I have been positively biased about Italy since my very first visit here, when I was 16. Twenty years ago everything was wow. Twenty years later, after many Italian acquaintances, some Italian language knowledge and more maturity, it is f***ing super incredible wow. In many ways it feels like home, but with more elegance, more class, and more protocols. Like Greeks with more procedures and rituals, or like messy and totally relaxed emotional northern Europeans. Not bad at all.
We now pass Napoli on the way to the south. This is the theoretical border of order vs chaos. Let’s see how everything is in the south; what Italians call ‘like Greece’. All we noticed for now is that people drive as if they are drunk (17:00). Hmm.
Update the day after:
It is a miracle we are still alive. Driving conditions here are not as bad as in India (this is a whole different universe), but the closest to India I have seen and definitely the European equivalent. Sometimes it is so scary and funny at the same time, that I cannot react on time and make photos. We have cars literally driving opposite to the rest of the cars, with the driver relaxed on the phone. No one uses an indicator. Cars simply stop in front of you when they feel like it. Like a computer game! God of campers keep us safe!