We’ve travelled quite a bit since the last update. We found a great place to eat in Trastevere – on the East side of the main road away from the tourists. Nice little place we found during our second walking tour of Rome.

To leave Rome we hired a Lancia Ypsilon and then headed to Florence. We incorrectly assumed there would be a road map in the car, and had to make do with the A4 sized, over photocopied version they provided at Avis. The directions were clear enough “Take this road to the ring road, then get onto the A1.” but the execution was lacking. It took us almost 2 hours to get out of town and onto the A1, going round and round in circles. At one point we found ourselves on an amazing bridge, two lanes only in one direction, flying over the top of some enourmous train yards and back into central Rome. First time driving in Italy was surprising. I haven’t driven on the right hand side of the road much, but that doesn’t seem to matter – people drive wherever they like, and generally keep to the right. There’s really no such thing as a lane. When I get a bit confused as to how traffic is supposed to flow, I’d just follow someone else. Unfortunately both times I tried this, the drivers must have been tourists and we went head on into major traffic. We luckily vered into the correct road both times, but I learnt my lesson watching caos as cars tried reversing in the middle of 4 lane intersections out of oncoming traffic. Hilarious. Here’s a picture of our Lancia:

Vrmmm!

Driving in Rome may have been stressful, but driving on the Autostrade was great. Huge roads, good condition, top speed of 130km/h, though we were frequently overtaken at this speed.

When we finally made it to Florence, ( we bought a road map at the first service station we found ) we did what has now become routine. We drove around in circles ( lots of one way streets in Italian towns ) until we found some landmark or clearly signed street. Then we rang the hotel we’d booked a few hours earlier for directions. This particular hotel had a parking service ( €25 per day! ) where some guy picks the car up from the hotel and parks it somewhere nearby in a car park. They bring it back for you on request. Once we found the hotel we double parked and Riina ran in to find out what to do with the car. The guy said “Just leave it where it’s parked – if it looks illegal, just put the flashing lights on”. So we did just that, and felt bad as buses had to vere around our parked car into oncoming traffic. When in Rome.