When we first arrived in Sicily I was expecting the driving to be a little crazy. Italian friends had warned us about Sicilian drivers. People had mentioned it in blogs. One YouTuber had talked a little bit about driving in Palermo. But I’d grown up around Boston. Driving is aggressive there and I’d driven in busy cities around the world. How bad could it be?
Pretty bad!
The only common rule? Don’t pay attention to any signs telling you what to do. Seriously. Because if you do follow the rules or do any sort of defensive driving you are treated to a chorus of furious horns aimed up your a**. It’s a real culture shock.
Driving in Palermo is the Worst
To give you an idea, on our first morning of driving in Palermo, we had a mother (with two young kids in the backseat of her ancient Fiat Uno not wearing any seatbelts) take a left turn in front of us. Then, as I slammed on the brakes and raised my hands in exasperation, she defiantly flipped me off and screeched something at me through the open passenger side window. Wait, what?
Another kilometer down the road we were treated to Grandpa doing a full speed u-turn in the middle of two way traffic. He had his dilapidated Fiat up on its two bicycle wheels and was holding onto the steering wheel for dear life as he started coming our way. His wife in the passenger seat actually seemed bored with it all as traffic screeched to a halt. Horns were blaring, two crusty Vespas swerved off of the road. I laughed out loud.
Thirty seconds later Grandma in a decrepit 40 year old Fiat Panda completely ignored a stop sign and forced us to slam on the brakes again as she jammed herself into the frothing traffic ahead of us. That was not as funny.
But this, my friends, is typical Sicilian city traffic.
To make matters worse — yes it actually gets worse — at many intersections the street lights (Sicilians actually do pay attention to some of these) have simply been turned off. Why? Probably because nobody ever paid attention to them in the first place. Don’t waste the juice.
This, however, effectively turns them into chaotic, white knuckled, free for alls. And if you show any weakness you will never pass. Ever.
Additionally, lack of aggressiveness is rewarded with a flurry of horns up your a**. So you have to nose in and aggressively work your way through all of the cross traffic. It can be a little edgy to say the least.
The Highway Incident
Then there was yesterday afternoon. Driving on the Autostrade outside of Palermo we got stuck behind another 40 year old Fiat Panda (this island must be where they all go to die because they are everywhere) in the passing lane. The guy behind me was absolutely furious and riding my bumper. He was so close that if I’d have just taken my foot off of the gas he’d have crashed into my trailer hitch.
Finally, after several minutes of this and dozens of cars stacking up behind us the guy in the Fiat pulled over uncorking the logjam.
I increased my speed to get past the Fiat and into the righthand lane (going 130 in a 100 km/h zone) but apparently I didn’t do it fast enough because the guy behind me laid on the horn for not pulling over sooner or going fast enough or who knows what else. It’s Sicily. But that really pissed me off, so as he went to pass me I flipped him off.
What Not to Do
I think that might have been the wrong thing to do because, as the 40 year old guy in the double-breasted Gucci suit pulled up along side me, he noticed my extended digit. That actually got him to slow down and he rolled down his window and started screaming at me in raucous Italian. It was kind of funny at first, so I flipped him off a second time. This time with more gusto. That’s when he pulled in front of us, swerved into our lane and forced me to slam on the brakes.
I’m sure our French license plate didn’t help matters, but, note to self and some advice for our readers, don’t flip off the uber-aggressive Sicilian drivers. Not worth it. Plus, you know, reflecting on this moment, the Mafia is still prevalent here. You never know.
The Cops Don’t Care Either
Ten minutes later, we noticed a police car in a sneaky position on the side of the road. Ahah! Finally, the Carabinieri must be looking to nail people at the four way stop intersection right around the corner from where we were staying.
Why? Because nobody stops at it. Ever. I made that mistake once and got an angry horn up my a** from a middle-aged woman in a Mercedes. I mean, people fly through the intersection as if cross traffic didn’t even exist. I’ve never seen anything like it. Is it some form of Sicilian Chicken? Sicilian Roulette? It’s nuts, but as near as I could tell the person closest to the intersection gets first dibs.
And the cops could’ve cared less. They just watched as drivers plowed through the intersection without stopping. It was surreal coming from a place where that would earn you an instant booking. Things came into focus a few minutes later, however, when the cops pulled out of their hiding place and plowed through the four way intersection without stopping either.
Sicily is definitely a special place.
And yet despite all of this? What’s really weird? After two weeks of driving here it doesn’t really bother me anymore. Even after yesterday’s highway incident. There’s actually a flow to all of this chaos and once you get into the rhythm of Sicilian traffic and follow along? It’s fine. They just have their own rules and somehow it all works.
I should add here that driving in the Sicilian countryside is fine. Yes, there is lots of unfinished construction. Some of the roads are in abysmal condition, falling off of hillsides or dangerously cratered and you have to watch out for that because you could easily ruin your car. People pass when they shouldn’t and you have to have your head on a swivel. But? Like I said. Once you get used to it it’s really not that bad.
Also, because the public transportation in Sicily is so lousy you really need to rent a car. Otherwise you’ll miss out on all of the cool things to see and do outside of the island’s major cities like Castelbuono or Petralia Soprana
When you rent your car at the airport just make sure you get the full coverage insurance with zero deductible!
Leave a Reply