The Fast and the Furious: Italian Drivers and Foreign Tourists

Lisa ran out of time with her blog, so I'll briefly mention that Lucca was a wonderful city, away from most tourist and the highlight of the trip was the Pistoia Blues Festival that was about 20 miles away and where we saw Ben Harper and the Innocent Crimnals. It was so very good and set in the most beautiful piazza in the middle of the beautiful city of Pistoia. We didn't go to sleep until 2 am, but who really cares when you have a night that pleasing.

I remember from my family's trip to Italy about 6 years ago that drivers over here are quite sure of themselves when behind the wheel. We had a tour bus driver named Luciano who would drive our charter bus full of anxious, predominately older Americans through a veritible gauntlet of road hazards. Near the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy I specifically remember the nose of our bus go over the edge of a sheer cliff as Luciano made impossible turns down seemingly one-lane roads that Italian drivers saw as two or even three lanes. Using mirrors and immense confidence, Luciano steered us safely through daunting turns, avoiding the endless stream of scooters and motorcycles as we made our way treacherously through Italy. My mom, I'm sure, still wakes up with night terrors of being on Luciano's bus.

After driving for 4 days in Italy I have already had my share of narrow escapes, though the Fiat Panda handles well and it's narrow width and length have allowed me to avoid contact with many objects, moving and unmoving. No SUV's allowed here!

After our trip to Lucca and the adventure of driving on the speed limitless Italian highway system, the four of us (now with Jen and her mom, Rebecca) decided to take the backroads to our next destination of Siena. We made our way through a fairly condensed countryside for a bit, holding back frantic Italian drivers by going at a reasonable speed, until the towns cleared out and the Tuscan countryside opened up in front of us. The hills and towns that unexpectedly appeared after rounding a corners were a marvel to behold. The traffic cleared up nicely as well, which allowed me the opportunity to release the death grip I had placed on the steering wheel. We now took a relaxing pace over rivers, over and around hills, and through vast fields of sunflowers. After spending the last few days in cities it was delightful to view the expanse of green, gold and brown that was before us.

We had decided earlier not to go directly to Siena, but rather to drop by some fantastic little Italian hill towns on the way. The first of these was Volterra which provided us with a chance to stretch our legs after two hours in the Panda. We parallel parked (which is much easier now that I know how to use reverse) and walked through the arched entry way to the city. Aimless wandering allowed us to find an ancient chapel which was near a fountain/spring that had been continuously used for over a thousand years. We examined the arched doorway built by Etruscans a VERY long time ago and then headed up the hill for a lunchtime treat of pizza for each of us. I had the salame (Italian spelling of salamie) which was extra good because this region is known for its special makes of the meat. My favorite type (which I have yet to see in person, but read of it in a guide book), involves taking all the bad, unused parts of wild boar--gristle, fat, etc--and a whole lot of spices, and stuffing it back into the cleared out skull of the boar. I'm trying to find one to see if they'll let me carry it on the plane on the way home. The pizza was delicious as was the house wine which was bought not by the glass, but by the quarter, half, or whole litre. I partook of the smallest size and shared a bit with Lisa. We walked out of the restaurant and discovered a bit more of Volterra before climbing into the Belly of the Panda and heading to San Gimignano, our final stop before Siena.

(By the way, David Gray's (who we saw in concert in Birmingham, England) 'Hospital Food' is now playing in our internet cafe--how easy information spreads around this tiny world of ours!)

This stop was a bit disappointing for all of us. First off, parking was a real hassle and after driving around for twenty minutes, I finally dropped off the ladies and parked a little further away. I walked up to the city and was stunned with the flood of tourists crowding the main road. I hadn't remembred it being so bad when my family had come previously, but I guess this is one of the problems with guidebooks--too many good reviews of a place can really spoil it. Lisa and I could even notice it in the faces of the locals as we walked more on the back streets. Their little piece of paradise, an Italian hill town spiked with beautiful towers with a stunning view, was invaded every day with thousands of tourists. It's amazing how well-intentioned interest and curiosity can spoil a remote and peaceful setting. There were certainly some highlights, especially when we walked off the main paths, but at this point the weather was in the 90's and we were all getting pretty tired so we packed up and drove the Panda the rest of the way to Siena. We decided not to eat out and instead got to the supermarket just before closing to gather salad ingredients and the four of us sat on the balcony of the apartment we rented and ate greens and drank wine while overlooking a beautiful part of the city. We all went to bed intending to rest well for the night. This intention was broken by the beautiful church that our window looked our onto. Apparently every morning, the entire city of Siena is waked by this church ringing its bells at 6am, 7am, and 8am, as well as on the half hours. It was very loud, and very long and not as beauiful as one would expect when all you want to do is sleep.

We wandered the city for a while and all enjoyed it immensely. Siena has had a historical competition with Florence, originally over power and wealth, but now over tourism. Floence is certainly the better known, but Sienna retains a bit more charm with less tourists, less size and a more unique character. They have an especially pretty duomo and cathedral here that Lisa and I really wanted to see. Unfortunately, the entire facade was masked with scaffolding and a printed picture of the originaly facade--not quite as impressive as the real thing. What you could see very well, and is unique it seems to this part of Italy, is the design of the church. The predominate feature of which is its black and white stripes that go all the way around the church. These churches are much more fun to look at, as they seem a bit more playful than the staunch, stoic churches of solid color rock.

I was still pretty tired so we headed back to our beautiful little apartment, and I took a nap while Lisa went back out for more sightseeing. We decided to eat in for dinner again and this time we had wonderful spaghetti, cooked by Rebecca (Jen's mom) and bruschetta (cooked by an American we met who is studying classical guitar here) and wine, which Lisa and I bought. We finished this great sunset dinner off with Limoncello, an Italian aperitif that I feel is quite nice.

So here we are now. I only have ten minutes remaining at the internet cafe so I must go. Lisa are shipping a few pounds of clothes back today, and after that we're heading of to the town of Civita di Bagnoreggio--inhabited by (no lie) 15 people and a dog. We're again excited for the solitude away from the tourists of Siena and San Gimignano. After that, we're off to Croatia for a 7 day vintage sailing boat cruise. We'll be back soon. Bye for now...