Driving across Europe??

[Marie]

So two of my friends and I are leasing a car for a month in Europe (with Renault-Eurodrive) and I want to know if anyone else has tried this. I'll will be great for the fredom it will give us and the possibility of seeing more out of the way places, but I've heard such horor stories about driving in Europe (especially Italy). We plan to park the car outside the larger cities and take the public transportation. I was wondering how the parking is. do youth hostels sometimes have inexpensive parking available? Any help, tips and pointers you can give me about anything regarding "driving" in europe would be greatly appreciated!

[me]

Marie,

i've done this twice with "european delivery program." my folks have bought cars, a merc in '83 & a bmw in '86, which we, or i alone, picked up in germany to use in central europe.

driving is pretty much driving, in America or in Europe, it's mostly the same. (european highway speed limits are often higher, though. and yield laws are different, too)

i never even had an "international driver's license," just used my texas driver's license.

fyi, france & italy have lots of toll roads. personally, i didn't find italian driving bad at all. just the tolls were terrible. but i was only on the highway, and in north-western italy, near france & switzerland.

since bagage space would be less of a problem, you might think about camping. camping is bad for backpackers, because it's a pain to carry camping equipment, & campsites are outside of towns. but, with a car, it isn't so bad.

if you have any specific questions, perhaps i can answer.

- d

[Marie]

thanks, i'm still really nervous since me and the stickshift don't seem to get along so well!

I also heard that an italian mayor once said that street lights are just so that people will look around:
if the light is green = go
if the light is yellow = definetly go
if the light is red = look to see if anyone is there, if not GO!!

[Kim]

I would avoid driving in Naples if you can, I have never in my life seen driving like that!

We had to take a taxi at one point there and I pretty much kept my eyes closed and white knuckled it the whole way!

[me]

this is an old topic. i just hadn't read it.

you can often rent an automatic transmission, Marie. just tell them ahead of time that you *must* have an automatic.

went to spain 3 years ago con mis padres. when we picked up the rent car, they said "sorry, no automatic." my mom, who won't drive a stick anymore, howled and showed the rental contract which specified *automatic.* the folks there grumbled but produced an automatic that was a class larger.

the irony, my mom never drove that car on the whole trip. but, we got a bigger car out of it!