Yelp! Arriving and driving in Italy

Tuesday was the day I’d leave Germany and arrive in Northern Italy. Breakfast at the Motel was really quite nice, and probably better than the included continental breakfast in the hotel I got bumped from :D. Score!

The moment I crossed the border

Well fed I was off. After a few hours of Alpine roads I arrived in Austria, where my first interaction was to pay the Toll for the Austrian highway I’d use to cross through the country for about 2-3 hours. The border crossing to Italy wasn’t all that spectacular thanks to the EU, but you did notice the difference in road setup quite quickly. It’s hard to pin-point what it was, but the surroundings and driving style of other motorists changed significantly within an hour of the border.

Italian drivers appear to be…. Interesting. As far as I can tell:

The left indicator is a flashing light which means “I’m overtaking RIGHT NOW” and the right indicator isn’t used. I’m pretty sure Italians thought my motorbike was broken when I indicated right to change lanes. Most cars happily drove ON the lines rater than in between them as you would elsewhere. It’s convenient really, it means you can easily swerve into the left or right lane at a moments notice. But don’t worry, this isn’t done unless you’re only a few centimetres away from hitting the car (OR BIKE) in front of you. As soon as you’re done overtaking, you turn off the left indicator and place yourself back on the line. Ideally you don’t leave more than a few centimetres between yourself and the vehicle following. If they hit you from behind it’s their fault anyway, right? Oh and while in most countries the number in a red circle is the maximum speed permitted, Italian drivers see it as a challenge: Travel below the speed limit and you’re going to slow and WILL be honked at. This is also true for TRUCKS. Don’t forget there’s massive fines for going over the speed limit though, so choose if you want to ride safe from fines or from other motorists. It really is up to you….
Then there’s petrol stations. Mostly it’s either self serve (read: Pay at the Italian-only machine at the front of the row of pumps) or serviced (Read: Don’t touch the pump! You must pay the guy who puts fuel into your vehicle who may or may not be working there). Also, get used to the difference between Benzina and Gasolio… (The former is Petrol, the latter Diesel) and frantic hand-waving when the attendant wants to insist your motorbike takes diesel (which it doesn’t). Oh and it’s about 50% more expensive than in Germany… Perhaps that’s how they pay the attendants.

Speaking of expensive, then there’s Maut (Road Toll) on the Autostrada; Italy’s main highway. It’s a pretty cool system: you pull a ticket on arrival and pay whatever the cost of Maut is between the gate you entered and the gate you exited. Just one slight thing: there’s no prices anywhere. I had no idea how much I was going have to pay for the first 4 hours on the Autostrada. Turns out it’s about 10EU per hour, traveling the max speed of 130km/h. Using the Autostrada and other roads is about price-neutral, thanks to the high cost of petrol. You just arrive much quicker by highway.

After you get off the highway, you get to see REAL Italian driving, and start to wish for the calm collected and safe driving on the Autostrada. As far as I can tell all road “rules” are more like road “guidelines”. Traffic lights are about the only thing which are respected… most of the time.

But it’s not JUST the traffic that makes it difficult. The roads are also really well laid out… For horses and chariots. Especially those which lead into the mountains, which might have been made for donkeys. I was glad to have a bike on some of the ones near my accomodations because you’d have about an inch of spare space either side of a standard car, a 40 degree incline going around a corner. I rode REALLY slowly!

View from the Airbnb

As you can imagine I arrived at my accomodation in Trento, a little stressed. The view from the Airbnb was fantastic though! I debated never leaving again but then realised I was hungry… There was a little park juuuust down the hill, and I made myself get back on the bike and head down. In the park I found a fantastic little cafe where I spent the afternoon updating my blog, and rather than attempting to move somewhere else in peak hour for dinner, I settled in for dinner as well. It was really nice! The cafe is at a lake, and my table was right at the edge of the pier watching the fish and ducks.