Driving in Italy

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We just turned our brand-new Alfa Romeo Giulia in at Pisa Airport. Perhaps some of you have been planning an Italian vacation and are contemplating whether or not to rent a car. Driving in Italy is (mostly) not difficult and there’s no reason to be intimidated, but there are several things to consider before taking the plunge.

The first question I would ask is “Do you really need a car?” Often the answer is “No.” We use public transportation whenever possible. In some rural areas this may not be practical, but in most cities a car is a liability and not an asset. You’ll have to figure out where to park, which can be an expensive proposition, and beyond that you may have to deal with less-than-patient drivers, unfamiliar traffic laws, as well as the dreaded ZTLs (more on that in just a moment).

ZTL in Montepulciano

 

If you do decide to drive you’ll need an IDP – an International Driving Permit. In my opinion this is an absolutely useless document that contains a translation of your license, but if you should happen to be stopped for another infraction the Italian law enforcement agency will want to se it. Your rental car company may, or may not ask for it as well.

Before you purchase additional insurance for your rental car you may want to check with your credit card company, personal insurance, or an agency such as AAA if you’re a member. You may already have extra coverage, and it’s good to know before you pay for something you don’t need.

 

Familiarize yourself with Italian traffic signs and laws before your trip. A speeding ticket or ZTL infraction can considerably add to the cost of your vacation!

 

If you’re not familiar with the term, a ZTL is a zone that is limited to local resident travel. Posted traffic cameras photograph the plates of cars entering the ZTL. If you do not have the proper permit, your rental car company will receive notice of the infraction and you will have to pay a fine, which can be quite hefty. Do you really have to pay it? Yes you do!! I’m posting a link to an excellent explanation from At Home In Tuscany.

http://www.athomeintuscany.org/2011/10/15/pisa-ztl-limited-traffic-zone/

I’ve heard horror stories of unsuspecting foreigners racking up many hundreds of euros in fines circling through the same ZTL over and over again looking for their hotel or parking lot. They receive their notice many months after the infraction. Ignorance of Italian law is not an excuse. It’s our responsibility to understand local laws and traffic signs.

My advice: do your homework first! Find out where the ZTLs are by Googling the city or town you will be visiting, and make sure you contact your hotel or apartment owner in advance if a permit must be issued.

The same applies to speed limits. Years ago speed limits were rarely enforced in Italy, but that is no longer the case. The Italian authorities have discovered what Americans have long known: ticketing speeders is a great source of revenue. Unless posted otherwise, speed limits are 130kph (80 mph) on the autostrada, 110kph (68mph) on non-major highways, and 90kph (56mph) on local roads. Speed cameras on the Autostrada system are clearly marked, but there are also some stretches that are timed between tolls – the Tutor system. If you’ve gone too fast you’ll be fined. We’ve seen even small towns with fixed radar cameras alongside the road. Locals in the know are aware – tourists are not, so be careful if you’ve got a heavy right foot! Here are a couple of links that may help you recognize the speed traps:

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/driving/traffic_cameras_speeding.htm

https://italychronicles.com/speed-cameras-in-italy/

There’s an excellent blog from Italy Beyond The Obvious that’s full of good info for driving on the Autostrada. I urge you to check it out. They also have an e-book you can download for free from their website.

file:///Users/Matthew/Desktop/Tips%20on%20driving%20Italian%20Autostrada%20or%20toll%20roads%20-%20Italy%20Beyond%20The%20Obvious.htm

A few final thoughts: Keep to the right except when passing!!! Unlike in the US, Italians are very serious about lane discipline. Don’t be offended if a faster driver gets right on your rear bumper. It’s just the way they do things. Hopefully you’ll already be out of the way. Pay attention and use your turn signals and your Italian driving experience should be just fine.

Matthew and Barbara DaubMatthew Daub is a professional artist and university professor with works in major public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe. He has been leading plein air painting workshops in Italy since 1994.

In 1999, Matthew and his wife Barbara formed Arts Sojourn as “a vacation for artists and their friends.” The program is designed to appeal to artists of all levels as well as non-artists who enjoy the company of creative people in a slow travel format.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

Another Lascaux?

