Italian Driving

Is there really room for cars and people

I have often heard that Italian drivers are the worst in the world, or at least Italy was the one place you should never drive. Well I joined the ranks of Italian drivers and ventured out on the Italian roadways to see just how bad it was.

Now I pride myself with being able to drive almost anything anywhere, but I must admit that I was very nervous about this road trip. The apartment complex also rents cars, motorcycles and bicycles, so we rented a Fiat Panda for two days. The Fiat Panda must be the most inexpensive car in Italy. It has a tiny engine, very basic seating and NO options, no cruise and no navigation system. It does however do everything and seats four in relative comfort – it gets you from here to there and hopefully back again. The car I was renting was parked inside the courtyard, and I was told my way out of the old city was to turn right out of the big green doors and then take the first right straight out of the city. That sounds fine, but these big green doors were designed for horses and carriages. The day we arrived I watched a big Audi sedan go out and he had to drive over the two little semi circles on either side of the door, and I had visions of trying to turn right and hitting either the bench beside the Gelato shop next door, or the vending machines across the street at the lottery shop, and I had seen cars trying to navigate these streets . . .

The Ideal car for lecce

Fortunately we were leaving at 7:00 am, and the streets would be relatively free of pedestrians at that hour, and I made it out the doors and into the streets. Without so many people and other vehicles I made it out of the narrow old city streets and around two round-a-bouts to the highway out of town. The day was off to a positive start.

The Italian highways are actually very good, with excellent signage and clearly marked speed limits. However I discovered that those clearly marked speed limits are not exactly what I am used to. Apparently the speed limit is 130 km per hour, but this is not marked anywhere; what is marked is when they think you might want to slow down for corners, construction or tunnels. I reasoned that these limits must be optional, because no one seemed to pay them any attention. The traffic on the highways was usually pretty good with little congestion, and passing slower traffic easy. You just had to watch for those big Audi, BMW or Mercedes, which seemed to be allowed to drive at any speed they wished, and overtook my little Fiat Panda at breathtaking rates. I was warned that speed is monitored via cameras on the overpasses, and there were signs warning drivers of this electronic monitoring, but most drivers seemed little concerned with this threat, and I cannot imagine those left lane sedans were going at 130.

Seriously? Drive out through here?

Turn Right down here . . .

Part of the reason for this road trip was to drive the Amalfi coastal roads. I had seen pictures and heard about them, but was not really prepared for these roads. I had driven narrow roads in England and had practice bouncing rental cars off the curbs, but here there are no curbs or ditches; the roads are bordered by solid rock face on one side and two foot stone safety walls on the cliff side. They seem to paint white lines down the middle some of the time, and after a while we decided that this was where there was actually close to two actual lanes. Most of the time however there was no markings on the road, but plenty of scrapes on the stone walls and cliff faces. Combine this with roads built on cliff faces and constantly twisting back and forth and around blind corners. Then you have to share these roads with huge tour buses and crazy scooter drivers. The tour buses of course have to drive carefully, but the scooters drive like there is nothing else on the road. They pass whenever they like and just expect to be able to dodge oncoming traffic. Fortunately no one except them drive really crazy – there just is not room between switchbacks to get up to any speed.

Driving Amalfi

At one point I was in a line of traffic following a tour bus. The bus driver saw another bus coming and realized there was not room for them to pass, so he pulled in close to the wall to let the other bus pass. The first four cars in line behind the bus immediately pulled out and took the opportunity to pass the bus. There was room for two to get in; the other two forced the oncoming bus to slow to avoid hitting them. Of course there were not scooters in the line; they had already roared past earlier.

That's a long way down . . .

Although it would have been fun to be driving this road on a nice red Ducati 999, I was actually glad to be in the little Panda which gave me a couple of inches to spare passing other vehicles. At one point, I had to creep past a bus with barely an inch or two between the bus and my side mirror. No wonder so many cars have their side mirrors missing or taped on.

All in all this was a thrilling drive that I loved and will always remember as one of the greatest roads I have driven.

