My first impression of road conditions in Italy was eye-opening and somewhat scary.  Aside from the craziness of drivers who do not stop at stop signs, the road conditions are all shapes and sizes, but mostly small.  The highways are fairly normal, although the widest freeway I’ve seen is 4 lanes wide, with 2 lanes going in each direction.  I should say “2 painted” lanes, since lanes are completely optional and sometimes there are cars in the middle creating a third lane.  “Local” roads are just that and maintained by locals, so gathering funds to repair damaged roads isn’t common place.  Pot holes are inevitable and expected.  This week, we experienced a heavy rain and I actually drove through an incredibly scary dip in the road that hours later became a sink hole!

Driving the kids to school is an adventure.  The parking lot is “L” shape and has multiple trees in various places with no rhyme or reason for parking.  No lines are painted and sometimes the person who honks the longest or loudest gets the right-of-way.  The first day Mike got his car, he was backed into in the school parking lot and received his first Naples “kiss”.  I can usually find a place to park at the school but never know if I”ll be able to get out.  😛

Many roads here are super narrow.  In fact so narrow that only one car fits, yet are two-way.  The road to Carney Park (where sports are played) and our shared driveway to our new home (hopefully next month) both have hilly one-car wide two-way sections of road.  Should be fun!  Ironically, these roads seemed crazy at first and I never thought I’d live on something like this, and after only a few weeks it seems like no big deal.

Along the stretch of freeway from the base to our hotel, we’ve been noticing women decked out in makeup and high heels standing around under passes.  Yes, we have confirmed these are hookers and that stretch of highway is nicknamed “Hooker Highway”. I unfortunately said this out loud in front of my boys and was asked the inevitable question of what a Hooker is!  Ugh, that was fun.

Our latest “roadway” adventure has to do with a huge band of gypsies setting up their camp at our freeway exit.  Trailers and shanties are everywhere, along with kids jumping through bushes.

We have been told they will be moving on soon, but are still on our exit after a few days.  We shall see.

Many driving adventures to come, in the meantime I just upset Mike by gasping out loud when he drives like the locals. 😛