The Adventures of a Rally Roadie

It’s autostrada (superhighway) all the way to Genoa. And after we get out of the Milan metro area, the speed really picks up to 130 kph (81 mph) and the little Fiat 500L diesel doesn’t have any issues keeping up with the occasional BMW or Alpha Romeo Stelvio. I’m impressed.

We’re actually on our way to Rapallo for the night but we want to stop in Genoa, home of the celebrated (and reviled) Christopher Columbus to wander about the Old Town. In about an hour and a half we’re in Genoa with the GPS leading us around the tiny back streets as though it’s just fooling with us. We haven’t found the Old Town yet but we have found the seaside and a small restaurant to grab a lunch.

Lunch done, we’re back on the search for the Old Town and somewhere to park. At the top of a hill, we find an underground parking garage that we can get into and park the car. Back up to the street and start back down the hill to where we think that Old Town starts. It turns outs that we have guessed correctly and at the bottom of the hill is the start of the ridiculously narrow, hilly and winding streets.

We wander about. Get our first gelato. Take some photos. Follow the signs to some important sites, ie. the Duke’s palace. But we have to get going. We are supposed to be in Rapallo by 6PM meeting with the owner of the yurt that we are staying in for the next 2 nights. Back on the road again.

While we’re fighting traffic to get out of Genoa during rush hour, we get a call on my mobile from the yurt owner. She wants to know when we are going to arrive. I tell her that we are close, maybe 15 or 20 minutes. Back to 130 kph.

In order to get to Rapallo, you had to take a toll autostrada and that requires that you stop for a toll ticket that you will hand in to determine how much you owe for your drive on the autostrada. I apparently pull up to the wrong lane that should be giving tickets when you stop but the ticket dispenser isn’t working. I should back out and go to another lane but I don’t want to even try to backup in the traffic so I go forward and stop on the side of the road.

There’s another car stopped in front of me. A young Swiss couple that has done the same thing. The wife tells me that her husband is trying to find someone to solve the “missing toll” ticket problem. Just as I turn to go back to see if I can find a way to get a ticket, I meet up with the Swiss man who tells me that he hasn’t had any luck.

We go back and try again. There is the lane next to a building off to the side that neither of us saw when we drove up that actually does dispense tickets. But it won’t work without a car in front of the dispenser. (Probably an anti-vandalism safeguard.) We finally give up and head on our separate ways. “Hi, I’m Paul. Hello, I’m David.” We shake hands with a “shit happens” a smile and go our separate ways, both of us hoping that we don’t get charged the maximum toll for having no toll ticket.

We’ve told the woman who own’s the yurt that we would be there “in 15, maybe 20 minutes” but the toll ticket caper has blown that out of the water. We just push on through the excellent mountain scenery punctuated by a tunnel every half kilometer or so. (I have never seen some many tunnels and high viaduct-type bridges.)

In about 20 kms, we get off the autostrada and pull up to a toll gate that has a human being in the kiosk. (These autostrada toll stations are very automated, often without any humans, anywhere. See previous paragraphs.) I pull up to the kiosk window and as I give him a credit card but no ticket, I tell the man that we have no ticket because when we got on the autostrada outside of Genoa, we were in the wrong lane to get a ticket.

Surprisingly, he just nods and motions to wait. This is obviously a common issue, especially with foreigners. He disappears for a moment and then returns, swipes my credit card and hands me back the credit card and says “arrivederci”. He doesn’t give me a receipt so I don’t know what I was just charged but that charge will just get lost with the other speeding, parking and other unknown fines on my Visa statement.

Whatever. On to meet the woman with the yurt which is just up a very steep, very twisty, very narrow road that starts right next to the toll station. Off to the yurt.

Obi-wan