We are quite pleased with ourselves. We have got ourselves to Pompeii and in spite of speaking only a few words of Italian we have arranged a place to stay. Furthermore we have found a camping shop and bought a tent or "Tend" as they call it here.
As we were going to pick up the car this morning I asked the hotel receptionist what the give way rules are. She looked a bit confused but said I should stop at red lights and go for green lights.
This didn't really clear things up for me and I hadn't managed to work out the rules by observing Rome traffic.
Anyway I picked up the car and there didn't seem to be any info about the road rules from them either.
Oh well I had the reassuring sat nav to give me advice and I'd asked Forrest to remind me to drive on the right. Off we went to the tent shop. After less than 5 minutes we got to our first left turn. I was waiting for a gap in the traffic when there was a honk from behind me. Forrest looked round and informed me it was the police. After another honk I guessed they were berating me for my overly defensive driving and eventually a gap appeared that I could safely enter.
We made it to the tent shop with no further incidents and bought a tent and two sleeping mats for 105 Euro. Sorted!
Off to Pompeii. After 10 minutes of trying to work the sat nav out we hit the road. We were in a traffic jam around most of Rome but eventually got on the motorway to Napoli. The road was good and I found the middle lane suited my conservative driving style. 130 kph is fast enough for me in a strange car on the wrong side of the road.
We passed Casino where Forrest's great granddad fought in world war 2. Might go there on the way back I thought. Then it rained for the first time on our trip, and then it hailed! The cool thing we found out was that our windscreen wipers are automatic.
We finally got off the motorway and had to do another left turn. People were honking at us from behind and one person overtook us so we followed him barging into the traffic.
Forrest describes the drivers as ruthless and I think I will have to work on my ruthless attitude.
We have a new pass the time driving game. Count the indicators. We spotted 14 drivers indicating in the 200 plus km drive from Rome but there was some debate about 2 cars that were indicating but were changing lanes in the opposite direction.
Pompeii and Ercalano tomorrow.
Bevan.
P.S. from Forrest
We got the washing done for the first time (in a washing machine).
Plus we saw two apes and a bambina like people we know have.
Hi Bevan and Forrest,
ReplyDeleteBack here there have been a few fatalities where foreign drivers were involved. You must know how they feel. Driving in Rome requires some aggression. Even as a pedestrian we had to force drivers to avoid us. Forrest has an attack of ABC. (another bloody church). We fly out tomorrow to Canada. We will let you know our travel sim number when we get it. Granddad.