first time to italy Forums

Sonesta

We recently returned from a trip to Italy/Sicily but sadly had to return home early due to a tragic event but I must say prior to this we were having the most amazing time and it was a very exciting and interesting country to visit.

I daren't drive our motorhome - so my husband has the pleasure of all that but even as a mere passenger, I found in certain parts of Italy you needed nerves of steel! The main roads and motorways are fine and we experienced no problems on them but when we hit the towns and cities it often seemed like a free for all and the Italians did not appear to stick to any road laws or rules! We learnt in the end, that if you are bigger than them (which, with an approx 30 foot long motorhome we often were) you just had to be brave and go for it - because sitting there politely waiting, like we english do, for someone to let you in - was certainly not the Italian motorists way of doing things! Fortunately being the passenger, I could go through this proceedure with my eyes firmly closed and only open them up again when I heard my husband heave a sigh of relief but maybe as a driver, that isn't the most preferable approach! Shocked

By the way we discovered that when an Italian motorist flashes his headlights at you - either day or night, it means he is coming through regardless - so don't make the mistake we were doing in the early days of our journey by thinking that this was some kind person allowing us to proceed - because it wasn't!

All in all, providing you keep your nerve and stay calm and drive cautiously, you will be ok and most of the time driving in Italy was problem free - it is just in the busier major towns and cities that traffic can become congested and therefore life just suddenly seems very mad and hectic. However, we tried to avoid these areas wherever possible or at least plan our journey so that we hit such places during their quieter times.

Most of all enjoy the experience and I can honestly say you will love Italy and if like us, you appreciate a country's history and culture then Italy is full of wonderful opportunities and there are some beautiful and magnificent places to visit and we cannot wait to return.

Sue

GingerT

Travelled for 2 weeks in Italy with a 250cc scooter on the back.A good combination to have in some of the smaller steets areas of Italy. Pisa is a lovely place to stay, There is a park just within walking distance from the tower it is within a corner of a supermarket, Security fresh water & a toilet disposal, Pompie is lovely and a lot of small motorhome parks behind a locked gate and walls very secure, This is whare the scooter comes in, a lovely place. Rome there is a site heading in to the centre and lies within easy driving of the ring system. Secure behind a barrier and within a hop and a skip of the tram/train system to the centre of Rome for a euro in and out.That is the only italian area i did not wish to risk the scooter or motorhome? but when you are sat outside eating and drinking in the warm! ask yourself a question? What do the italian police call "Driving without due care and attention?" Illegal parking??? . We felt very safe and had a superb time, just amazed at the amount of litter and refuse in such a lovely place.
You will enjoy the experience I am sure as Italy has a great combination & ability to tickle a lot of human senses and emotions!.

Enjoy & regards
GingerT
Wink

safariboy

"Hi Eddied

It might be helpful if you could explain the weird (to us) system of buying a snack meal at an Italian motorway rest area.

It can be awfully difficult when you don't speak each other's language very well, and you sometimes have to pay for the food and get the little chitty before you even get to look at it and choose what you want. Confused

Sometimes it's difficult to guess what the food items are, and the names rarely mean anything, so it can be a bit of an adventure. Laughing Laughing

Any priceless hints or beezer wheezes?? ""

Not always the same but usually you go to the cash desk and tell them what you want. Pay for it. They give you a ticket from the machine.

You then go to where they make the drinks etc and give him the ticet
The ticket sometimes does not have on it what you asked for so tell them what you want.. (drinks at the same price may all be called the same)
safariboy

Rapide561

Hello

Take a look at www.drive-alive.co.uk and have a look at the driving in Italy section.

It does not worry me driving over there. On the A4 from Milan heading east, I find though I drive quicker just to keep pace.

Russell

hilldweller

Once you get used to the idea that Road Rage, Driving without due care and attention, Dangerous driving are re-classified as Advanced Driving in Italy it all fits into place.

Except.

<< Clarkson Pause >>

In Naples, where you have to have L plates to drive to the above low standards. All scooter drivers are failed Kamakaze pilots practicing for their next attempt.

