Read More of My Italy Road Trip:
Introduction: Road Trip Though Italy
Italy Road Trip Day 1: Roaming Around Rome
Italy Road Trip Day 2: A Lunch to Remember
Italy Road Trip Day 3: Italian Happy Hour
Italy Road Trip Day 4: Weekend Respite in Milano
Italy Road Trip Day 5: Exploring Milan By Foot
Italy Road Trip Day 6: No Room at the Inn
Italy Road Trip Day 7: The Beauty of the Dolomites
I woke up to this view from my window:
This South Tyrol region of Italy surprised me the most. It was more beautiful than I was expecting, a genuine treat and somewhere I’d love to return with my family.
I wasn’t all that hungry and just had a bowl of muesli and cappuccino for breakfast.
The Hotel Rosengarten had a decent spread of cold items for breakfast and a fully-stocked bar:
After our morning meeting, we had about 3.5 hours to make the 2-hour drive to Venice for our afternoon flight to Paris.
This allowed us to stop at several points on the way south to take picture of the beautiful scenery:
Every town and village was more beautiful than the previous one!
At one point, we stopped at a café called “Area 51” to take a break. It was no Nevada desert…
Speed Traps
I’m expecting a speeding ticket in the mail, though hopefully just one. The speed limit slows from 90km/h to 50km/h as you reach each village. Sometimes that comes upon you suddenly. Too suddenly.
One village had a speed camera strategically placed just beyond the 50km/h sign. I had slowed from 90km/h to 60km/hr, but had not reached 50km/hr yet. There was no flash, but I fear I was “blitzed” (as the Germans say).
As an aside, the Autostrade system in Italy is full of cameras which regulate sped (130km/hr). I was careful to follow those and hope there will be no unexpected surprises coming from Hertz…
As we headed south, we finally connected to a largely empty Autostrade, heading directly for the airport and stopping only just outside VCE to fill up the car with gasoline.
We dropped the car at Venice and caught our Air FranceEasyJet flight to Paris.
CONCLUSION
Time will tell if the relationships we cultivated on the trip will bear fruit, but it was an excellent week in one of my favorite countries of the world.
I now hold a great and deeper appreciation for Italy and cannot wait to return. It’s a beautiful country with warm and loving people and perhaps the best food in the world.
THE END
Excellent travel essay. By memorable Italian food you meant the one dinner from McD and the Autostrade fare, right? Were the trattorias almost as good as the Olive Garden? 🙂
I got a speeding ticket in Florence for going 6km/h over the limit. It came 2.5 months after I returned my car (Hertz) along with a nice penalty from Hertz themselves. Not fun at all.
I hope you don’t end up with something in a couple months
Ugh – I sure hope you didn’t get busted by one of those scameras. Like Josh noted, you’ll have quite a nice “administrative fee” from Hertz tacked onto the fine!
“”The speed limit slows from 90km/h to 50km/h as you reach each village. Sometimes that comes upon you suddenly. Too suddenly.””
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This is normal in most of EU countries,that when you reach a village you can’t go faster than 50KM/H (even if there’s no sign “”50″” .(usually village name in white background. if it’s in blue than mostly you can continue with max allowed in that specific country).
“”One village had a speed camera strategically placed just beyond the 50km/h sign. I had slowed from 90km/h to 60km/hr, but had not reached 50km/hr yet.””
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Did you slow down after the village sign or before? A lot of foreign drivers in Europe make same mistake. They reach village sign and only after that they slow down – That’s wrong. You have to do it before passing the village name sign. Most people use GPS on unfamiliar roads so that should indicate that there’s a village ahead and you should start slowing down. If you started slowing down afterwards,there should be a ticket.
I am originally from that area, and I always try to spend some of my vacations in the Dolomites.
Over the last couple years, they have installed speed cameras in a large number of villages in the area, mostly using it as a deterrent. Only a few are actually turned on. I think it’s a good idea, as especially in summer and winter quite a few people walk on the streets. All to say that I would not expect a fine. Also 10km/h above limit is not what they are after…
You should consider spending some time in Sesto Pusteria (Sexten in German), couple of awesome hotels there. Both summer and skying are terrific.
That looks like a fun trip, @Matthew. I enjoyed this series of posts. I’m now jonesing to take a week long drive around Italy.
As an Italian, this post brought me so much joy! Except for the speeding ticket obviously, those damn traps are a nightmare. Most Italians I know regularly use Waze instead of Google Maps, as it gathers data from other drivers to point out speed traps. Just a quick tip for next time 🙂