I thought I'd share about our experiences driving in Italy. When we visited Italy in February of 2024, we spent the first week traveling on airplanes, trains, buses, taxis, ferries and funiculars (kind of a train tram affair that climbs the side of hills).
We rented a car the second week to get a little bit of Italian driving under our belt. We had plans to search for Italian family records and the little towns up in the hills had no other modes of transportation other than cars and buses. Now that we are here on our mission, we have been assigned a mission car which we have used exclusively for transportation. We are still on a learning curve, but I think it is now beginning to flatten a bit for us.
Tunnel on the road en route to Oltre il Colle
First of all you need to know
that every time we drive I seem to have a “roadway engineer geek out moment”. The road and bridge network here is truly
amazing. I marvel at the Italian
engineers creativity and ingenuity to build and retrofit roadways within the
existing built environment. The Italians
have built some very creative and amazing things including roads, bridges,
tunnels, retaining walls, roofs, sound walls, etc. I’m guessing that the Italians just take it
for granted, and it is just what they are used to. I find the whole transportation system here amazing. I’ll add a few photos, randomly, as we go along to
illustrate and point out a few things that are new for us and fun for me to see.
Rockfall rooves over the roadway en route to Oltre il Colle
Tunnels on the autostrada east of Genoa
Typical rock retaining wall, en route to Oltre il Colle
Rock overhanging the roadway, en route to Oltre il Colle
Except for the major highways
(the autostrada) which is equivalent to the Interstate system in the US, most
other roads have just been built around existing churches, buildings, and houses and other
significant structures following contours to connect together. As a result it seems to me that they don’t
have typical design standards for lane widths, shoulders, merge lengths,
tapers, etc., etc. They seem to just
make it work as best they can. I suppose
that is what you really call “context sensitive design” or “practical design”
which are a few frequent ways we talked about doing things different in the
US. In spite of these challenges for us, I’d
say that the Italians have done remarkably well developing their roadway
system.
Narrow roadways and fitting things together
Roadway types. This summary is probably as much for me to
get my head around the roadway network as anything, but I’ll include it just
because I can.
Autostrada – highway or freeway (similar to the Interstate
in the US), signs are green with white text, speeds limits are typically 130
km/hour, roads are named with the prefix A.
We’ve spent most of our time on A4 which runs west to east through
Milan. These are typically toll roads
with toll booths as you enter and exit. Interestingly
even at 130 km/hour with 3 to 4 lanes in each direction there are typically no
shoulders on either side of the road.
Fun little Fiat car on the A4 Autostrada
(note extra wide shoulder width in this photo)
Notice the cool anti-graffiti sound walls on A4
Variable speed limits and sound wall on A4 in Milan
Other Main roads:
Strade Statale – (similar to US roads in the US) signs are
blue with white text, usually lead to cities or town centers, numbered with the
prefix SS and numbers and have a speed limit up to 110 km/hour (divided) and 90 km/hour
otherwise
Strada Provinciale – (similar to State Routes in the US) signs
are blue with white text, sometimes numbered with the prefix SP and usually
have a speed limit of 90 km/hour
Strade Regionale – (similar to US or ST state roads in the US) these
roads are maintained by a regional authority and resemble the strade statale
with similar speed limits, signs are white with black text, usually numbered
with a prefix of SR,
Strada Comunale - signs are white with black text,
municipal roads managed by local authorities.
Can be identified by SC and speed limits can vary. The speed limit in town on a fairly well
maintained and busy roads seem to be 50 km/hour. As you get into the city center or busy
areas, the speed limit typically drops to 30 km/hour.
Fitting things in while preserving history
Strada Bianche - signs are white with black text, can be
unpaved and connect rural areas
Road to the parking lot for the Merate apartment
First off, Google Maps,
Apple Maps, Waze or some sort of navigation program is a must. I’m used to Google Maps so that is what we
are using. We’ve had two cars so
far. We were first assigned a Toyota
Corolla which we drove for about 3 weeks.
Then the mission asked that we trade cars, and we now drive a Hyundai Bayon. The Hyundai seems to be a little taller and
maybe a little bit narrower. It is more
like a small SUV than a passenger car, so we sit a little higher with our legs bent
more than just straight out in front of us.
Both have been good cars. We are thankful for the ability to use and drive a car for our mission with a low monthly fee. We pay for our gas or the mission does depending on the usage per tank. So, if we are driving for mission apartment checks and mission supplies then we charge our gas to the mission.
Both cars have had CarPlay, which has been very helpful to have our route displayed on
the small monitor in the car. At home I
had my map set so that North was always to the top of the map. That worked well in Idaho where I had
reference points and straight streets that often ran north to south and east to
west. Needless to say, roads and streets
in Italy don’t run north to south or east to west and there are few high reference
points. I’ve had to switch the
navigation setting to just have my direction of travel point to the top of the
screen. Google maps will often say turn
north or east, but that direction is really meaningless to me right now; we just follow the
arrow on the map and do our best to follow the directions.
A sampling of narrow roadways and interesting features
With that said, thank heaven
for Google Maps. Without Google Maps, we
don’t know how we could navigate. Rarely
can we find a street sign with a name that matches what Google Maps
indicates. Route numbers on overhead
signs are found to the far left of the sign, such as A4, SS470 or SP37. We have learned that the route
numbers are located on the left side of the signs and are smaller than the regular text so you have to look carefully and have to read them quickly as you often have to choose between 3 or 4 lanes going in different directions. Jodie who has not yet tried driving in Italy, is getting pretty good at looking for
the route numbers and street signs while I focus on getting in the correct lane and turning onto the right street off the roundabout. In spite of our best efforts, it is not
uncommon for us to miss a road or a ramp and we end up getting rerouted. One day, we missed the right ramp 4 times. Luckily, we had time in our travel that day and we just giggled about it.
