Sardinia. Island in Mediterranean Sea, off the west coast of Italy. A place of many contrasts. One moment you are surrounded by tall rocky mountains, another you sit under a palm on sandy beach with azure ocean in front of you and then you find yourself, in what looks like savanna in the middle of Tanzania (minus giraffes and elephants 😆 ).
My first visit to the island in 2014, wasn't most spectacular one, let's be honest. Yes, we did have a good time on the beach. Yes, I have eaten so much seafood that I couldn't see shrimps for the rest of the year. And yes, I did enjoy the moments of doing nothing too. But...
Something was missing. Some sense of ... Adventure! The feel of discovering and exploring!
So this year we agreed (me and my wife), that we try something different. We will drive there and finally see more of the island. Yeah, and also there is some pandemic running around so flying is not the safest option this days ....
Let's go !
If you want to skip our story and looking just for useful information about roads and country search for 💁 emoji.
Journey begins
A few days before departure, I received SMS that our ferry is postponed for a few hours. Where others see a problem, my wife sees opportunity: "We can visit Venice then!" she said. So we did!
We woke up early morning around 3am. Our plan was to leave the house at least at 5am to avoid rush hour traffic in Bratislava, Slovakia capital city and on the border crossing. Because traffic was really good we manage to avoid also traffic in Wien and after a short drive, we started to climb to the alps on A2 toward Graz.
At the very moment the hills opened and give up the view, we found ourself surrounded by beautiful hillsides, full of fields, meadows, farms, pine forests and rivers.
(During one stop I brought out my 70-200 and take few pics)
But still long drive ahead so we did only a few stops for food, coffee and continue towards the border crossing and Tarvisio in Italy.
💁
- Austria has a good network of highways called Autobahns - Autobahn of Austria
- You need to have tool sticker called Vignette, which you can buy at petrol stations or online - shop.asfinag.at/en
- Gas stations and service stations are well equipped. You will find easy quite nice and clean toilets, coffee and vending machines, but also restaurants and overnight hotels directly on highways
- There is a speed limit of 130 km/h, but be aware of any additional speed limits, because Austrian police is quite strict in this case and penalties are high. Also, they will send you ticket home, even outside of Austria !
Where the rivers of rocks flows
After crossing border to Italy, not much has changed. But it actually did ...
The mountains seem to be closer and they were spectacular. And between them, we could see amazing mountain villages, churches build on hills, world war fortresses carved into a mountain, waterfalls running near tunnel portals and big rivers full of .... Rocks. Ok, ok. It was mid of summer and even here in the mountains you could understand the feeling of grilled chicken, so there was not much water coming from mountains. But even that small amount of the water, flowing down, looked amazing.
(A quick picture from a gas station on the boarder crossing)
And one more thing changed. Tunnels. A lot of them. Some of them short and some of them really long. If you live in a flat area (like we do) this might catch you off guard. But the drive through them was good, multiple lines and no unnecessary low speed limit, with good tarmac.
Shortly after crossing border, we hit a first toll gate. Yes, Italian highways (called Autostrada) are using toll gates, but to enter, is fast and simple. The big downside is, that they are very expensive.
Our trip from Tarvisio to Florence cost us around 40 euro and the trip back from Pisa to Tarvisio was 45 euro.
You can calculate tools in advance on the official page of Autostrade per L'Italia www.autostrade.it, so you will be prepared.
Just for comparison, here is the annual cost of highways in some other EU countries:
After getting our first toll ticket, we started our descent towards flat land, around the city of Udine.
Just before we exit mountains, we thought that it's a good time to stop and make a small picnic on the rocky river bank in the shadow of still very tall mountains. But, that meant to exit the highway...
Because I did some "research", I knew which gate to avoid (unless you do have the device, avoid Telepass marked gates) so I did what was best and went for gate where all non Italian cars went.
And here comes my first awkward moment in Italy.
Car in front of us had troubles to pay, and I might add that I am patient and reasonable man, but after 10 minutes waiting I decided to back up and go to another gate. That didn't really meet with understanding of drivers which appear behind me (for ten minutes I was only car there and in the moment I change to reverse gear, all of the cars appeared and aim for same gate), but at the end they had to do the same.
So new gate new chance right? You might be wrong. Our plan was of course to pay with the credit card. That's why we argue for a bit, about which gate to go now, until we choose one with Visa markings. There was a small problem.
