Today was going to be another long driving day, as we headed southeast to the city of Verona. We had our breakfast on the balcony again, overlooking Lake Como and headed out. As usual, we did not take the shortest route available, but attempted to take a scenic drive. The drive started out to be rather nasty, as we crossed northern Italy through industrial centers with a lot of truck traffic......not what we had in mind.
Eventually we broke off one of the main roads and headed south through some winding mountain roads, which were rather pleasant. I now began to see the Italian drivers in action......attempting to pass any vehicle on the most winding mountain roads. As we eventually came down from the mountains, we had to get on more highway type roads, not by choice, but this was the only way to approach Verona. The driving now became totally insane. The Italian drivers (I could tell by the I on the license plates) were completely out of control...... they would pass other vehicles over any line......single, double, double yellow, cross hatched no passing zones, etc. etc, It appeared that anything goes....... they would weave in and out, back and forth, in any direction. I thought Gail was going to hide on the floor in the back seat or trunk. Basically, there are absolutely no rules of the road around here.......cars, motorcycles, and bicycles, do whatever they want at anytime.....very, very scary. Even for me, a rather aggressive driver, this was a bit much to deal with. We finally reach
ed Verona after a very stressful drive and had a crazy time trying to locate our hotel. Italian cities are not laid out in a systematic way such as NY city, so we drove round and round and finally asked someone for directions, not an easy task, since very few people spoke English. Finally after parking the car and walking a bit we found the hotel. Sounds great, right??? No way. The woman at the hotel spoke no English and had to locate her husband to help us out. He finally arrived after a bit and helped us settle in, find the parking garage, etc. Event
ually, we had dinner, and picked up our tickets to the opera..... Aida. We arrived at the area by 7:45 PM to secure some reasonable seats and the opera began at 9:15. This was an event in and of itself. I understood nothing, but enjoyed the entire performance which after two intermissions was over at 12:45 AM. We finally got back to the hotel and got to bed by 1:30 AM......... what a day, but in hindsight rather interesting and exciting.
Today was going to be another long driving day, as we headed southeast to the city of Verona. We had our breakfast on the balcony again, overlooking Lake Como and headed out. As usual, we did not take the shortest route available, but attempted to take a scenic drive. The drive started out to be rather nasty, as we crossed northern Italy through industrial centers with a lot of truck traffic......not what we had in mind.
Eventually we broke off one of the main roads and headed south through some winding mountain roads, which were rather pleasant. I now began to see the Italian drivers in action......attempting to pass any vehicle on the most winding mountain roads. As we eventually came down from the mountains, we had to get on more highway type roads, not by choice, but this was the only way to approach Verona. The driving now became totally insane. The Italian drivers (I could tell by the I on the license plates) were completely out of control...... they would pass other vehicles over any line......single, double, double yellow, cross hatched no passing zones, etc. etc, It appeared that anything goes....... they would weave in and out, back and forth, in any direction. I thought Gail was going to hide on the floor in the back seat or trunk. Basically, there are absolutely no rules of the road around here.......cars, motorcycles, and bicycles, do whatever they want at anytime.....very, very scary. Even for me, a rather aggressive driver, this was a bit much to deal with. We finally reach
ed Verona after a very stressful drive and had a crazy time trying to locate our hotel. Italian cities are not laid out in a systematic way such as NY city, so we drove round and round and finally asked someone for directions, not an easy task, since very few people spoke English. Finally after parking the car and walking a bit we found the hotel. Sounds great, right??? No way. The woman at the hotel spoke no English and had to locate her husband to help us out. He finally arrived after a bit and helped us settle in, find the parking garage, etc. Event
ually, we had dinner, and picked up our tickets to the opera..... Aida. We arrived at the area by 7:45 PM to secure some reasonable seats and the opera began at 9:15. This was an event in and of itself. I understood nothing, but enjoyed the entire performance which after two intermissions was over at 12:45 AM. We finally got back to the hotel and got to bed by 1:30 AM......... what a day, but in hindsight rather interesting and exciting.
2 comments:
Hi Bob and Gail,
As you know, I am often fascinated by new technology, but late in using the new technology. I have virtually no experience with blogs prior to viewing your blog.
I am thoroughly enjoying your pictures and comments as you vacation in Europe. You seem to be having a fantastic vacation. I hope I can visit some of these places in the future.
Enjoy the rest of your trip. I'll continue to check in regularly.
Allen
Yikes!! What a day! Glad you enjoyed the opera....see, you can sit for awhile at a performance!! :)
Glad you made it there safely.
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