Tag Archives: Driving in Italy

Tuscany to Venice

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Tuscany to Venice
Our time in Tuscany coming to an end (sad face), we made the drive from where we were staying in Radda in Chianti to Venice.  The first several days of driving through Italy weren’t completely terrible, but I was definitely ready to be done with the car.  I’d had enough of driving windy roads through mountains.
You don’t need a blow by blow of our drive, so here are a few little tidbits that I found interesting.
Driving on small country roads in the mountains requires constant concentration and gets very tedious after a while.  Driving on a freeway in the Italian mountains requires a completely different kind of concentration.  It’s the kind that requires you to concentrate on the bends in the road while simultaneously not getting killed by the trucks that are required to go slower in the right lane and the BMW and Mercedes drivers in the left lane who take the speed limit as only a suggestion.
While we’re on the topic, the idea of a speed limit in Italy is funny.  Even on the craziest curvy roads Italians were going well beyond the posted speed suggestion.  You could always tell when there was a non-Italian tourist driving because we were the ones with the trail of cars backed up behind us.  Thankfully, passing zones were only a suggestion as well, because I got passed all the time, even in the middle of turns.
Despite the inherent insanity in most Italian drivers, they surprised me as incredibly courteous whenever I needed to get over in their lane.  They would often slow down to let me over; something unheard of on American roads.
Best rest stop food I ever had was in Italy.  Yeah, that doesn’t really sound like much, but the sandwiches we had at the Jersey Turnpike-like fuel and food stop were better than sandwiches you would get at many delis in the US.
Well, my driving adventure in Italy is completed., for now.  I say for now because I would go back to Tuscany in a heartbeat.  Absolutely loved it.  I definitely think their could be an anniversary trip to Tuscany in our future one day.  I hope someone has a merit badge or an “I survived driving in Italy” t-shirt waiting for me back home.

Our time in Tuscany coming to an end (sad face), we made the drive from where we were staying in Radda in Chianti to Venice.  The first several days of driving through Italy weren’t completely terrible, but I was definitely ready to be done with the car.  I’d had enough of driving windy roads through mountains with crazy Italian drivers.

You don’t need a blow by blow of our drive, so here are a few little tidbits that I found interesting about driving on Italian freeways and in Italy in general.

Driving on small country roads in the mountains requires constant concentration and gets very tedious after a while.  Driving on a freeway in the Italian mountains requires a completely different kind of concentration.  It’s the kind that requires you to concentrate on the bends in the road while simultaneously not getting killed by the trucks that are required to go slower in the right lane and the BMW and Mercedes drivers in the left lane who take the speed limit as only a suggestion.

While we’re on the topic, the idea of a speed limit in Italy is funny.  Even on the craziest curvy roads Italians were going well beyond the posted speed suggestion.  You could always tell when there was a non-Italian tourist driving because we were the ones with the trail of cars backed up behind us.  Thankfully, passing zones were only a suggestion as well, because I got passed all the time, even in the middle of turns.

Despite the inherent insanity in most Italian drivers, they surprised me as incredibly courteous whenever I needed to get over in their lane.  They would often slow down to let me over; something unheard of on American roads.

Best rest stop food I ever had was in Italy.  Yeah, that doesn’t really sound like much, but the sandwiches we had at the Jersey Turnpike-like fuel and food stop were better than sandwiches you would get at many delis in the US.

Well, my driving adventure in Italy is completed, for now.  I say for now because I would go back to Tuscany in a heartbeat.  Absolutely loved it.  I definitely think their could be an anniversary trip to Tuscany in our future one day.  I hope someone has a merit badge or an “I survived driving in Italy” t-shirt waiting for me back home.

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