"Jessicadf's Italy Page" Italy by jessicadf

Italy Travel Guide: 83,896 reviews and 172,959 photos

One of my favorite countries

Now I've been lucky enough to have visited Italy on three occassions. This last time was by far the best, accompanied by the love of my life, it was the best.

This time we rented a car, but no accidents ensued. Only the lovely people, classic architecture and fabulous food to enrapture our souls.

Ouch

One time I was in Italy, I was with two girlfriends. We flew to Paris, rented a car and drove to Rome. Along the way, we stayed in Portofino, Venice, Fiesole (Florence), Positano and Rome. In between Fiesole and Positano, we were in a head-on collision (yikes! but no one was hurt, and no, I wasn't the driver), and stayed overnight in a small town near Perugia, but I don't remember the town's name. Perhaps it was all the chianti we drank that night, to celebrate that we were still alive (and boy did our teeth turn purple).

The story behind the collision

So there we are, driving from Fiesole towards Positano one beautiful morning. Maria's driving, I'm in the front passenger seat, and Felicia's sleeping off the previous evening's chianti in the back seat.

We see a sign with no text, just three arrows veering off in different directions. Hmm. What'll we do? Not sure. I'm just relaxing and letting Maria drive.

So we get to this split in the road where the road splits -- to the left, forward or to the right. We know we want to go to the left, so Maria takes the left split.

WHOOPS. Turns out that's the OFF-RAMP for people coming off the highway! CR*P!!

Heading directly towards us was a woman in her car, attempting to brake, madly.

Thank god, nobody was seriously hurt (though my neck smarted for the rest of our trip). The woman had a cat in a cage, that she was taking home from the vet. She spoke no English, and we spoke only a few words of Italian. The Caribinieri showed up to figure out what was going on. None of them spoke English. Then the woman's husband and father showed up... none of them spoke English either. We could have been in serious trouble!

Somehow Maria worked it out -- I don't remember how... and the woman's father actually drove us around and found us a hotel to stay in for the night. A nice hotel, if I remember correctly... we drank plenty of Chianti that night...

The next morning we took a cab ride to Peruggia, to the closest Enterprise Rental Car location, where they gave us another car. This time they didn't take any chances, and gave us a mini-van. Hahahahahaha.

Last visit to Italy: Jun 2005
Intro Updated Jul 2, 2005
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Reviews (15)

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Comments (122)

globetrott Feb 27, 2005 at 10:03 AM Report Abuse

What a lovely overview of important places to visit in Italy ! That Fiat 500 in your transportation tip is still widely used in Italy and whole families of 6 people go around in it...
iandsmith Sep 27, 2004 at 2:56 AM Report Abuse

Well done, very interesting. a different view. I've been here before!
Jim_Eliason May 6, 2004 at 6:14 PM Report Abuse

Very nice page!
matcrazy1 Apr 22, 2004 at 8:38 PM Report Abuse

Great page, great country, very accurate tips! Tiny car? It's not the USA hehe. There are even smaller (for 2 persons only). Great suggestion you made on this page!
karenincalifornia Jan 15, 2004 at 7:51 AM Report Abuse

Great pics and tips on Italy - I'm adding them to my custom travel guide for Italy - only 168 days to go! I will watch out for those drivers in Italy -the head on collision I can do without!
deecat Dec 15, 2003 at 9:48 PM Report Abuse

I don't think you enjoyed Italy as much as I did. No wonder, a head-on collision..at least you were not hurt. Great tips for hotels.
just4funds Nov 27, 2003 at 5:12 AM Report Abuse

It must have been nice to see the country by car! The pepper stand must have been neat, were you able to talk to the vendor for a little while?
Drphoto Oct 14, 2003 at 12:44 AM Report Abuse

Italy...nice experience.
belgianchocolate Oct 9, 2003 at 10:38 AM Report Abuse

I hope the car we rented is going to be a bit bigger then the one you saw in Milan. :-)
BeckyL Aug 14, 2003 at 4:46 PM Report Abuse

Sounds like the movie "Enchanted April!" Becky