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The Lascaux painted caves are world famous – the original, closed to the public on the 20th April 1963 due to over-visiting was needless to say, Lascaux 1. Lascaux 2 is the well known and loved facsimile opened on the 18th July 1983 – amazingly accurate especially when the fact that it was produced without the aid of computers and modern surveying techniques is ‘put in the frame’.

Lascaux 3 is perhaps less known – it is the travelling version of Lascaux which was launched in Bordeaux in 2012 where we saw it. It’s quite a feat to move it around since it takes up 12 shipping containers! Since then it has roamed the world, starting in Chicago and then on to Houston, Montreal, Brussels, Paris, Geneva, Tokyo, for example. In Shanghai this year, 2,300 visitors passed through this mobile exhibition space in one day! During May – September the exhibition will be in Johannesburg after which it will return to its base here in the Vezere Valley for some ‘tlc’ – some restoration and refinement of the art is necessary after 5 years. Then it will be back on the road again.

Lascaux

Model of Lascaux 3

Lascaux 4 is already very well known too. It opened in December 2016 and by August 2017 has exceeded it’s visitor target of 400,000 a year! There is no doubting its popularity – the cave art is every bit as authentic and, of course, powerful computing and state-of-the-art surveying techniques were used in its creation.

Lascaux 4

Then there is the cave we have dubbed ‘Lascaux 5’! It’s one of many caves in the Vezere Valley – some famous, some not – and it’s hard to fathom why this one was never either lived in or decorated in prehistoric times. It is a very ‘des res’ as caves go!

We were introduced to this very special cave by a kind neighbour who shared this local knowledge with us. To get there, we followed him along a track through woodland and up a small rise – then, ‘voila’ as the French would say, the well concealed cave came into view. One could easily pass it by.

Lascaux

Approach to ‘Lascaux 5’

Inside we marvelled at the art – very much the style of Lascaux itself. If we’d just stumbled across this site ourselves, not knowing its history, would we know how old this art was? That’s very debatable. Dating of cave art is a huge topic in itself – perhaps for another blog – and the possibility of ‘fakery’ is very real.

This cave was actually produced in 1995! A natural cave, it was decorated to emulate Lascaux and it certainly succeeds in doing that. The famous ‘Lascaux bull’ had to be included, of course!

Lascaux, Lascaux Bull

The Lascaux Bull

Why?, you may ask. It was for a film ‘Les Enfants de Lascaux’ – ‘The Children of Lascaux’. Not surprisingly, it is about 4 children who search for treasure under the hill of Lascaux – and find it. The rest, as they say, is history. The film is now hard to get hold of, but the story of the discovery of Lascaux is still told and retold and thanks to the facsimiles we can appreciate and share the wonder the children must have felt as they saw this awesome art for the first time in millennia.

Steve and Judie Burman live in the beautiful Vezere Valley in the Dordogne region of South-West France. Together they run Caves and Castles, specialising in prehistoric Cave Art and medieval Castles Tours. You can join a small group (up to 6) 4 night/5 day Tour based 2 nights each in the medieval towns of Sarlat and Montignac-sur-Vezere or book a custom Tour for a day or more.

Professional archaeologist, Steve loves to share his passion for the ‘Cradle of Humanity.’ World famous sites such as Lascaux, the ‘Sistine Chapel of Prehistory’ and Font de Gaume are close by. Coupled with gastronomic meals and superb wines, your Caves & Castles Tour is really special.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

Let’s Return

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I was on my fourth visit to Stia in the Casentino, southeastern Tuscany, when Michelle Logue published her blog on our Slow Travel Tours website (https://slowtraveltours.com/blog/an-italian-pilgrimage/). It set me thinking afresh about the question: why travel?

I needed to tie up a few loose ends for my new Tastes & Textiles: Woad & Wool tour, part of which takes place in the Casentino, southeast Tuscany.

Stia, only 1 hour 20 minutes east of Florence, feels more remote than it is.

For the first time I felt comfortable in the place. I could relax and enjoy being there. I had a mental map of the area and didn’t have to slavishly follow Google’s directions, which always send you by the quickest route, not necessarily the most picturesque.

