traveling to italy

My travel agent tells me that driving in Italy becomes increasingly dangerous the farther South one goes. She strongly advised me not to drive anywhere South of Roma. Besides, the trains are pretty good.

Also, be sure to pay for your purchases (especially gas) with a credit card. A friend who picked me up at the airport in Milano stopped for gas on the way and made the mistake of paying in cash. The gas station attendant saw the luggage in the car, figured us for tourists and cheated my friend out of about $30. He's still pissed about that to this day! >:^(

Tom S

I would not say it is dangerous, the style changes, it demands more, how should I says this, flexibility? One gets used to it.

Rather, I would advise renting a relaitevely non-descript car, definitely not a BMW or anything flashy. Regarding dress code, I would just avoid showing off lots of jewelry, but otherwise Naples is a stupendous city, and one does not feel threatened, ever. Not like some northern cities (and this is a northener writing...). Nightlife is impressive, Naples at 3 in the morning is a bustling town, very nice atmosphere, electric, peaceful.

See, I told you so, it is in Milan that you must be careful, not in Naples... QED

Mike

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France email link

may I suggest you Le Marche (central Italy, Adriatic coast)?

I write you to your private email.

Bye

I have a lot of suggestions, but let's first narrow it down a bit.

I must say that is not easy to visit vineyards in Italy, not like France. You need appointments, and they are hard to get. However in the cities you can taste Italy's best wines. So one alternative is to do a city trip, this will avoid you having to drive anywhere. And you will see some interesting sites between tastings... in that case, I will give you a plan based on combining city visits with wine. A breakneck speed 12 day city trip could include Turin, either Bergamo-Bologna or Venice, Florence, Siena, Orvieto, Rome, Naples. If this is what you are looking for, I will send you a possible city route.

The other route is to stick to the country, go to small towns and be close to the vineyards. Maybe you have already seen the top sites in Italy, and the country route is appealing. In that case, you would need a car and I could recommend an itinerary, something like Barolo, Alto Adige, Friuli, Toscana, Campania.

Let me know.

Mike

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France email link

Hi, Mike - It sounds like you are delicately suggesting something akin to "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" (an old Disneyland attraction). IOW, there aren't any traffic laws (or at least none that are enforced) and one would be well advised to rent the car that has the loudest horn! ;^)

Better be careful in Venice, too - especially Murano. Nobody tried to cheat us there, but the hard-sell in the shops was a full court press! I came close to dropping a couple of thousand dollars there on glass objets d'art that I definitely didn't need. The place is mesmerizing.

Tom S

"Tom S" wrote in news:82Koc.7908$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr27.news.prodigy.com:

ridiculous driving in Italy is insane everywhere!

but on a more on topic theme, I too have noticed a lack of degustation type signs in Italy and more enotecas offering samples of local wines. So if sampling the local goods is the thing the local wine shops are the place. OTOH, the back roads are beautiful.

That loud horn will save you on many a twisty mountain road. There are plenty of traffic laws in italy-with many interpretations- Italy is the only place where I have seen traffic cops routinely inspired to tear up tickets after watching dramatic explanations for ordinary wrong behavior.

Three personal recommendations: in the Oltrepo, we are fond of Caseo Malleo

They don't do tastings but there is a delightful small bar in town that offers tastings of these wines. The Caseo Malleo is a blend of Cabernet Savignon, Pinot Nero, and Barbera

- wierd sounding, but magical.

My second recommendation is in Barolo, not far from the village of Barolo. The cantina is Fratelli Serio & Battista Borgogno, on the Cannubi hillside. They don't speak english but they can be reached at snipped-for-privacy@libero.it and they offer very nice Baroli.

My third recommendation is along the Maremma coast in so Tuscany. The wine is Sassotondo San Lorenzo, a wine in the supertuscan style and made from 100% ciliegiolo grapes (I hadn't ever heard of it before). Also try the Pittigliano whites made nearby.

For lodging in that area try Podere Cavone

Have fun!

Thanks Mike-

I have done the city thing before, so I am all about the countryside. I did a bit of driving around the Piemonte region before, and am particularly interested in exploring it further. Will have to stop by Alba; I know it isn't truffle season, but they still have some really tasty things for sale. We will have a car (and to respond to the first few posts: I am cautious, but pretty darn fearless) and we like to hit the unbeaten paths. I agree that the plan of going to a vinotek first to try to local wines is a good one- know of any particularly helpful/jolly vinotek owners?

I look forward to you thoughts! e. winemonger

In Piedmont I can recommend Fracchia & Berchialla, via Vernazza 9 in Alba for a good selection of wines. If you are traveling through the west of Liguria, there is a good enoteca directly on the autostrada at the Ceriale rest stop called Liguria D.O.C.

Reka "winemonger" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

Yes, correct, but if I must compare Italy and France, we have two different kinds of road chaos.

