Italy in Short

Our travels took us across northern Italy, from Padova to Torino and back to Milano. Having rented a four-door Fiat Punto, we were in particularly good shape.

One of the oddest things about driving in Italy is the rigidity of the highway driving patterns. Trucks in the right lane, passenger cars in the middle, and speeding cars in the left. If you are in the left lane passing someone, and another car comes up behind you, it will flash its lights so you get out of the way and let it by. Then you can get back to passing the other cars.

The funny thing is you never see the speeding cars come up behind you; that's how fast they're driving. One minute your rear-view mirror shows a clear road behind you, the next minute someone is tailgaiting and flashing his headlines impatiently. Where did he come from?

Another odd situation is that, of all the speeding cars that passed us, 95% were stationwagons. Not SUV's, not sedans, but stationwagons: 5-door BMW's, Audis, Hondas, really any stationwagon. It got to be that we would count with relief the sedans or other cars which passed us, but we barely counted the fingers of one hand. How can you explain it?

I'll leave you with another photo.