I couldn't find a place to insert the card. Who would thought that same hole for toll ticket is for your credit card too? Well, I didn't and neither anyone else in my car. With fear of causing more delay for others, I robbed my son of his pocket money (only person in car with cash) and after picking change run away from there.
(Just quick snapshot during small picnic)
Madness, this is madness...
I tend to complain about driving to Budapest on highway from Austria, because of amount of traffic,and especially the trucks. But here, I entered the next level. There was a truck everywhere. Trucks and more trucks. During the day, but even at night there was still such high number of trucks driving, which I didn't see anywhere else so far.
Since the locals and the trucks don't obey speed limits very often, that didn't slow us much down. It was already midday, but traffic was still quite fluid. We end up only in one big traffic jam, which cost us around 30 minute delay. But lucky for cars, left lane was still kinda moving. I couldn't say same about the rest of the lanes which were full of trucks (and of course caravans), basically in standstill traffic. Otherwise the tarmac was good, without much cracks and bumps and traffic kept moving without delays.
We made a few stops to take a break, get some snack and drink coffee. And I must say, coffee, even from coffee machines, is pretty tasty in Italy. Gas stations and service stations were often enough and well equipped. Toilets, sitting areas, parking, restaurants or at least some vending machines, bins for trash were everywhere. But if you are hungry, don't count on gas stations. In Italy most of them was with automatic payment with no staff at all, or with some staff providing very limited service and goods.
After we reached Venice, we left highway once again and headed for the center. Getting there is pretty straight forward, but again. Some road works and constructions going on in the city can mix up traffic well. There is enough parking spots and garages, only depend how close you want to park. Prices of parking vary (closer you park, more expensive it gets). Some spots have hour rate, but some only daily rate. Be aware that not all of them are open nonstop and some garages close for night, so check opening hours before you park. We spend the evening in the city and after dark, resumed our journey to port in Livorno.
(After Venice, I started to like Fish Eye lens more and more - Sigma 10mm 2.8)
Since it was after 10 pm when we left Venice, we started to consider to just drive for hour or two more, find overnight hotel and finish the rest of the trip early in the morning. But finding information about motels, or overnight hotels directly on highway online, proved to be impossible. So we tried to find hotel near highway on www.booking.com. Unfortunately, nothing was available in good driving distance, or was expensive and since was close to midnight we had to filter out all options without late or 24h check-in.
"We sleep in car!"
The decision was made and around 1 am, we stoped on a quite big parking to sleep for few hours.
As I mentioned, service and gas stations are well equipped in Italy and quite big. But not big enough...
With such amount of truck on the roads, it was hard to find space to park, especially at night. Areas designated for trucks and busses were full, so trucks had to park in car spaces. Forget about parking in a nice spot, between two lines. Just find a place without blocking access roads and you are good to go. And stations can be really noisy, too. Some trucks just came, some just preparing to leave and some just had to idle engine to keep air-condition and electricity running.
I mean, I understand it. Trucks are important to move goods around countries and life of the driver is not exactly romantic one, but if you are not used to for things like this and you never slept in your car, this might not be the best time to try this. So plan your drive and sleep ahead if you need.
Why not just dig it all the way through?
After few hour sleep, we passed the city of Bologna and before sunrise, headed for the mountains on A1 towards Florence. As the sunrise came, my passengers woke up as well. "Oh, it's still night?", was first question. Nope. Just long, long tunnel. And then, another. And another. And many more. If tunnels in the alps was often, then here, road builders stepped up their game and build countless tunnels across not so big stretch of mountains. They could just dig up one long tunnel straight and skip the climb at all.
But on moments we were out of tunnels, we could again enjoy beautiful scenery of mountains covered in the rising sunlight.
We left the highway in small city of Barberino di Mugello (this time with knowledge how to pay tolls), to get some fuel and maybe breakfast. And we find one small problem.
I mentioned before that gas stations are, often enough, but if you are planning to use Routex card like I did, check first where are the stations which accept it on your way and plan your stops in advanced. In Italy only network of Eni stations accepts Routex cards and on stretch of road between Bologna and Florence there isn't any located on highway. Luckily for us, there was one off the highway in Barberino.
