It’s interesting to look at what people drive in different parts of the world and how they get from A to B. Here in the parts of Europe we have visited, the roads are crazy small, crazy twisty and crazy fast, sometimes all at the same time. You certainly define a vehicle differently here.
There’s the bikes.
In Scandinavia and the Netherlands, we discovered most people ride bikes as their major means of getting from here to there. Bikes there are utilitarian, plain, functional. People ride them wearing suits, dresses, in other words, office attire. Any groups of bikes you see likely are traffic jams.
In Italy and France, bicycling is a serious sport, and if you are riding a bike here, you mean business. You wear the spandex often to match your riding buddies, and the helmet, again matching and the groups you see riding together are a team or a club.
Both groups are scary. Coming around a hairpin curve in the Tuscan hills, where the road is maybe as wide as your car into a team of 20 bicycles curls already grey hair. And you know where you see one or two, more are around the next corner, maybe the next several corners if the hill is a serious one.
Then there are the motor cycles.
Most are small bikes, usually step through scooters. Their soul purpose is to get the drivers from here to there over these perilously narrow, serpentine roads.
Some we refer to as hornets. They buzz around you, zipping in and out of traffic, following no rules we are able to discern. In a traffic jam, they drive between the lanes to get ahead of everyone else, often at great peril, which they ignore. I don’t know why there aren’t more fatalities, or maybe there are and we just don’t know about them because we can’t read the newspapers. We did see several close calls that had us sucking in our breath.
Watched and laughed at a roundabout the other day as a scooter roared, well perhaps given the pipsqueak noise it makes, roared is the wrong word. At any rate, he snugged up close to the car in front of him in the roundabout, and unhappy at the speed with which this vehicle was proceeding, reved his motor three or four times. Because of his position, the revving occurred almost in the driver’s ear. The driver had to have heard him. But the effect was not what the hornet driver wished. The car driver didn’t speed up or move out of the way. He proceeded at his same pokey pace leaving the hornet to fume behind him until the both circumnavigated the circle and exited, at which point the hornet in a fit of righteous rage, overtook him putt putting all the way. Hilarious.
Buses. Well, we only had a few experiences with them, mostly coming around a narrow sharp corner to find one in our lane. But hey, it’s Europe. Bus lanes rule, and bus stops are usually a box painted on a road. All traffic stops when passengers get on or off. Not by law. But because other vehicles can’t get around the bus.
We did ride a couple of buses. Took the bus into and out of Firenze two days and had a pleasant experience. You have to have a ticket before you get on and you punch it on the bus, similar to punching an LRT ticket. There are doors and ticket punchers in three different spots on the bus so you can get on at the back if you want. Buses are made to transport people from here to there, not to make them comfortable. So most of the space is standing room, with only maybe 15 spots to sit. Getting on close to the beginning of the line is good. Our second trip back to our hotel was done standing. Hairpin curves, especially several consecutive ones, taken at speed make staying upright a challenge.
And cars.
Don’t see the trucks, RVs and SUVs that we see especially on Alberta roads. Garages, roads, parking spots and parking lots are just too small.
The smaller the car the better. We drive a Mazda 6 at home. Here we are in a Citroen C4, which is about the size of a Mazda 3, and it is uncomfortably large at times. The road to our parking spot here in Tuscany is barely wide enough to hold it. In fact, most roads are so narrow that cars come with side mirrors that fold in, a handy trait. They fold in automatically when you turn the car off. They also come with side lights that light up to let you know how close you are to that wall when you are backing up or turning. But no back up lights. Odd.
Every make of car has small, medium, and large models. It’s amazing how big some cars look. We were in a small town outside Florence (called Firenze in Europe) the other day watching someone who had driven up a street to find that it ended abruptly, and the driver had to back down the hill. We were thinking how big the car was — we had walked up that hill, and it was about the width of a single driveway, and the car filled the street. When it got to the bottom of the hill and straighten out we were surprised to see it sideways — it was a Smart Car. Who knew a smart car would look so big. So do VW beetles and Mini Coopers.
It’s been years since we’ve seen a three wheeled vehicle. You used to see them in Scotland back in the 70s, but they weren’t very stable so they disappeared from use over time. But here in Italy you see them all over the place, mostly trucks where we are.
Fiat has a line of cars that take the cake though, for cuteness and I have decided if I ever move to Italy (not likely) and can’t drive my Miata (even more unlikely) I will get me one of these little Fiats. The model I have fallen for is the Panda. Even the name is cute. It’s about the size of a Mini Cooper and as cute as the proverbial button.
Lots of people must think so, because I did a mini survey as we stood outside our Fiesole hotel waiting for the bus to take us into Firenze (only crazy people drive there, plus it’s a controlled space so without a permit you aren’t allowed to drive there, so we were waiting for the bus) and I counted the cars and fully 25 per cent of the cars going into Fiesole were Pandas. Yes, I know. This is obsessive behaviour. That’s why I only counted the cars going in one direction. and why I stopped after I reported the results to Ken and he laughed. The yellow ones are the cutest but even the beige ones look good.
Once in Firenze, we noted that the few cars we saw were all small. Not just Smart Car and Panda small, but smaller. They were one-seaters. So take a smart car and cut it in half. Totally electric powered. Silent and scary for that reason, since you can’t hear them coming up behind you.
Like Victoria, New York and other touristy places transportation includes horse drawn carriages. The song “Gramma got run over by a reindeer” took on new meaning, as I was nearly run down by one. I didn’t recognize the horn they used and suddenly Ken was there grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the way, as this horse and carriage were coming, regardless of whether I moved.
Our drive into and out of Fiesole made me wish for a smaller vehicle. We had driven on toll roads all the way there but at the very end, Our Lady of the Dash took us off the main road and into Fiesole following the most hair raising route I have ever been on.
The road was as wide as our car (Honest!!) with stone walls, taller than a person on both sides of the road. Fortunately we didn’t meet anyone coming into town. Leaving was a different matter. We found ourselves facing not just one car but several, plus we had several behind us as well, and along came the bicycles and the joggers. Everyone had their mirrors folded in, and no damage was done, but it was a close thing. I snapped some photos through the front window of our car, which I hope I can post with this (because i have been known to exaggerate to make a story more exciting. That is not the case here.) In some cases Ken was closer to the other driver than he was to me.
It was not an experience I would like to repeat, especially with the bikers just sliding in and around. I don’t know how everyone managed, but everyone just smiled and I’m sure prayed. Exchanged a joke or two. Passed cigarettes back and forth.
Ok, so now I am exaggerating.
