Driving The Kangoo

After driving our big Kangoo in Naples this last weekend and in Rome the past few days I feel like I’m ready to drive anywhere.

From our research there were a lot of advantages to leasing a car. For us it came down to two things:

1. It gives us more flexibility when plans change and can allow us to see things that would take longer to get to with public transportation.
2. It could be about the same price when factoring in that we need to move six people around.

Most of the time the kangoo sits in the garage in our apartment here in Rome but this weekend we took it out to Naples and the Mt Vesuvius region. It did great. That’s good cause it has lots more trips coming up. Below is fast motion driving down Mt Vesuvius. Hey-yo!

Another issue that comes up all the time is parking. What I love here in Rome and even more so in Torre del Greco where we stayed last night are all the courageous ways people park. Sidewalk, no parking zones, opposite way of the street etc it doesn’t matter. If it can fit and can allow traffic to continue then it’s no holds bar.

Now my American ways will quickly judge and say: This is madness! There is no order in any of this! But in America, many of our cities were made after cars so it’s easy to turn up our noses. But in these beautiful cities which were established 1000s of years before cars we need to withhold our judgment.

Also, I’ve read how crazy it is to drive here but after joining in the madness I’ve found that the drivers here are actually very kind. I’ve had people wave me through and seen people stop for elderly crossing the road. It’s actually quite beautiful the way it works.

The other thing I love are the no drive zones. So many parts of the cities we’ve seen ban cars. This makes these cities like Siena, Florence, and parts of Rome super nice.

The thing that bothers me most about the Kangoo is that it has a red license plate. Everyone else has a white one. What’s going on with that? The guy in the garage said it’s because it means I have a Russian plate. Or maybe I misunderstood him. Anyway, I don’t like sticking out more than we already do. (Short sleeves and four kids gives us away immediately).

We will have many more driving adventures these next few weeks but this one we just took to the Deep South of Italy was the one I was dreading the most. Turns out it wasn’t bad at all.