There were a few people I had met on my previous visits who welcomed me back as a friend. They had suggestions of who else I should meet to add to my list of producers, and ultimately friends.

I’d been wanting to meet Elisa Bellugi, a handweaver now in her 90s. But when I contacted her nephew Luca he told me she’d passed away in February. Although I’d missed her, Luca kindly showed me the studio where she worked and a collection of her clothing and other pieces.

A coat and hat by Elisa Bellugi

She wove a blanket for the Pope

…and received a thank you letter from him.

I met Claudio Grisolini of Tessilnova on my second visit to Stia, but mysteriously all my photos of him had disappeared. Second time lucky.

Claudio at one of his many looms, all of which he runs himself since his assistant retired.

Claudio’s father founded the woollen mill and designed this coat.

Here it is on Audrey Hepburn in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ (Claudio’s father is in the photo bottom right, not with Hepburn).

Next door is the Museum of the Art of Wool. It was my third visit to the Museum, but far from being bored, I found I could concentrate more on the details.

Elegantly decorated machine for measuring humidity in wool. No wool merchant wants to pay for wool heavy with water.

The Museum is Angela Giordano’s kingdom. She invited me to lunch, but her kitchen flooded that morning and we went out instead.

Angela will lead a workshop during my tour.

I had chosen the dates of my visit to coincide with the dates of the tour next year from 18 to 28 May. For the first time I walked up behind the Castello di Porciano where we’ll be staying on the tour, and below in Stia lingered by the Torrente Staggia marvelling at the force of the water that used to run the colossal machines in the woollen mill.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel…

Carpets of scented wild thyme

Torrente Staggia still beautiful but no longer useful as a source of power.

On my second visit I had spent ten minutes at the Monastery of Camaldoli, founded by the Benedictine San Romualdo in 1012. This time I dedicated four fascinating hours to it and the restaurant across the road.

The pharmacy originally made herbal medicines used by the monks to cure wayfarers. (Photo: Penny Barry)

The hermitage is still occupied by monks who maintain a vow of silence.They used to plant 4000 trees a year. You can see some of them in the background. (Photo: Penny Barry)

Bronze doors with symbolism of herbs and trees in gold leaf. Top right: ‘Thorn for pricking, correction and penitence’.

Centuries-old chestnut ‘Castagno Miraglia’ still surviving despite a hollow trunk.

The Monastery is in a nature reserve where herds of deer roam at sunset. (Photo: Penny Barry)

Dinner at Locanda dei Baroni, conveniently placed across from the monastery. Friendly staff and a fire in the fireplace welcomed us to the dining room.

You can only eat two Italian meals (at most) per day, and that’s pushing it! This time I could sample a few more restaurants.

Toscana Twist adds a modern twist to classic Tuscan ingredients.

I hate taking the autostrada which is useful only as a way of getting from A to B as fast as possible. At the end of my stay, I allowed myself the luxury of taking the back roads from Stia to Londa and on through the Mugello. From Stia the road runs next to the Arno River heading toward its source. Federica at the Castello had recommended that I stop at a water mill. I was sniffy. It’s no longer functioning as a mill, whereas we have four working water mills in the Garfagnana. Who wants to go look at dead machinery. But as I was passing anyway…

It was sad to see the broken wooden paddles of the old water wheel.

But the daughter of the owner gave an account of the late miller which brought the place to life.

The family was preparing for a party in this ancient room above the mill. Her father and mother were in the kitchen. They run bread workshops to teach how to make bread with sourdough starter.

The mill is the first one below the source of the Arno River. What a difference from the Ponte Vecchio in Florence!

I got home with a long list of people and places I want to return to. Travel helps me see the world with new eyes, giving me the capacity to understand other people, other ways of life and myself better. It’s difficult to dig deep if you’re always going somewhere new. The more I travel to the same place, the more fulfilling the journey. I’m going back. I hope you’ll be with me.

Erica Jarman invites you on inspiring culinary tours of life behind the scenes that you won't find in any guidebook — get to know the food artisans and craftspeople of Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Liguria. Come join me and my Italian friends and dip into a lifestyle where lunch is more important than business. Find out more at Sapori e Saperi Adventures and follow Erica’s own adventures on her blog.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.