It's fun.

eddied

now really, it isn't all that bad.
The four way Neapolitan deadlock is quite simple to negotiate. It starts with nobody at a junction giving way to anyone else, hence the deadlock. With your motorhome just ease gently and persistently forward, avoiding at all costs eye contact with anyone at all. What you have to be especially careful of is the Reverse Funnel Effect, when above named deadlock suddenly opens out into a large square without any apparent right of way, and vehicles shoot all over the place like peas out of a peashooter.
The traffic light Russian Roulette is also quite challenging - if green go fast, if amber go a bit faster, if red go faster still and say 'Hail Mary' three times when you have successfully negotiated the junction. Yesterday I had quite an argment on road legality with son number 2. He was complaining because himself and several other motorists were 'held up' by a German reg. vehicle proceeding along a dangerous narrow stretch of
road rigidly observing the 60 Kph speed limit, thus causing severe tailbacks!
Coming back to zebedee's question : it is the custom in all motorway service areas, and most bars everywhere, that a cashier and not the person doing the serving controls the takings. You therefore decide what you want first, pay for it, and then tell the serer behind the bar what it is you have ordered.
A brief vocabulary:
Caffe - small strong black espresso coffee taste
Caffe macchiata - as above with a dash of milk
Caffe corretto - as above with a dash of aniseed or your favourite liquor.
Cappuccino (strictly only up to 11:00 a.m.) - Hot frothed milk with an espresso thrown into it.
Latte macchiato - strictly in a tall glass, a glass of hot milk with an espresso thrown into it
Americano - frowned on, but if youmdare ask for it, a long weak black coffee to which you add your own milk.

Te - tea, usually served with a tea bag to swish around in your cup, and a slice of lemon. If you like tea with milk, specify 'un po' di latte freddo a parte'
Coca Cola - Coca Cola
Aranciata, Fanta - Orangade, Franta
Spremuta d'arancia - fresh orange juice
Spremuta di limone - fresh lemon juice
Te' freddo - Iced tea, in various flavours - limone, pesca(peach) albicocca(apricot)
Suco di frutta - fruit juice - pera(pear) -ananas(pineapple) - pesca(peach)
- albicocca(apricot)
Suco di mela - apple juice
Analcolico - non alcholic aperitifs such as Campari soda, Crodino

Pannino - baguette type sandwich, con prosciutto (ham) formaggio (cheese) tonno(tuna)
Toast - toasted sandwich, with filling as above
Tramezzino - 3 tier club sandwich with soft bread - variety of fillings - have a look first.
Piadina - the Romagna version of pizza, with tomatoe, cheese, or ham fillings
Pizza - pizza
Cornetto - croissant, semplice (no filling) marmellata (with apricot jam) al cioccolato(with gooey Nutella chocolate)
Kraffen - doughnut
Bombolone - a round doughnut 'bomb' with creamy filling

I think that'll do for now,
buon appetito
eddied

sno_fun

Thanks to all for the replies and recomendations,and to grizzly and for the info and eddied for the lingo, it seems we will be having an interesting as well as enjoyable time in Italy this year, had heard that driving could be "interesting" but nothing ive read would put me off going, if anything after hearing how well you all speak about it am looking forward to it all the more.

Thanks again

Vennwood

We recently returned from 6 weeks in Italy and have to agree with many of the posts here on driving behavior - fortunately we adopted Eddied's approach and just kept our cool and tried not to get "bullied" into rushing. The Italian drivers appeared no worse than many other European countries. My advice is, where practical, use the motorways wherever possible as it is cheaper than France but watch out for the potholes - poor road surfaces were our major concern, especially as the Italians favour the raised motorways and use short sections with gaps between them. Other points, and I would love comments from Eddied, was the issue or guarded or unguarded camping sostas - we couldn't tell the difference other than the price and we were pleasantly robbed on more than one occasion when asked to pay 12/15/20 Euros for parking in a "guarded and fenced carpark/sosta" only to find that around 5pm the gate was left open and the attendant drove off into the sunset on his moped. However it did raise concerns and uneasiness at night - not that we had any problems whatsoever. One final comment would be that in our oppinion the west coast is not at it's best in Jan/Feb - on the majority of sites we were the only people around for miles - including the site at Pompeii

Zebedee