Road Golf

 

 

Driving in Italy is like playing golf; you need to choose the right club for each driving situation. High-speed roads like the autostrada favor big, fast cars such as Mercedes, Audis, and BMWs, which help you stay competitive and avoid being pushed off the road by impatient Italians who like to travel quickly with their lights blinking and horns honking. The custom is to tailgate someone, flash your lights, and then pass when the slower vehicle pulls into the right lane. Although speed limit signs are posted, they seem to have little effect on anyone. Once, two police or Carabinieri cars pulled up behind me. I was driving at the speed limit, but they were so close I sped up. At the first opportunity, they passed me and sped down the road, despite there being no apparent emergency.

 

The story above highlights one of the paradoxes of Italian life. The population speeds along in cars only to stop for a leisurely espresso or a relaxed lunch. Even in busy Rome, it’s hard to get a waiter to bring the check because the norm is to enjoy the food and company. So why do they rush on the roads? I don’t know, but it might be related to the lack of upward mobility and personal control that people feel they have in Italy. Maybe the roads serve as a place where the people can feel in charge. Sociologists could give a better answer to this than I can.

 

 

Back road, country driving ideally requires a different type of car. Just as in golf, on a narrow fairway, a player wouldn’t use a driver. Instead, a shorter, more efficient club like a six-iron would be chosen. In Italy, this translates into various choices, from Alfa Romeos to Fiats to Renaults. Speed isn’t as critical on tight mountain roads as the ability to corner, make sharp turns, and downshift. Italians seem to love this style of driving. Big trucks especially enjoy driving as if they were Ferrari or Maserati sports cars. It can be frightening to have one of these trucks slip behind you and honk for you to pass the slow car ahead. This wouldn’t be an issue on a straight road, but these truck drivers want you to pass on curves that hide blind corners! 

 

 

In the United States, people tend to drive in an orderly manner. One car waits its turn while another moves through an intersection. The next car goes, and then the next. Such is not the case in Italy. It is up to the car at an intersection to make a move. More often than not, drivers poke their cars into intersections, forcing other cars to stop. It’s the same with walking. If you wait for the cars to stop and let you pass at a crosswalk where there is no light, you may need to be packing lunch and supper! Pedestrians walk out into traffic and make the cars stop. It takes a leap of faith.

 

 

Sometimes you have to drive in Italy. If you're heading to the countryside, public transportation can often be awkward. I try to stick to back, country roads whenever I can. When cars speed up behind me, I usually pull over to let the locals pass. I bring good road maps from the states and ask the hotel staff to help me find the routes. 

 

If you decide to play road golf in   beautiful Italy, there is no sense in saying, “Fore!” The Italians will only laugh, downshift, and speed by as they drift into the next corner!