Now the Amalfi would be more fun on this 

Then there was Naples . . . . we had to drop the boys off at the Naples Train Station and then get out of the city to get back to Lecce. Everything bad about Italian drivers is represented in driving downtown Naples. The roads are four decent lanes wide but the curbside lanes are all taken with parked cars regardless of the signs. If there isn’t a parking spot, double parking is common. That leaves almost two actual lanes for traffic, but there is usually at least four lanes of vehicles trying to get somewhere. The lines on the streets indicating lanes are completely ignored. Then there are the scooters who literally scoot between lanes and switching lanes to and fro at will. You cannot hesitate or someone will take your spot, and I quickly got into the Italian attitude and forced my way where I wanted to go, and we got out of the city and back on the highway.

All in all I did pretty well and the Panda got returned with only dead bugs ruining its pristine finish.

It's a Dog's Life

I don’t own a dog, but have always been a ‘dog’ person; I like dogs and they generally like me. When I was younger the family always had a dog, and often the family dog was sometimes mostly ‘my dog’. As I result I tend to notice the dogs around me, and I have written a number of blog entries about the dogs in the countries we visit.

Come on in - buy a house

Here in Florida the dogs lead pretty good lives. I have not seen as many out for walks as I did in Spain or Portugal, but the other day walking around the neighborhood a couple of the local dogs stopped to fill me in on the “Doggie Scene” here in Naples.

Although I have not seen so many dogs, I have certainly seen the extensive infrastructure in place to serve their needs. The first thing you notice is how many pet supply shops there are. There seemed to be one in every shopping area, and these are not just places to go get pet food and flea collars. Just check out some of the names, “Fergie’s Closet Doggie Boutique”, “Pucci & Catana Luxury Pet Boutique”, “Daisy Collars” (Can you say diamond studded dog collars?), and “Topcoat’n Tails Inc”. You can get entire designer outfits for you pet from these shops.

Need to find some place to leave your pet while you go on vacation? You can take them to “The Pet Nanny TLC”, “Love My Dog Resort & Spa”, or perhaps “A Dog’s Dream Daycare, LLC”, where the testimonials speaks volumes . . .

"If Bogey could speak, he would tell you that Jill's daycare is his favorite thing on this planet. Check out his videos and you will see why. It is an experience I cannot offer him at home." 

"Bailey loves going to daycare! Every morning when we drive up she gets all excited to be there and runs to the front door. When I pick her up after work she is happy and tired (but still happy to see mommy). Going to daycare has also made her very social with other dogs. It's nice to have a place to leave my 'baby' during the day so she is not alone all the time, and everyone at A Dog's Dream Daycare takes good care of her!" 

Somehow this sounds like a bit more then a dog kennel & kibbles . . . .

A memorial to "Peanut"

Hey, wait a minute, all these doggie daycares and pet resorts, I thought everyone down here are already on vacation . . . these pets are getting a vacation from their vacations.

The pet grooming places are just as elaborate, and they look as fancy as the ones dedicated to the pet’s owners.

Strolling the downtown area one day I found a real estate office with dishes of fresh water and bowls full of doggie treats on the steps outside and just down the road was a city fire hydrant painted and decorated to honor a fallen pet. Even the local SPCA is upscale, with a Pet Adoption center in one of the big shopping malls.

Jim, keep this Blog Post away from Jude, he will want to go on vacation with you next time instead of going to the “kennel”.

Naples Beach Sunset

Naples Beach

Naples is a very pleasant place to visit. Our friends love it here, and have built a lovely house here to come down to the warmth and chill-out from the day to day hustle-bustle of their busy lives back home. They are here to relax, so they do not put pressure on us to “Do stuff”. If sitting by the pool all day is all we manage to accomplish, that is just fine with everyone.

They did insist on showing us the Naples Beach Sunset. This involved a drive downtown with beach chairs. Normally a lot more equipment is needed, including I was let to believe a few bottles of wine, and getting to the beach well before sunset is the normal procedure to get the best viewing location, but since our day was busy with relaxing by the pool, we did arrive a bit late, and left the wine back at the house for later.

