Some years ago I asked the concierge at a hotel on the shores of Lake Como how fast you could drive legally on Italian roads.
I genuinely wanted an answer as we’d just picked up an electric blue, six-speed manual Alfa Romeo in Milan and in the short drive to the lake had been overtaken by pretty much every other vehicle.
Was I going too slow or were they going too fast? What was the limit?
“Well, in Italy,” the concierge replied, “It’s personal.”
Of course it is.
None of this had bothered me on my first trip there in 1977 when five mates and I drove the Amalfi Coast in an aerodynamically-challenged transit van we’d purchased outside Australia House on The Strand in London.
But driving there in the years since had been more difficult each visit. Now it was just too damned stressful. So I swore off it, preferring public transport on our most recent stays.
But then came an invitation early this year to attend the wedding of a dear friend in Sicily.
Italy’s largest island is enjoying something of a tourist boom, not least because the second series of The White Lotus streaming franchise is set in its picturesque north-east.
Sicily is just fine for driving – as long as you follow a few rules. Image: TND
You can use public transport to get around the island, but to see it properly you really have to drive. Could I do it?
In the years since my Lake Como experience I’d driven or been driven in Corsica, which was terrifying; Sweden, which was courteous and law-abiding; the US, which, much like its politics, differed depending on which state you were driving in, and India and Sri Lanka, which were chaotic.
The clear lesson was, if you can’t beat them, join them. There’s not much point motoring like you’re sitting a licence test in Australia if all around you people are careening every which way.
Emboldened by this epiphany, in June we picked up a car in Sicily’s capital of Palermo – a beguiling mix of splendour and squalor if ever there was one – and headed off on a 10-day road trip that circled the island counter-clockwise.
We headed south to Agrigento and the magnificant Valley of the Temples, then east to the eye-catching baroque towns of Ragusa, Noto and Syracuse before turning north to Cefalu, past glamorous beach towns and smouldering volcanoes and, eventually, back to Palermo.
We managed it all without a single raised fist or intemperate toot from our fellow road users.
These were the key lessons:
- Be assertive, not aggressive. Don’t sit endlessly at stop signs waiting for a lengthy break in traffic. Jump in when it’s moderately safe and floor it. It’s OK to discomfit other drivers, but don’t endanger them
- Sicilians will forgive pretty much everything providing you don’t force them to slow down or, God forbid, come to a halt. In this I’m reminded of the traffic in Delhi or Hanoi – cars and bicycles going every which way but, like a gigantic school of fish, accommodating all. Just don’t stop!
- Understand that speed limits are indeed fluid. Drive over the posted limits if that’s what the traffic around you is doing (and almost certainly it will be). I routinely sat 20km/h over the limits on rural roads and highways and it was relatively stress free – certainly no one tailgated me – and kind of liberating. You will still be overtaken regularly
- Drive at the speed limit in built-up areas. Maybe it’s the speed cameras or maybe it’s the carabinieri, but the locals obey the speed limits in towns
- Lane changing on freeways is not to be done meekly; come to think of it, nothing is to be done meekly (see above)
- Look out for police but don’t expect to see many except on toll roads, where they’re usually gathered at collection points, which is curious given most cars are moving at snail’s pace
- Oncoming motorists will overtake in dangerous situations but simply make room for them
- If someone’s tailgating, don’t get mad, get out of their way
- Don’t stress about speed cameras on highways, because no one else does
- You’ll almost certainly be approached in Palermo by someone offering for a small fee to protect your car while parked (it may no longer be a mafia town but, hey, a man’s got to make a living). Might as well pay.
Sicily restored my confidence about driving in Italy. And in some ways it made me a better driver back home in Australia. For instance, I haven’t used the car horn since our return.
Dare I say it, I’m now more patient with motorists who bend the rules, providing they don’t impede or imperil me. That will pass though. In the meantime, I won’t take it personally.
Bruce Guthrie travelled at his own expense to Sicily, flying Turkish Airlines to Istanbul and then Palermo. He drove a Jeep Renegade, which he rented and insured at an exorbitant price.