Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
What I've described so far applies to our driving experiences in various parts of Italy from
Rome up to Turin. Then, a couple years ago, we began exploring the Amalfi Coast and the
Isle of Capri. We realized immediately we had only been playing in a penny ante game; the
high stakes Texas Hold 'Em players were all down here. I knew enough immediately not
even to try to get into the game. So we hired local drivers wherever we went.
Their driving skills were a marvel to behold. Tuscans typically disparage their southern
neighbors as “crazy drivers”. But I think that's because they are secretly jealous of their
extraordinary level of mastery.
Picture a network of roads that climb the hills and hug the edges of the steep cliffs that drop
vertiginously to the blue sea below. The roads are two-way but they are not wide enough in
most places for two cars to pass each other. As you ride up the mountain road in your van
at a brisk pace, you see another vehicle coming down the road just as fast. You realize that
there'snowaythattheycanpasseachotheronthisnarrowalleyofastreet.Asyouseeyour
life beginning to pass before your eyes, the driver coming downhill brakes suddenly and
pulls snugly against a building that's set back slightly from the road while your own driver
continues uphill without even having slowed down or blinked twice. At first it looks like
a simple game of chicken where your own life is being gambled without your consent. As
you're wondering how you ever got yourself into this, you notice that your driver has just
pulled into a little niche to let a taxi go hurtling by without having to slow down. Slowly it
dawns on you that it's not at all about establishing driving dominance as an alpha male. It's
more like an asynchronous dance with successive partners.
Each encounter requires a instant assessment of the following variables: the segment of
road on which the vehicles will pass each other; the size of the respective vehicles; the
options available along the way for pulling over and squeezing out a few extra inches;
the identity of the oncoming driver and whether or not these will be familiar to him or
her. Once you recognize the level of assessment skills and knowledge of terrain that these
drivers must have to pull off these daredevil transits on these treacherous roads, the seam-
lessness of their dance becomes all the more remarkable.
All we ever had to deal with while driving in Petaluma was having to figure out how to
answer the cell phone when we already had a mocha in one hand and a scone in the other…
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