Sailing into the Sunset

Really . . . a nice sunset

Now Naples Beach is a beautiful beach, but we quickly discovered that arriving early had nothing to do with getting a good spot, it was all about socializing, meeting friends and chatting (Discussing the sunset I am sure) over a good glass of Chardonnay. In fact the beach was in no way crowded, there was lots of room and not many people.

Fishing

As the sun was still quite high in the sky, we left our friends, with their friends, discussing sunsets and other important subjects, and we set off for a walk down the beach. We discovered that this “Naples Beach Sunset” was a serious event. There were people all down the beach, and some were obviously there to see the sun sink into the Gulf Of Mexico. There were many people with cameras, and some were setting up tripods and elaborate stop action set-ups, serious about getting that perfect sunset snap.

Sunset, what sunset?

There were also people there exercising; people more interested in each other than the sunset; people trying to catch fish; children playing in the sand; people sailing off into the sunset, but mostly people socializing with their friends as the sun announced the end to another lovely day in South Florida.

Oh . . . . the sunset really was pretty nice.

Speedbumps in Life

As our sojourn in Florida continues, we are now spending time in Naples with old friends from high school who have built a lovely winter retreat here. We picked them up at the airport and will spend a week visiting them. Since they are living here for a portion of the year, they have to arrange services, including water, power, cable, internet, phone etc. . . . .

I don't think I will swim here

When we arrived at their house he discovered that the TV was not working, and he decided that a trip to the local TV/Internet/Phone provider was in order. He warned me that it would probably be a zoo there. The provider was notorious for providing slightly less than exemplary service. In fact as we drove up to their storefront service center, he expressed relief that the line-up did not extend outside down the sidewalk.

He did warn me that I might be in for a bit of a wait, but I went along anyway, and as he waited inside eagerly anticipating his number being called, I stood around outside chatting with people as they came in for service.

This being the end of the season here in Naples and many of the “Snowbirds” were headed back north hoping for the arrival of spring in New Jersey, Chicago, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and had to return their Internet routers, TV Receivers, DVR recorders, and assorted other IT bits and pieces. I actually had a good time standing out making new friends in Naples Florida. 

First person I met was a gentleman from Ireland who had seen a condo advertised for sale in Naples on E-Bay. It looked interesting, and on a lark, he put in a couple of bids before going to bed for the night. He woke the next morning to an e-mail announcing that he was the successful bidder and now owned a condo in Naples. Our spirited conversations about visiting Ireland and Nova Scotia drew other people in and the cranky people waiting to complain and bitch about their TV, their Internet or their Phones suddenly started smiling and chatting.

One girl said she had already gone and enjoyed a starbucks coffee, but her number in line was still far enough in the future that the neighboring shop offering pedicures was starting to appeal as a way to pass the time.

Yup . . .  Southern Eatin

Then we all stopped to watch the newest arrival. A man and woman approached from the parking lot. He was clutching a red bag containing his TV receiver and Internet router, and she was clutching his arm. These were serious ‘snowbirders’ determined to spend as much of their golden years down here in the Naples warm sunshine. They slowly inched across the road in front of the office. But between them and their destination someone had installed a speed bump. He hit the bump, but his shuffling gait only got him half way up before he was bounced back. Determined to return his IT gear so it would be here for him next year he made another shuffle at the speedbump, but again was unable to make it up and over. He turned to his wife holding his arm, and she gave him a bit more push on the next attempt and with a satisfied smile he made it over and continues his journey to the shop.

Ask me if I'm relaxed yet?

Now this was extremely funny to watch, but stop and think for a minute. This guy was probably over 90, and had a very difficult time getting around, but he arrived in a car, was returning IT gear from his visit to Florida so was probably returning to someplace colder in the north, and he and his wife were doing it on their own. I say good for them!

I hope I have to tenacity to make three attempts at speedbump ascent when I am their age. Live life to the fullest while you can. 

*** Please note the pictures in the post are just general pictures from Florida - I did not take shots of the Speedbump attempts . . . .  ***