In a country full of great food, beautiful scenery, rich history and interesting people – I’m almost embarassed to admit how much I love the Italian highway system known as Autostrade per l’Italia.
I’m sure it didn’t hurt that we rolled out of Venice in a sporty little Lancia Delta… a car that became so dear to me that I had to order a Lancia key fob for my Toyota keys when I got home.
Besides the lovely touches like white contrast stitching on black leather seats, we actually fit four people, four large suitcases and assorted small bags very comfortably. And, it handled like a dream.
According to Wikipedia, Italy was the first country to build highways for cars and this was supposedly the inspiration for the US national highway system.
In the North, the tolls can add up quite quickly. For example, from Venice to Rome, the toll is an astonishing €32. But, in the South, the Autostrade is free.
The high tolls started to make more sense as we began to experience the engineering obstacles overcome by the road builders… some sections of the Autostrade seemed to constantly alternate between bridges and tunnels, bridges and tunnels, bridges and tunnels. On other sections, the elevated Autostrade carried us high above entire towns.
I found the highways very easy to navigate, comfortable to drive on, and extremely picturesque. From everything I’d heard about Italian drivers, I expected the roads to be like the chariot race in Ben Hur. Maybe it’s because I commute on Interstate 80 across the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge – but I found drivers on the Autostrade to be pretty laid back.
The very best feature of the Autostrade are the rest stops. I couldn’t pass one up without stopping… and hanging out a bit before hitting the road again. The rest stops are contained within the Autostrade toll system – so they aren’t really so much exits as they are pit stops.
Most of the rest stops have the same setup: a gas station, a mini market, a coffee counter and a little restaurant. The ones we visited were called AutoGrill or Ristop. The gas stations are nothing remarkable except for the very high cost of gas. And, I’ll admit, I never tried any of the restaurants.
But, the coffee counters are heaven. What a perfect accompaniment to a road trip. No to-go cups here. While you stand at the narrow granite countertop, your coffee is served in porcelain cups with saucers. It makes me laugh to compare this delicious coffee to the kind of coffee I’m used to at American rest stops. Would I even consider a cup of coffee from an AM/PM station? Heck no!
And don’t even get me started on the mini market. Filled with much of the usual stuff you’d expect at a highway rest stop, but then there’s more. And by more, I mean a bounty of preserved meats and cheeses. Coming from the land of packaged foods, it’s staggering to actually see REAL food at a rest stop!
The restrooms are pretty cool, too. I really appreciated the floor to ceiling privacy between stalls… but the metal toilets and complete lack of toilet seats was a bit of a bummer. But who knows… maybe in Italy it’s totally vulgar to sit on a rest stop toilet seat anyway. I’m going to reserve judgement until I understand the culture better.
I’m going to leave you with a funny photo of the sign on display outside of most of the rest stops we visited. It seems to be a list of all of the rest stop rules. Now, I don’t know ANY Italian at all (trying to learn, but I’m slow!) — but I’m pretty sure “PORNO” is the same in English and Italian. This sign seems to be prohibiting pornography at the rest stop. But the weird thing is that pornographic magazines were on sale in the market. Not sure what this all means, but it did give me a chuckle.
I hope that you have the opportunity to take a road trip on the Autostrade and enjoy the bounty of the AutoGrill for yourself someday!
