Driving in Italy

by Marty Boehme

After two weeks of being treated to the most spectacular Italian ancient art and buildings you’ve ever seen, we rented a car. With a country villa B&B as a goal, we struck off on our own. Our “upgrade” ended up being a small Ford Focus station wagon. It’s one not available in the USA as it was diesel powered. We were thankful, as diesel was a bit less than the $6 USA being charged for gasoline. It was also a five-speed that’s typical of all European cars. Those who have never driven anything but automatics pay twice as much - about $150/day!

If anyone would ask us about what NOT to do it would be: “Don’t be far from home after dark." Picture yourself in an unfamiliar country. Poor signage is against you. Only automatic gas stations are open. Stopping to ask for directions does not work - customers pumping gas only speak Italian. Finally a young person was found who
spoke some English. We did find home.

Driving in small ancient towns was a hoot. Most streets were cobblestone. One town had a narrow street leading into it with one-way traffic being controlled by a stoplight. We went up one steep street so narrow, that I thought we were going to have to fold-in both rearview side mirrors. One castle gate even had a slight turn in it that I thought was going
to scrape the sides of the car. I could see that the natives drive small cars for a very good reason.

My most favorite car to photograph was the 1973 500 cc Fiat. It’s really cute like our family’s ’59 Vespa car. I took pictures of several. One was with a good-looking Italian
girl. I told her I was from the “Fiat Polizza” and needed her in the picture. Several photos were taken of the minuscule Smart two-person sedan. I measured its wheelbase
at 72 in. Yet, it was observed on the freeways running faster than our tour bus.

Our innkeeper had a neighbor who owns several collector cars. I was treated to a shop tour. Most of the cars are pre- WWII vintage. There were lots of Fiats including two little Topolinos. One car was an early ‘60s Cadillac convertible. It wasn’t driven much because
it got only 4 kilometers per liter. He’s in the process of building a vintage racecar. All he has are the headlight buckets; an original restored motor, a radiator shell, and grill. When I asked about street rods, I found that government regulations do not permit modified cars. However, there was a similarity with an American car collector’s shop – the fumes smelled the same. By the way, he’s never seen or heard of a Vespa car.

We saw no campers or camper shells on pickups. No tent trailers or teardrop trailers either. We saw several “caravans," the walk-in Tiny Travel Trailers ala USA. Outside cities and on freeways there were lots of truck mounted RVs the max being about
20 feet. This is a summary of our driving adventure in Italy.

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