Italy touring

PLEASE! Your avg. NY driver wouldn't be qualified to carry the average Italian driver's shoes.

It definitely requires a bit of an aggressive mindset or you'll get punked. It is worth it though. St. Gotthard's pass was spectacular, and coming into Italy the scenery was impressive. I'm looking forward to going back, ,and I have to admit I was reluctant to add Italy to the destination list at first. However, the wife wanted Venice as a "must see" and I chose Andermatt.
 
Maybe not, but they wouldn't shat their pants when merging into a fast moving round-about like some folks I know. You either got the skill to match the aggressive driving or not. I'm not a fantastic driver, but I had no issues in various European countries thanks to being more comfortable with having to drive aggressively. Let's not forget about how tight the roadways are in some cities too. Having scooters on both sides of you going down a single driveway width street makes some folks a bit nervous as well. I'd still love to go back and do a non-city Ducati tour next time.
 
Roundabouts get a bad rap on this side of the pond, but if you understand their logic, they work quite well. Problem here (at least in NJ), is that roundabouts (or circles) give priority to one major road, while the others fend for themselves. In europe, the person in the roundabout has the right of way, and no one else does. Again, if you understand this, it works quite well.

Another niceity over there is the lack of BIG trucks. The largest thing you'll run into is a large Isuzu type of box truck, that's it. Larger 10-wheelers are pretty restricted to highways, and are still rather uncommon. I think because of the price of gas, you don't see 18 wheelers being used to deliver pizza boxes and a single appliance like you do here. Makes roads much more enjoyable overall.

Now the scooters are another story!
 
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