From: jak@cs.brown.edu (Jak Kirman)
Subject: Driving in Italy (long)
Reply-To: jak@cs.brown.edu
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Brown University
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 16:12:02 GMT


[My default distribution is local, so my previous posting of this didn't
make it out...  Apologies to local people who will have seen this before]

There seems to be some interest in hearing peoples' experiences driving
in Europe, so I thought I would give my impressions from a quick visit
to Italy over the New Year.

My wife and I flew to Milan en route for Florence to visit my father; we
had intended to take the train down, but discovered that renting a car
for four days was not that much more expensive (about $250) than the bus
into Milan plus the round-trip train fare and other bits and pieces,
and was certainly more convenient.  So we got a Fiat Panda 1000 -- a
very small car by American standards, but not unusually so for Italy.

The car itself was ok; a bit noisy and not very powerful (I saw a number
of Panda 750s which must be much worse) but with a 5-speed it could
cruise comfortably at 130-140 kph (80-85mph), which was ample given the
car's handling.  It had amazingly low fuel consumption, though I didn't
think to measure it  at the time...  Petrol there is about 4 times what
it is in the US, about 1$/L, and the tolls are fairly expensive; we paid
about $30 for the trip from Milan to Florence.

The drive down to Florence from Milan is about 300-350km (200 miles),
and it is all on the Autostrada (similar to US interstate); 3 lanes each
way and dead straight for the first two-thirds and two lanes each way
and pretty twisty over the Apennines into Florence.  The roads were pretty
well kept, much better than US NE interstates, about the same as France
or England.  Markings were extremely clear, and they had regular
information boards giving temperature, road conditions ahead, etc.  At
130kph (80mph) we seemed to be at about the median speed, though nominally the
speed limit is 120kph (75mph) for small cars and 140kph (87mph) for
larger cars.  I don't know what the definition of "small" is, though
less than 1.5L rings a bell.  Incidentally, Italy is the only country I
know of where there are different speed limits depending on the kind of
car, something I have always found eminently sensible.  Are there other
such countries?

It is hard to judge speeds of cars traveling much faster, but later
observations lead me to believe that the fastest cars were driving at
190-200kph (119-125mph), which is about the same as it was in France
when I lived there 5 years ago, though I am told that they are cracking
down very heavily on speeding there and driving over 160kph is risking a
ticket.  My father has lived in Italy for about 5 years now and says he
has *never* heard of anyone getting a speeding ticket on the Autostrada.
I don't know how common speed traps are in general there.  The only
police we saw on the roads were at an accident on the way back.

The drivers on the Autostrada were pretty reasonable by my standards;
they got over to the right after overtaking, never overtook on the
right, didn't swerve from lane to lane, turned their lights on when it
rained or got dark, usually used their indicators, and mainly seemed
aware of the other people on the road.  They did tend to tailgate and
overtake while partially in the lane of the overtaken car, which is
rather unnerving when the speed differential is 60kph (40mph).

I think many Americans traveling to Europe confuse speed with danger,
and think that someone traveling at over 100mph is de facto driving
dangerously.  You have to remember that a) people are used to such
speeds and take them into account when maneuvering, and the average
speeds are higher as well, b) the highways are generally in much better
condition, c) the people traveling that fast are usually in cars
designed to go substantially faster, d) frankly, I think that the
average driver there is in better control of his or her vehicle than
here in the US.  This last point is the one people argue most with me;
it is difficult to quantify such things.  Because the speed limit is so
low here, people can get away with things that would be very dangerous
if people drove faster, so it is something of a vicious circle.

On three-lane Autostrada the signs say that the left lane is for slow
traffic, the middle lane for fast traffic and the right for overtaking,
and people adhered to this very well.  This caused me some difficulty
since I gravitate to the right (slow) lane, and then have to shift two
lanes over to overtake.  Overtaking on the slow side is a very poor idea
(in France and England at least; I imagine in Italy also) -- you are
likely to have someone merge into your lane without realizing you are
there.  For the non-Americans among you, overtaking on the right (slow)
side is not only common practice in the US, it is actually legal in many
states.  I have had many an argument with Americans who claim it is
perfectly reasonable; my opinion is that knowing that you will only be
passed on one side just means that you have fewer possibilities to
concern yourself with, and can better evaluate those.  This only works
if no-one does it, so unless it becomes illegal and the police enforce
it, it is a lost cause here.

