Goodbye Little Smart Car - Pisa, Italy
Becky| November 8, 2006 4:45 pm
We rented a car for our time with La Mia Toscana. It was easier and allowed us access to some of the hill towns in Tuscany, plus it allowed us to feel like normal U.S. tourists if only for a short amount of time. The cars in Europe are smaller, probably because of gas prices, and our rental was no exception. It was a 4 door Smart car. The make 2 door Smart cars but they are super small and I doubt that our luggage would have actually fit in it. It was fun to actually be in a car after not riding in one for over 2 months. We got an automatic, but it was a weirdo automatic. It had a stick shift just like a manual but the stick shift kind of reminded me of something that belonged in a video arcade because you could also operate it like a manual transmission with out the clutch. The stick did not actually “shift”, it just “toggled” it to the left and that changed gears between automatic or the manual levels 1-4. There was a LCD display on the dash that told you what gear the car was
in. I told Chris he had full car driving responsibility, as I was nervous about driving in a foreign country, and he did really well after getting his bearings with the dimensions of the car, turning radius etc. He actually drove the car more in the manual gears because he was able to shift it smoother than the car was actually trying to do itself. He even navigated multiple roundabouts without killing anyone or damaging any property. I was so proud of him. It barely used any gas and was quite a treat. All in all definately the way to see Tuscany.
6 Responses to “Goodbye Little Smart Car - Pisa, Italy”
Very smart getting the car (even though trains are cheap there). Make sure you visit the west coast, Livorono, etc.
The car was great, Ryan. We only had it for 4 days and we drove through the country side. That was enough for me. I would not want to drive in a city with those crazy Italian drivers. It was shocking, but that car fit my 6′2″ frame very well.
I guess you guys haven’t made it to the southern part of Italy yet? I think by ‘don’t miss the west coast’ I meant the Amalfi Coast near Naples which isn’t exactly near to Pisa. We intend on making our way over there in the next month or two.
btw, found out today that I passed the NY Bar exam. So I’ll be heading toward the Land of the Free and the leader in the war of terror in January
Hey Ryan,
We actually just got back from Amalfi coast and it was wonderful. You and Natasha will love it. So stunning the views. I will get the blog up about it as soon as I can. Hope all is well and congrats on the bar. So you are moving to the Big Apple?
Becky
I believe the type of car you drove is a semi-automatic, anyway I glad you made it, Italians drive like crazy!
Hey peeps,
Hope the jaunt is going well. I heard back from the guy who found our camera. He recounted the following story:
My wife and I arrived at Campo de Fiori, she wanting to go through a
material shop. The store was closed. We got a bite to eat and went to
sit on the fountain, enjoy our food and wait for the shop to open. We
arrived at the fountain and immediately saw the camera bag. I left it
there thinking I would just keep an eye on it. 20 minutes passed. My
wife’s store opened. I told my wife the camera was going to get
ripped-off. So I picked up the camera, told her to go shopping and I
would stay there waiting for the owners to return. She came back 30
minutes later. We left with the camera. She asked if there was any
name with the camera. I told her no, but we had pictures of the owners.
She wished me luck as I began my search. Great pictures of a
good-looking couple in Rome on the first memory card, but no real clues.
Put in the second memory card. First clue-picture of a lady beside a
world championship triathlon poster in Japan. She’s a triathlete.
Second clue-She’s in a Canadian uniform with towel covering part of her
name, but it looks like _ollinson. Called my brother in the States had
him Google “Canada Triathlon”. He came up with a coaches name and phone
number. My brother called the coach and the coach confirmed your name.
I got home late Sunday. Googled your name, got to your webpage and you
know the rest of the story.
Keep up the blogs!
Mikesha
“using names like the celebs is the closest we will come to fame”
Ayesha and Mike,
I am so happy that the camera man does not sound like a complete freak. Thanks for filling us in on the story. Hope all is well, and I’ll get the Amalfi blogs up soon.
Hugs
Becky
Hey guys - no way I’m going to NYC, that was the decisiona couple yeras back - move there or move to London. Big Apple too small or us now, and not close enough to 40 other countries
Good job on the Florence photos, we didnt’ manage to get one with just us next to the David, but I think you guys are going in a less vacationy time. We also missed th eInternet (on our 4 day trip) and the cheap Florence cafes were very useful.
Care to comment?