Driving in Italy is an art, a sport and a science. If you know what you’re looking for. I’ve taken dozens of trips to Italy but this is only the third time that I’ve done any significant amount of driving. Anyone that tries to tell you that Italians are bad drivers or the roads are chaotic doesn’t know how to drive. There is an absolute certainty to everything that goes on on the road. Unlike roads and drivers in the United States, Italians don’t forgive indecisiveness. Elaborate you ask? In the US you get 1-mile long on-ramps and people still don’t merge properly. In Italy they are about 5-6 car lengths long, thats all you get to ramp up to 130km/h. If you don’t accelerate and merge decisevely you find yourself stuck at the end of it praying for a break in traffic that won’t come. Same thing in the city, if you want to merge you have to do it. Driving in the US is a comatose affair. Usually when I’m driving around I’m half asleep or distracted by 3-4 different toys in the car. If you stop paying attention for a second in Italy, you’re awakened by glancing in the rear-view mirror to see a BMW approaching at 200km/h with its headlights flashing. If he isn’t 1 meter off your ass that is. Keep in mind if you’re a good driver you’re already doing 160km/h (100 mph). It’s a joy to drive in Italy, if you can handle it.
I figured I’d do a few posts with observations on Italy while I’m here. I truly love this country and I’m proud to be Italian.
If you like what’s here, please follow me on twitter here.
4 Responses to “Driving in Italy”
Agreed man. Italy is an awesome place to revel in the beauty of life. I need to get myself back there one of these days. The history, the food, the clothes, and yes, the women. Ciao bella!
The worst place to drive for a foreigner is Napoli.
Green light at traffic light is an optional.
Some call this the swarm intelligence
How bad is it, really, for an American to drive in the cities? All these web sites make it sounds horrible. Is it really much worse than NYC? I didn’t have any trouble in Madrid. How does it compare to there?
Steve, I’ve never been to Madrid so I can’t comment. The thing is, its not “bad” for an American to drive in Italy. The issue is that most American drivers are so bad, I don’t know how they’d cope where driving requires more skill. It really takes a lot more paying attention and driving intelligently than most drivers do in the US.