Autobahnanza

Arrivaderci Venice! Buongiorno Bellagio! A Tale of Drivers Pazzo.

(We have been neglecting our blog duties. Not only have we not gotten online since our last post, but we haven't written anything either. At this point we've spent an afternoon in the Como area and a full day in Milan. The next few posts are the recap.)

In my previous post, I grossly underestimated the insanity of drivers in Italy. The drive from Venice to Bellagio was harrowing. First off, there are far more big rig trucks on the road than I would like to see. These big rigs like to get cramped up close together in the right an middle lanes, and then without much warning, try to pass each other. As we were headed north on some nondescript autostrade, one of these truck pelotons was riding in the center lane. We were riding in the far left lane when gigantor truck starts changing lanes right into us! Five seconds later, Nat located our horn and subsequently honked it. Luckily the driver realized he was about to make a BMW pancake and pulled back into his lane. We escaped unscathed and quite a bit more wary of these trucks.




After exiting the autostrade we found ourselves on some bucolic mountain roads flanking Lake Como, the most beautiful lake we've ever seen. These roads are dotted with quaint villages and of course, crazy drivers. These two-way roads are about 3 meters wide, curve constantly, have no visibility because of the mountains, and people drive like they're on I-95 by themselves at 11pm on a Monday. Our right and left mirrors have been in great peril on numerous occasions. We did make it safely to our bed and breakfast and have enjoyed ourselves here in this beautiful corner of the world.

Oh, and just for you Truffer... (The largest parking garage in Europe isn't all that impressive to those of us accustomed to the mega-malls of the U.S.)

posted by Chris @ 1:31 PM