Italian Driving Culture

• Posted by: Editor
• On: 16/05/2008 09:19:45
• In: Italy Car Hire

Tips to remember about Italian driving culture:
The first thing to remember is that in Italy, like the rest of the continent, you will be driving on the Right. This can be a little strange for people coming from the UK or Ireland but you will find you get used to it very fast. What you really have to watch out for is when you are taking off, after you have been stopped, you may find yourself automatically positioning yourself on the left! Be wary of this and always remember you are in another country so pull out and drive on the right.

While most of the time you may be driving on single lane roads, the roads between major cities are usually multi-lane highways. Remember to always stay on the right-most lane and only use the Left (Fast) Lane for overtaking. This is a mistake many from North America make where all lanes in a road are of equal importance and all lanes can be equally full.

One thing about driving culture that can be misunderstood. In the UK and Ireland, flashing your lights at someone usually means "Go ahead", in order to let them out of a junction or similar. Flashing lights in Italy means "Please get out of the way", so if you are in the fast lane, pull into the slow lane and let the faster driver pass.

Italian drivers will usually have no problem driving very close to the person in front of them. This may freak-out drivers from Northern Europe and North America, but don’t panic, this is normal behaviour and if you don’t do anything erratic and you should be fine.

Also bear in mind, that the locals may expect the same from other drivers, so on a busy road you will be expected to drive as close as possible to the car in front of you, and if you don’t someone will fill the space for you, again don’t panic if someone cuts you off, its situation normal in Italy.

Hopefully this brief introduction into Italian Driving Culture will aid you on your trip to this wonderful country. If you have decided that driving around Italy is what you want to do then why not have a look at our car rental Italy options? For more about driving in Italy why not check out our other car rental Italy blogs and make your holiday to Italy an even more unforgettable one.

If you still have some unanswered questions please ask us and we will do our best to answer them?