Where do I start? Well, we have had 2 different rental cars so far. The 1st a little Hyundai and currently we have an Alfa Romeo Giulietta wagon. Our next car is supposed to be a Ford Mondeo. Aaron and Race have been lamenting about it. I guess it's a bit of a 'boat' and it's an automatic. ;`~
Most of the roads in Naples are original cobblestone or badly damaged asphalt. I keep telling Aaron he should wear a kidney belt (similar to semi truck drivers wear) just to drive to work everyday. (It takes about 45min to drive through the city). Not only are the roads bumpy and at times painful! they are narrow and filled with parked cars, garbage and recycling bins, pedestrians, dogs, and thousands of scooters filling in every possible gap. They zoom up on the left, the right, directly in front of you..phew!! It's a 'hole nuther level' of driving here. I've heard that if you can drive in Naples, you can drive anywhere!
What looks like a close destination, turns out to be at least an hour+ drive. Last night we drove 2hrs just to get to a little town outside Naples. Our close-to-being-thrown-out-the-window GPS led us on what seemed to be the most round about route imaginable. That seems to happen every time we use 'her'. To punish us for talking bad about and cursing at 'her' she takes us on the most challening, narrow, awful routes! On more than 1 occasion she has led us on 1 way roads going the wrong direction, told us to turn down a flight of stairs, asked us to make a U-turn in the middle of the freeway,etc.. One time the GPS told us to drive 18km past our destination (that we could clearly see) and Aaron decided not to follow the directions. He stopped on the side of the freeway and drove in reverse about 2km to get off the freeway. It was rad. (can't do that in the states w/o someone totally freaking out and then getting a ticket! Ha)
The drivers here are not bad, actually. They all seem to know their clearances, for the most part. However, almost every car here, has many scrapes and dings and broken or missing side mirrors. Honestly, as chaotic and crowded it is here, I thought I would have seen some accidents by now. So far, we have witnessed several scooters hit curbs and fall over and a few cars scrape garbage cans and what not. Nothing too exciting.
We marvel at scooter drivers the most. It's not uncommon to see 2-4 people on a scooter, usually not wearing helmets too. It is very unnerving to see little kids, even babies, on scooters with no helmet. The other day I saw a boy on the back of a scooter wearing a helmet but the helmet was so loose that it was hanging off the back of his head; the strap was, essentially, choking him. Yikes.
The other thing thatI don't see much of in the states but see all the time here, are children riding freely in cars. In fact, I don't think I've seen a car seat at all here except used by non-natives.
Well, last night we experienced our first flat tire here. I'm actually surprised (but very thankful!) it hasn't happened yet. We were almost home, driving down one of the GPS's favorite narrow streets and POW! we hit something hard enough to blow out the front driver side tire. Many expletives followed yet we did not stop; we just drove it home. It was fun... When we got home, Aaron went to put the spare on but the spare was also flat. Not surprising. Oh well. We had the rental company change the tire but unfortunately now, we have to drive on a space saver. I'm sure that will be great on the cobble roads..haha!