In Italy, the objective is to get wherever you are heading to as quickly as possible; the horn is a device that gives off short beeps, like radar, it warns you of nearby vehicles so you can adjust your crazy trajectory to avoid collision. Hence the horn button in Italy takes up 95% of the steering wheel (the turning function ins secondary), you can hit any spot with your entire arm, with your elbow, your chin, anything and it will go off.

In France, the objective is not to get there quickly, but rather to get there before the other guy, at all cost. The horn is a device used to insult people, if you use it you risk a fight. So the horn switch in France is a piddly button on the side of the steering wheel, to be operated vigorously with your middle finger.

Traffic accidfent statistics are very interesting:

Italy has twice as many accidents as France. Germany has almost twice as many accidents as Italy.

Oddly enough, all three countries have a similar number of fatal acidents. So if you look at accident severity, France is has the second highest percentage of fatal accidents in Europe, only Greece is higher. Finland, Ireland and Denmark are close behind. The lowest accident severity is in Germany and the UK.

Mike

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France email link

Since this is where your trip starts, Turin has become a happening place (it used to be the city to avoid). The top museum of egyptology in the world, and Italy's top contemporary art museum at nearby Rivoli. Lots of art. In Turin, eat at the Osteria Antiche Sere.

Regarding your tour, 12 days is a short time, I would stick to the Langhe and Roero area of Piemonte, and then do the Chianti, Bolgheri and Brunello areas. Between the two, you might want to stop by Genova (it is culture capital of Europe and a really interesting city, offbeat) and by the Cinque Terre (but dont buy any Sciacchetra, the real stuff cannot be found except in one place...).

I would recomend that in Turin you buy some of the Slow Food "Itinerari Slow" touring guides, especially the ones for the wine regions. They are in italian, but you can easily figure out the texts, just by following the maps and the recommended places. Not only do you get to find out where you can eat real food at a good price, you also get winery lists, driving itineraries, walking tours, history, architecture, things to see, etc..

They cost 9.80 Euro each, less if you are a member. Some of the current titles that I recommend:

Bra e il Roero (Piemonte) Barolo e Barbaresco (Piemonte) Montalcino e Montepulciano (Piemonte) Torino Trentino

If you want to be sure to find them all, after Torino drive straight to Bra, which is a good place to taste wine, and go to the Slow Food headquarters to find these guides. They used to have one called Guida delle Langhe e del Roero. For eating, nothing beats the Guida delle osterie, a large book listing hundreds of places whre you can eat good authentic Italian food for less than 30 Euro and get to choose from an excellent wine list. I use it all the time and have not been disappointed. The guide deliberately leaves out trendoid places that think that authenticity simply means sprinkling a few drops of (fake) balsamic vinegar over everything, including dessert. In the same building as SF you will find the Osteria Boccondivino, worth stopping by for lunch.

Some places not on the guide:

In Piemonte, if you want to splurge, go eat at Guido, in his new magnificent surroundings at Pollenzo, near Bra. This is a truly remarkable place, both for food and for the beauty of the dining room.

I would also try Antica Corona Reale in Cervere, better known as Da Renzo. You may not want to try the fried frogs, but the food is great.

If you head for the Bolgheri area and want to splurge again, a stop at the legendary Gambero Rosso is recommended, Pierangelini is another culinary genius. It is at San Vincenzo, on the Tuscan coast, definitely not a touristy area but people go there.

Mike

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France email link

While I have not driven in Italy, I've ridden a motorbike there. The traffic in there does have a the kind of logic Mike describes.

I've been, for example, beeped in traffic lights by a car driver behind me for NOT lane-splitting and riding to the front. (Most traffic lights I saw in Italy had two stopping lines, the first one for bikes and the second for cars. Bikes and mopeds were supposed to lane-split to the first line.)

It's also rather easy to learn. On a bike, one learns pretty soon to take the panniers off for a ride, unless you really need them. It's easier to lane-split on a narrower bike. Rather soon passing the lines of cars feels quite natural.

Riding back north, I was also already using the horn in the switchbacks in the mountain roads. Just remember not to do that once you've crossed to Switzerland.

While I did not venture into a large city, I did ride on the autostrada on my trip from from Mandello del Lario, near Milan, to around Isola Vicentino and Vicenza, and I must say that I've never ridden on a smoother road. The pace of the traffic was, however, even more hectic than that in Germany on the autobahn. Based on this experience I'd say that riding/driving in Italy is quite not bad as most say.

The Soave winery was somewhere along the autostrada; i could smell it easily (well, the Soave works hardly qualify as a winery, it mostly resembles a factory).

Cheers,

-Topi Kuusinen, Finland

Is that per capita, Mike, or total accidents? Seems like that figure should be adjusted for population to be meaningful.

Tom S

Agreed

I wasl ooking at totals, but the population of France and Italy are similar.

Mike

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France email link

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These descriptions from oversea writers in spite of being predictable are often very amusing. Keep up the good work!