Rerouted. That is a story of its own. There is
no such thing as going around the block here in Italy. When we miss a turn, we get rerouted and it
is usually a completely new route or we travel several kilometers to turn
around at a roundabout and back to get onto the correct roadway.
Roundabout near our apartment in Alzano Lombardo
(Jodie likes the flowers and trees)
As you can imagine, roundabouts
are everywhere. A roundabout seems to be
the intersection control of choice for every level of highway from Interstate
type roadways down to very small rural roads.
The only time we run into a signalized intersection is when there is
simply no site distance and/or no real estate to work with. Because of this, there are absolutely no
right turns on red. You simply can’t see
what is coming so it is best to patiently wait for a green light.
Toll roads. Fortunately, we have a Telepass (toll pass)
so we just have to navigate to the toll lanes with a yellow sigs. We hear a beep as we enter the chute and a
beep when we pass by the lifted cross bar.
Typical toll booth configuration
After passing through the
toll booth, you enter a sea of pavement with little to no lane markings and are
expected to navigate to the lane you need amidst your fellow travelers all
attempting to do the same. Between roundabouts
and toll booths you have to pay attention when you drive. The key to successful driving in Italy is a
certain amount of assertiveness and quick thinking. You don’t have a lot of time to make choices so you just do your best and then wait for Google Maps to reroute you when you
make a wrong choice. Slowing down to read and understand the signs
and your next lane choice makes you a travel hazard for everyone else. So be assertive and think quick, that is my
rule of thumb for driving in Italy.
Merge lanes. I’ve spent a lot of time over the years with the Idaho Transportation department developing
merge lanes to allow cars to accelerate on and off ramps so that they can merge
into traffic at or near the posted speed limit.
I suppose due to geographic and real estate constraints, they just don’t
do that in Italy. There is typically little
to no merge length to accelerate or decelerate with. This
causes us to simply put our foot in the carburetor and mutter/yell (usually
verbally) AAAAAAHHHHHHH with our heads on a swivel as we merge into traffic. Again, this adds to the excitement of driving
in Italy.
View out the window from the Merate apartment (above)
and fitting in extra lanes under a bridge (below)
At this point we are still
using Google Maps in English. The English
pronunciation of Italian street names is horrific and is teaching us to hear/say the
names wrong, but we are relying on Google Maps for navigation and not language
training. I was brave one day when
taking a route that we knew well and have traveled often and changed Google Maps to Italian. That change was short lived, and we’re now
back to English. I’d like to get to the
point one day that I can keep Google Maps running exclusively in Italian. The problem is that you have to change the
base language on your phone to do this so everything on my phone changes, not
just the navigation programs. That is a
challenge for another day.
When driving in Italy, you
have to get used to vespas, scooters, bicycles and motorcycles. At any moment these vehicles will be lurking
in your blind spot or fastly approaching from behind. It seems to me that the rules of the roads don’t
apply to any of these modes. It is not
uncommon to be passed on the left or even the right by a motorcycle traveling
at a much higher speed. In the US they
call this lane-filtering, and it is legal in several states. We just call it nerve wracking as motorcycles
seem to be coming out of nowhere and going everywhere. It is not
uncommon to see a motorcycle coming towards you in your lane with the
expectation that you will simply move over for them. I’ll say it again, it seems that there are
really no official rules for motorcycles. Unsurprisingly, they are all at the front of
the line by the time a signal light changes from red to green.
I’ve spent a fair amount of
time driving over the years. I’ve developed the habit of turning on the radio, listening to a podcast or talking (hands
free of course) on the phone. I’ve not
been able to do any of those things yet while driving here in Italy. We gave the young missionary Sorelle (sister missionaries) a ride
from Bergamo to Brescia this week to go to a District Meeting. I attempted to have some soft music playing
in the background but that was short lived.
I found it difficult to drive and navigate while Jodie was having a
conversation with the Sorelle in the back seat.
Focus, focus!! Focus on one thing
at a time. The soft background music had
to go. Even with just Jodie and I in the
car while driving on the autostrada I’ve not been able to have any sort of background
distraction. For now, let’s just keep it
safe and focus.
Entering city signs look like this.
Exiting city signs look like this
When getting fuel in Italy it is important to note that regular gasoline is called Benzina and is dispensed through the nozzle with a green handle, diesel fuel is dispensed through the nozzle with the black handle. It is important not to mix this up as they are the opposite colors in the US.
As a side note from Jodie ... I feel very safe with Blake at the wheel. He is a very good driver and has only gone the wrong way down a road one time ... (there were 2 buses coming straight at us but that is another story for another day). We have missed several ramps and yet he keeps his cool and handles the situation with patience. I have only heard him swear one time and that was mostly in jest. I am thankful for his training on roads and bridges throughout his career and count that as one more blessing of having him as my constant companion.
.... Yeah, back to the wrong way driving story. It was scary and happened fast, like most driving experiences here in Italy. Google Maps directed us to turn right. Normally that would have been okay, but there was construction and with everything going on I missed the sign indicating that the road was temporarily restricted to one way. Any way you slice it, it was an exciting moment. We ducked into an empty driveway, both buses passed. We did a 14 point turn, waved at the construction workers, and were on our merry way. We didn't have presence of mind or feel the need to snap a photo of the buses coming at us in the moment so you'll just have to imagine the scene ...
On another trip through the area we captured this photo, without the buses
