6 May

After my first night in Italy I was up at 6:30 and ready by 7. By this time I was so warm, as the room was too warm (I had opened the balcony window to try to cool it down) and the public areas in the hotel were even warmer. When I went in for breakfast at 7, the dining area was warmer still. There was a huge amount and variety of food, of which I ended up having cornflakes and milk (there was milk in a little fridge), a pot of tea and some of the tiniest rolls I have seen with ham. Thus refreshed, I returned to my room, packed, checked out and got to the car by 8. By 8:05 I was out of the parking spot (remember there was only twenty-five centimetres each end to manoeuvre in) and I was on my way.
Driving in Turin is something everyone should experience. I wouldn’t put it on my list of 100 things you must do before you die because for most it will be the last thing – and I’ll give more detail why. Firstly “give way” signs meant exactly that – if you could see the back of the sign, you had to give way to the person who could see the sign. If you didn’t play the game their way, they just edged out at about 80 km/hr until you gave up.
Secondly, traffic turning lanes meant a chance to overtake those slow cars in front. What you do is go down the left turn lane (obvious because of the left-facing arrow on the road, the sign at the end with a left-turn arrow in it and no lane over the intersection, where the oncoming traffic had their left-turn lane), then when the ahead light turns green, you toot the car in front, and once that car is out of the way (sitting in the middle of the intersection with nowhere to go), you accelerate violently and cut off the traffic going straight ahead as you veer into that lane (and flash your lights and keep your hand on the horn if the vehicle has the temerity to think it has right of way). After seeing this so many times, I could barely believe these drivers had ever sat for a driving test, let alone passed it. Together with parking on any side of the road, in any direction (for parallel parking spots) and parking in odd places, I really did wonder. More was to come. The right lane, on one road, was bus only (not commuter cars, just busses) and so the busses parked on the roadway to pick up and drop off passengers. Cars would move into that lane (because it was empty), have to pull up behind a bus stopping at a stop, and the drivers would flash and toot the bus to get out of the way! However …
Once out of the city, I had elected to travel on tollways as the drivetime for the day then became tolerable. What I didn’t realise was that I would be buying the tollway, not just paying to use it. When I went off the first time, I inserted the ticket I got, then put my credit card in the other slot. The card popped out, I got a “Grazzie” and was then told I had paid €26,90, roughly A$50. This happened another two times while travelling. Fortunately the A3 from Naples was not a tollway.
I set the cruise on 130 actual (using the SatNav as reference). I passed a group of trucks and found myself being flashed by a car which then, after I pulled in, just left me standing. This was repeated a number of times, mainly by Mercedes, BMWs and Alfa Romeos, but also the occasional Toyota Yaris (which I can tell you looks mighty unstable at around 180 km/hr, and I wonder what engine was in it).
There were quite a few roadworks along the way (but more on the A3). It was an interesting experience being flashed by trucks wanting to travel at 100 km/hr in a 40 km/hr work zone – more interesting at night, when the truck with the 100 sign on the rear left me behind when I was doing 120.
I was able to ring Connie at one point (I had tried before, but ended up snapping the phone closed because of road conditions – I needn’t have worried, as one driver passed me, him doing about 160 while holding the mobile phone against his ear with his shoulder because he was using both hands to gesticulate to his passenger). We agreed to meet sometime during the next day and I asked if she could arrange accommodation for me as the roadworks were shooting holes in my arrival time (it ended up nearly two hours later that first predicted). I would ring her back at 9.
At this stage I marvelled at the Italian ability to recycle Weeties packets. After all, they had taken what was found at the bottom and got rid of the rest. As if to confirm my view, truck drivers cut the corners and didn’t seem to notice if a car was there. Also, on hills, drivers of slow cars would pull out into the fast lane, not worrying that quite a few cars were approaching them at twice their speed (or more).
I stopped three times at rest areas. I should have stopped more, because the seat has now made my back sore (see earlier reference to two-hour seats). The toilets leave a lot to be desired, even though they are obviously cleaned and serviced. The food range is reasonable, but because you are a captive audience (if you leave the AutoStrade and its service area, you are up for more tolls), prices are higher than you would expect. When I went to fill up with diesel, it was filled (well, diesel was put in) and the windscreen had a wiper put over it (It would have been nice if it was cleaned).
The roadworks were a continual interruption, and so travel was slower than I expected. Once I went off the A1 and onto the A3, roadworks were continuous, as was tunnel construction for nearly 350 kilometres. This combined with night driving, over twelve hours (and getting longer because of the speed zones – and trying to concentrate on travelling at the correct speeds (the limits were going up and down quicker than a bride’s nightie) driving, lanes which became very narrow at some points (the trucks just hung over) and abrupt changes from two lanes one way to two lanes two ways, separated by small traffic obelisks, and directional signage which was often unclear, especially after dark, made me very cautious, especially after the run-in with the deer a few nights before.
I managed to ring Connie at about 9 and she had messaged me the address of a place she had been able to book for me, so that took that worry away.
Finally about 11:25 I arrived in Reggio Calabria at the given street, so I parked and found the place I was staying. I booked in, moved the car up, took things up to my room and summarised the day’s events (the first day I didn’t write my blog up on the day, but I was just too tired), then went off to sleep.