Italy and Germany 2012: On the road to La Spezia

Sad to leave Milan today, a nice place to settle into Italy. On the road to La Spezia through Parma. Drove mainly along the Autostrade. In doing this I have learnt a lot about Italian drivers and the possible existence of road rules. Briefly –

(a) the posted speed limit is actually the minimum speed, for instance – if it is posted as 100km/h – everyone has to do 100 – getting to 150km/h will give you bonus points.

(b) lane lines are guides only and should not be used to direct your vehicle along the lines – you can earn bonus points if you drift across lane lines more the 20 times per kilometre.

(c) give way signs and stop signs are there as to test everyone’s ability to race through an intersection – bonus points can be earned if you can get between 3 mopeds without losing paint.

(d) indicating any direction change is unlawful and all indicators have been disconnected.

In the end we made it – Kate did get me lost once, she was telling me something and the map indicated another thing. In other words she gave me missed messages – I know – a woman would never do that – one for the record books I’d say. Suffice to say we went 30 kilometres out of our way and had a lovely drive.

Driving south we went through lots of rain, not that it mattered too much, for about 100 kilometres there were tunnels along the way, the longest about 2.5 kilometres and lots of others more than a kilometre. Pams fear of tunnels has subsided.

Got to our accommodation in La Spezia (the sun made a welcome appearance about 20 minutes before we arrived) – I hadn’t told Pam it was in an old hilltop farm house, it was just a little more ‘hilltop’ than Pam would have wanted and the road up tested the nerves. All well though, we dropped our bags off and went off to Portovenere.

Beautiful harbour with an old fort and lots of colourful houses. Bought a beer and wine and they supplied a stack of chips/olives/nibbles. We had planned to have some fish and chips for tea…..no such luck after we finished the bowls!!

Got back to the room before dark….one of Pam's specific instructions, relaxing now and planning another busy day for tomorrow.