Italian Freeway Puzzles - Part 2

Trip Start Apr 17, 2002
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Trip End May 21, 2002


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Flag of Italy  , Tuscany,
Saturday, April 27, 2002

And so we were on a freeway again.  Our target destination was San Remo and we expected an uneventful drive.  As we approached Genoa, we went through dozens and dozens of short tunnels which took the boredom out of the driving.  Unfortunately the signage became dense and, unexpectedly, we found ourselves at tollgates.  When I asked the guy in the booth whether we were on the right route to San Remo he clutched his head and gesticulated that we must go towards the city, do a U-turn somewhere and come back through the same tollgate in the other direction.
Easier said than done.  Unlike in some other countries, in Italy, if you exit a freeway too early there is no easy way to get back on it.  We had no choice but to drive towards the centre of Genoa hoping for some escape before we hit a Naples-like traffic hell.  I was swearing that if we collected another scratch on the car we were going straight back to Munich!  I must say though that the special, elevated road that was taking us to the centre was very spectacular and offered great views of the city which, similarly to Naples, sits pretty in a picturesque bay.
As soon as we could we turned off the main road, took a couple more turns at random and to our disbelief found ourselves at a sign pointing back to the freeway!
Entering the San Remo freeway we picked up a couple of Czech girls hitch-hiking to Spain.  They seemed to be quite frustrated after a long, fruitless wait with a Ventimiglia (a border town between Italy and France) sign in their hands.  A car going to San Remo was a Godsend for them.
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