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.
