stuff is located. Sometimes, these cities will limit the automobile traffic to just the people living there or public transportation. Trying to find parking, I made a turn down a narrow street. It was after we made the turn that I noticed one of those signs. But being in Italian, it was taking me a minute to read what it said and process what it meant for me (could I stay or should I go?) I thought it said I wasn't supposed to use that street, so I through the car in reverse to pull back out into traffic. As I went backwards, a bus was coming from the opposite side of the road into the street I wanted to get out of. Close call number 2. He beeped, I freaked. Another grey hair to color.

There are definite good parts to driving in Italy. On the Autostrada, Italy's version of the Autobahn, the roads have a speed limit of 130km/h. That translates to roughly 83 mph. This is good for us, as no car we have driven over here has the ability to go faster than 83mph, so for us, we're hauling tail.

The other thing that I like is that the police will set up speed traps. How can that be good, you ask? Well, the kind police of Italy provide you warnings about 50 feet before the trap. They have these little blue signs they put up to warn you that they are up ahead with a speed radar thingy. How cool is that??? I mean, you have to be a total moron to get pulled over. And NO, it hasn't happened to me yet.