image-mask

Reliving My Youth on the Roads of Sicily

Forget Orlando, Skip Disney

Rent a six speed off the floor manual shift car in Palermo, Sicily and drive the highways, byways and side streets of Sicily’s cities, villages, mountains, plains and fields for two weeks.

No minimum height requirements! No long waiting lines! No screaming kids running around to trip you, but you may have a screaming copilot yelling in your ear while gripping your leg with fear! Those who enjoyed Disney’s Space Mountain ride with changing speeds and flashing lights can savor it even more as your pupils adjust from bright Sicilian sunlight to a darkened mountain tunnel while moving and controlling that movement at 80 MPH (130 KPH). Learning how to flip sunglasses quickly can be a big help here.

For those of us born in the World War II + or – years, the driving experience after puberty was a manual transmission of some kind. It was the mechanical age’s reaffirmation of the Lord’s wisdom in providing two legs, two arms, two eyes, two ears and a brain to make them all work together properly, at the right time and with little to no prior notice.

As my first driving instructor, my father, was to point out frequently, the automatic transmission, the point and click mechanism of the era, made it so that anyone could drive as long as he could point the car in the desired direction and decide only whether to move or stop. In fact, if one were satisfied with moving at 8 miles per hour there was no need to even step on the gas! Although, we have all benefited from that simplicity, we have paid the price in the form of atrophied mental and physical skills required when driving. The computer and Artificial Intelligence promise of automated driving will eventually make driving the intellectual equivalent of binge – watching TV soap operas!

While one can always find or rent a manual transmission car in the US to include those fake ones that allow you to select whether full auto or “manual”, the experience is not the same as the proposed (and my actual) Sicily venture. The American scenario is too tame and disciplined, vice the organized but seemingly chaotic Italian scene. Our streets are too wide and perpendicular; the number of American motor cycles, motor bikes, bicycles, scooters and even pedestrians all seeking to occupy the same space at the same time, do not compare; the American views are far less strange and eye diverting; the variability of roads and fellow drivers not so demanding of attention and action!

Sicily has opted to replace traffic lights with traffic circles of all forms and sizes wherever space allows for one whether in the cities, highways, byways or villages. The result is the speedier movement of traffic of all kinds with the trade – offs of continuing convergences, 360-degree awareness, gear shifting and a tactful mix of aggressiveness and courtesy!

Pedestrian crosswalks are essentially virtual: each pedestrian lays it down – virtually of course – wherever and whenever he or she wishes to cross the road. Again, tradeoffs are involved accompanied by the silent battle of wills between driver and walker!

Painted traffic lanes exist throughout, but because of the greater variability of vehicle size and horse power,  lanes tend to become suggestions and tests of squeeze further testing various driving and reaction skills. 

Highway and roadway speed limits were reasonable: from 80 KPH (50MPH) to 130 KPH ( 80 MPH), less on mountain passes and curves, but like the 55 MPH limit on DC’s Capital Beltway the limits were more often than not suggestions. Those of us who are often frustrated by slower drivers in left lanes can be comforted that in Sicily, as in most of Europe, drivers pull over to the right for an overtaking car. The downside is that even when driving over 130 KPH you need to keep an eye toward the rear for an over taking Ferrari or a very aggressive FIAT driver.

Despite the speed limits, the lowest limit may just be a goal when traveling the frequent two-lane rural lanes and mountain roads. One can always seek to pass despite the limited visibility, but for what purpose? Within two miles or less you will encounter another line of trucks, busses and farm vehicles. Patience is acquired and if not savored at least accepted, hopefully retained to join a Mediterranean diet as a path to a longer life.

GPS directions were probably critical to success; however, I was unable to select an alternative to a higher pitched female voice speaking British English, which made timely comprehension sometimes problematic. One important note is that the GPS does not know the width of your car or of what sometimes passes for streets and roads. Therefore, quick reflexes are essential to knowing when you can fit into a directed road or not. I consider myself blessed in that only one time did we get the car halfway down the road before it narrowed – building on both sides – to where we could go no further and had to make a strategic retreat. Have a picture of Gail climbing across the gear shift so that she could exit the driver’s side and help with directing the retreat. That indignity cost me a very nice lunch.  

All things considered the experience appeared both at the time and in reflection to be safe: in ten days of driving saw just two “accidents”. Both involving an agile motorcycle contesting the right of way with larger heavier vehicle: in both cases the law of gross tonnage applied – conquering agility!

Many years ago, when stationed in Rome, I often had the need to travel to Naples – not only to but through – to get to my destination and then repeat the trip in reverse. The “rules of the road” – although informal there were rules – for Naples were and probably are still different from those of Sicily. However, the exhilaration and “high” of a successful transit through Naples 30 years ago were there with my daily drives in Sicily.

Since my Sicily experience, I have had my annual physical.  In addition to the medical processes involved, I was again subject to those inane questions regarding fear of falling, drinking (I lied), memory etc.  This time I was quick to interrupt the Doctor and point out, “Doc, I just came back from driving a six-speed manual transmission for two weeks in Sicily. My reflexes are superb and are those of a man half my age, my hand – eye coordination could not be better, my eyes dilate and recover with great speed and move faster than my head swivels on my shoulders, even my hearing is improving and, Lord, so is my patience.”

– Phil Bozzelli, 20th Company