Italian Mini Road Trip

Our original plan for the trip was to take a train from Florence to Venice, stopping in Modena, where the Galleria Ferrari is. Unfortunately, we found that the museum is actually located in a smaller town called Maranello which is south of Modena, and there were no forms of public transportation to get us from Modena to Maranello. Not be daunted by this obstacle, we found another solution to get us to Maranello: rent a car. Why not, right? So we went and found an area in Florence with a handful of car rental companies and began the inquiries as to how to procure a car to get to Venice. We found out that technically, to legally drive, you need to have an international driver’s license in addition to your regular US State issued license. However, for a car company to loan you a vehicle, you only have to provide a passport and a US State issued driver’s license. Just don’t get pulled over. And even if you do, a lot of the time, it’s just an additional fine on top of whatever traffic violation you may have committed.

So the next morning, we picked up a gray Fiat Punto, a small five speed manual Italian four-door hatchback. We loaded our bags into the car, and with our Googlemaps directions that didn’t properly print out, we hit the road, hoping not to get overly lost somewhere in northern Italy. I drove the first leg of the trip to Maranello. About Italian drivers, they drive fast and aggressively. However, they’re rather polite. No one passes on the right, and they flash their lights at you if they think you’re too slow rather than tailgate or honk the horn. The Italian countryside is beautiful, with smaller towns on hillsides. So beautiful in fact, that Naber felt the need to lean out the passenger side window to try to get an unobstructed picture. Smartly, he forgot that he had his sweet Prada sunglasses on top of his head. So here I am driving, and I hear, “Oh, my god,” loudly as part of Naber’s body is out the window. He brings himself into the car. “Oh. My. God.” Touching the top of his head, he informs me his sunglasses fell off and instructs me to pull over. We’re now in a narrow shoulder with a guardrail with a creek on the other side on a two lane road with cars whizzing by and honking. Naber opens the door and begins sprinting down the shoulder in his Cole Haan loafers, against traffic. The Fiat is so small that every passing car creates a wind that buffets the car. We hoped the police would not drive by to the crazy American running down the highway. Shortly enough, Naber hops back in the car, sunglasses in hand and intact, minus a few scratches, and we’re on our way again.

Getting to Maranello, we found the Ferrari museum, and also several Ferraris driving around on the roads. Naber was on cloud nine for the afternoon, as we toured the museum. Unfortunately, we could not tour the actual Ferrari factory, as you have to personally own a Ferrari to receive that tour. I think we’re just a tad shy of reaching pay grades to afford one.

Naber drove from Maranello to Venice, a two and a half hour drive. The drive was a bit flatter than the first half, except that as we got further north, the view of the Alps started becoming more and more clear. Up until this point, the google directions had been pretty accurate, but we reached a point where the exit didn’t seem to existe. Looking on google maps on my phone, it seems that we were north of Venice and driving too far east. Luckily, we got off at the next possible exits to find there were other signs leading to Venice using smaller roads. The next issue was to fill the car up with gas before returning it to the car rental service. No one works at gas stations on Sundays, and because of that, you can’t use credit cards to pay for gas, even though they have the automated machines similar to the States. It was quite the annoyance as gas is expensive in Europe, about 1 euro per liter, a rough approximation of 5 dollars a gallon. Another little hiccup was that while in Florence, we were told we could drop the car off at the rental place in Venice and put the keys in a dropbox, the store was closed and we have to drive back onto the mainland and to the airport to return the car. We hopped on the bus to get us back to the islands, and then the vaparettos, or waterbuses, to take us down the canal to our hostel.