Anyway, we got to Florence without any difficulty, but then had to find
our way with extremely shaky directions to a small village called
Fiesole, about 10km outside Florence.  Driving in Florence is an
interesting experience.  Many of the streets are very wide, easily three
lanes, but have no markings.  This suits the Florentines' driving style
perfectly; they seem to operate on a gradient descent principle,
concerned primarily with going forward as fast and as soon as possible,
with a vague preference for going through wide gaps rather than narrow
ones.  The result is remarkably smooth traffic (though the traffic was
not very heavy) but a hair-raising time for people trying to find their
way in an unfamiliar car.  By and large I found the drivers much more
aggressive in the sense of forcing their way through gaps, etc, but much
less personal in their aggression -- here people yell and gesture at
each other, and will actively try to hinder you if you annoy them.  I
drove very little in Italy, so I may well be wrong, but my impression
was that this was less common.  I also found the drivers to be very
aware of what was going on around them.  Comments from people who have
driven extensively in Italy and the US?

We made it out of Florence with my wife several shades greener than
going in, and onto the winding roads up the hills that surround Florence.
This was really fun; the roads twist a lot, but the surfaces are fine --
with the dips and rises it was very much like a roller-coaster ride :-)
People overtake a lot more on country roads than they do here, and when
you are not used to it it can be intimidating, but I would rather have
people pass me than build up in a big clump behind me.  The roads are
narrow by American standards, but the cars are much smaller and the
drivers know the widths of their cars, so it never seemed a problem.

A few days later we borrowed a BMW 325i to drive along the
(Mediterranean) coast towards France to a little port called Porto Fino.
This was quite a different experience -- the car was wonderful (I drive
a 79 VW Rabbit here...), steady as a rock in the corners, and very
smooth.  We were rather late to meet someone, so I drove as fast as I
felt comfortable; 180-190kph on the Autostrada was fine until we got to
the winding parts nearer Genoa.  At this point the road is largely
tunnels and bridges, with often strong cross-winds.  We stayed under
160kph.  Many cars drove at around these speeds, but no-one was going
much faster.  Almost all of the drivers moved over quickly after
overtaking, or aborted attempts at overtaking if it would have slowed us
down, though there were a couple of people driving at 160kph who seemed
to think that we would be happy behind them.  For the most part putting
my left indicator on was sufficient to make people move over; if not
flashing my lights was enough; in Rhode Island people will just get
stubborn if you do this, but that never happened there.  Drivers were
very careful about not pulling out to overtake when they didn't have
room, and would make way immediately afterwards.  It was really nice not
to get stuck behind people all the time, no matter what speed one
traveled at.

Porto Fino is a nice place, for those interested, though rather
touristy.  They have an interesting technique for keeping the number of
tourists at any given time down -- to get there you have to drive along
a small coastal road for about 8km (5miles), with very little parking on
the roadside.  Porto Fino is the end of the road, and there is one big
parking lot.  If it is full, you have to wait until someone leaves.  We
waited about half an hour to get in (fortunately the person we went to
meet was in the queue three cars ahead of us; given that we had a
combined travel time of 5 hours it was pretty good timing :-) The port
is pretty, and there is a castle and a lighthouse you can walk up to.
The christmas lights were really nice.  They had a very peculiar kind of
lights on a big tree in front of the port, that appeared blurred -- when
I first saw it I took my glasses off and cleaned them, and then noticed
that the others were all rubbing their eyes too.  I had never seen this
before, and have no idea how it is done.  Very peculiar.

Our final trip was back from Florence to Milan, this time on the skirts
of a storm coming up from the south.  There was a little snow on the
ground when we left (an hour late, of course...) and by the time we got
up into the Apennines it was pretty slippery.  The thing that surprised
me most was how cautiously everyone drove; the French drive very fast in
bad conditions, and in the US people tailgate and swerve all over the
road regardless of the conditions.  We drove over the mountains at
20-30kph (15-20mph), which I thought was a little excessively slow given
the conditions, but I would rather have people overly cautious than out
of control.  They use masses of salt there, which can't be very good for
the cars.  Fiats have a reputation for rusting, too...

All in all I really enjoyed driving in Italy; I only wish I had had more
of a chance to drive on country roads.  But time was short...  My 2c
worth: The difference I noticed most between driving in the US and Italy
was that the Italians appear more aware of what is going on around them,
and react appropriately.  People in the US drive much more slowly, and
much less predictably.  Italian driving was similar to driving in
France.  Driving in England is much more sedate, both speed-wise and in
terms of how aggressively people drive in cities.  I was pleased not to
see a single red rear turn signal the whole time :-)

If any tenacious people have actually read all my ramblings, I have a
few questions someone might be able to answer: How hard is the Italian
driving test?  What are the accident statistics there compared to the US
or other European countries?  

                         Jak Kirman                        jak@cs.brown.edu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The left side is the right side and the right side is suicide.
                                              -- Moped rental man in Bermuda