Before I forget.. a few home truths about Italy

There is no doubt that Italy is beautiful.. historical Rome with its religious backdrop, romantic capri, the 'museum' of Florence, the serenity of Tuscany, the Bay of Naples dominated by Mt Vesuvius, the vibrance of Sicily with quaint Cefalu, the beauty of Taormina crowned by Mt Etna and the enchanting Amalfi Coast proudly boasting Positano and Ravello.. the chic well dressed woman and their amazing fashion sense... the gorgeous bronzed men.. BUT.. and there is always a but

For the tourist such as ourselves who have driven across the dry, barren deserted iterior there is another story.

While I hate to lump all Italians together.. as a race they are disrespectful, rude and extremely pushy.. the Japanese have nothing on them belive me.

Italians drive like there is no tomorrow. Imagine Federal Street in Auckland .. narrow and busy.. with a speed limit of 100km.. yes.. all the roads have a 100km limit.. and Italians drive as fast and discourteous as you could imagine. The beep of the horn is their signature.. and beep it they do; they beep to tell you they are there.. just in case you didnt see them.. they beep the second the lights turn green.. just in case a mere millisecond is lost in taking off.. they beep to tell you they are passing... behind... to the left or to the right.. they just frigg'n beep for the hell of it I am sure. What's more.. if there is the smallest of gaps between you and the vehicle in front.. they will push in front.. they will make a 3rd lane.. undertake.. overtake.. whatever it takes to save that precious second.

Pushy.. there is no word to describe the way they push in. We could wait 10 minutes in a queue.. the minute the bus or train arrived they came in their droves and pushed in front irrespective of age or ability... they simply pushed you out of the way to get on, not that it mattered as, in the main, public transport operators didnt take off until every last person was on even if the doors had to stay open to fit us all on!

And crowds.. I guess that is where we, in the Colonies (thanks for that term Uncle Calvin) are rather lucky with our small population. On one of the beaches we counted 1,000 sun loungers and umbrellas.. and a few hundred metres down the road.. another 1,000 and so on and so forth. It was all rather overbearing. There were definitely times when we couldn't cope with it.

Filth... you wouldnt believe what they throw out their car windows and leave on the beach. On one such beach at the end of the day it looked like Rosedale Tip in the 80's! Dirty nappies, hundreds of plastic water bottles, empty beer bottles, empty food containers.. it was absolutely disgusting and we saw this time and time again. The roads are one big tip.. mile upon mile of open road was one big rubbish dump.

And we havent even been up to the North yet.. Venice, Milan and Turin here we come!

All that aside.. the charm is definitely there in the Tourist areas.. and I wouldnt have missed it for the world.