And since there was McDonald in the city as well, why not to take breakfast too. Except... in Italy, opening hours can be very different. Many shops and restaurants are not opened before 9 or 10 am.
So we broke into our car fridge again and enjoyed coffee and quick smoke with stunning view of sunrise over the lake Lago di Bilancino.
(All toll gates joining to one lane and drivers without the concept of zipping or patient)
After arriving to Florence and exiting highway, we continued on SGC Firenze - Pisa - Livorno motorway to our final destinations - Livorno port. Which was pretty standard drive with not much to see. You can't see much of the historic Florence from this road and only interesting part is short hill climb after Florence. But there was a road works too.
After arriving in Livorno, we had high hopes for McDonald again, but you could guess it, was closed too.
Luckily we found small takeaway restaurant - Chalet 3.0, near a port which had some amazing panini with prosciutto just before entering port
....
Story and information about the next part of our trip to the island (and my favorite one), you will find in Part 2 (comming soon)....
💁
- Italy have a good network of highways called Autostrada -
- There is speed limit 130 km/h and on many sections measured electronically (speed traps or section measuring)
- Tunnels have often speed limit of 110 km/h
- They are all with payment using toll gates
- Avoid gates marked Telepass unless you have a device.
- Some boots are automated, some with staff (look for markings on top), but not on every exit
- When entering highway simply drive to gate and take a ticket. They are printed automatically as you approach
- You can pay by cash (paper or coins) or with a card. Look for markings on top of the gate to see which accept cards
- The same hole where you enter ticket servers for credit cards.
- You can switch the language to English on display if you need.
- You can calculate tools in advance on the official page of Autostrade per L'Italia www.autostrade.it.
- Drivers often driven a bit reckless without obeying the speed limit or using turn signal lights
- Trucks pass each other a lot and in most inappropriate place
- You cannot buy cigarettes at gas stations. Look for tobacco vending machines or Autogrill
- Service stations and rest places are often and mostly well equipped with places to sit, fairly clean toilets and restaurants, but they tend to be full of trucks and noisy at night.
- Only Eni stations accept Routex fuel cards
- Is very hard to find motels on the way. Book your night in advance if you don't want to sleep in the car.
- Coffee on stops is very tasty. Even from machine.
- Price of fuel is quite high.
- There is enough parking slots and garages, if you plan sightseeing in cities.
- Many are not open overnight and can close quite early.
- Price for day is around 20 to 30 euro (depend on city).
- Some offers hourly rate, some just daily.
Let's talk numbers
Our trip was 1300 km, including trip to Venice and few small trips off the highway.
With and average consumption of my car (according the onboard computer) of 5 liters per 100 km and prices in Slovakia and Italy, the cost of fuel was 110 euro.
Prices for highways was:
- Austria - 10 days vignetta - 9.60 euro
- Italy - Tarvisio to Florence - 40 euro
- (In Slovakia I have and annual toll ticket so I am not counting this since we live near Austria borders)
I drank five RedBulls on this two day drive so I am adding 7 euro to expenses 😁.
So a total of 170 euro (give or take) wasn't that bad and still cheaper (now might also be safer) than a plane.
But....longer.
We left on Tuesday at 5 am from Slovakia and arrived in Venice just short before 5 pm.
Venice we left around 10:30 pm (still Tuesday and arrived to Livorno port at 10 am in Wednesday, including around 4 hour stop to sleep before Bologna.
I don't want to drive so long
Overall the road was not bad and mainly because of the scenery and constantly changing country I did enjoy the drive. But I also like and I am used to long distance driving.
But if you are not like me and you don't like long distance and hours spent behind the wheel, or you are not planning taking a road trip and do some sightseeing, here is alternative to driving.
You can find, usually overnight, train with car and motorcycle carriage. For us the nearest possibility was to take OBB Nightjet from Wien to Livorno - www.nightjet.com
You can book your ticket tickets.oebb.at (took me a bit to figure it out).
Base ticket for my car (Skoda Octavia) is around 150 euro. Smaller cars cost less, but bigger more.
Addition feel is for your seats or cabin. For me, my wife, our 9 year old son and Maltese dog, price would 300 euro for private cabin. It's almost 13 hour ride in the train, so I wouldn't recommend taking seats.
It's more expensive than just drive there, but if you also count effort of driving and possibly overnight hotels, it is worth.
No comments:
Post a Comment