by R.M. Azami

Created on: April 02, 2008

We had to drive in Italy. Due to time constraints, driving enabled us to maximize our options and flexibility. Having recently experienced driving a stick-shift on the left side of the road along clogged, convoluted Welsh country lanes, my spouse and I thought nothing of renting a car in Italy. However, after exchanging three different, apparently salvaged, cars and our rental company at Rome's international airport, we approached the Autostrada with a bit of trepidation.

Italian freeways were slick. Not only was the signposting on the Autostrada effective although somewhat intermittent but easy to interpret from a multilingual perspective. Miniature cars whooshed by us, their drivers pushing the limits of their cars' engineering specs. We were not alone in our quest for sunshine which, no doubt, could be found just over the rise of the next hill demarcating the southern Tuscan border. Traffic police were conspicuously absent.

After piercing the southern tip of Tuscany, our lurching stomachs heralded the fact that we were in one of the world's great gastronomic meccas. Our first foray into Tuscan-style' eating involved a stop at an exit along the Autostrada leading to San Gimignano, where we ate crispy American-style' nibbles at a restaurant housed inside a freeway overpass. Those greasy spoon/convenience shop/gas station/restrooms were life-savers, especially when traveling during siesta' in rural areas.

Temporarily sated, we snaked along the highway leading to San Gimignano, via Poggibonsi. The highway was smooth and, again, well-signposted, so we did not encounter any confusion until we hit the town of Poggibonsi. Poggibonsi, although it is a nice, industrial town, seemed to want to trap us in its swirling vortex, as we found ourselves stuck there on more than one occasion. Like threading a needle, we doubled back and re-routed several times before we successfully passed through the eye of town and scored the road to San Gimignano. Our confusion stemmed from the combination of several roundabouts in close proximity, as well as inconspicuous signage on a couple critical turns. The roads themselves seemed to conspire against travel to one of the jewels in the Tuscan crown.

Throughout the rest of Tuscany, however, we encountered very little driving difficulty. Obviously, medieval village roads are claustrophobic for even the smallest vehicles, so we parked outside city walls and strolled in. Tuscany is also quite hilly, and we consistently under-allocated the time required to reach our destinations.

All told, driving in Italy afforded us the flexibility to visit many places, such as wine shops, chocolatiers, and Etruscan ruins, that we may not have otherwise been able to access. Other intrepid, road-savvy wanderers should not hesitate to hit the Autostrada!

Learn more about this author, R.M. Azami.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.