Milan Express

Duomo

Question: what do you do when you rettore walks up to you and asks you drive up and down to Milan in a few days time to help students get a visa for project week. Answer: you say yes and then start to worry.

Why the worry?
First of all, I have never driven a mini van such as the ones the school uses.
Secondly, I have never driven in Italy but have heard horror stories.
Thirdly, even the Italians here looked worried when they heard we were going to have to drive in Milan.

I am the first to admit that Dutch burocracy and planning has gone to far, but I am glad some of it rubbed of on me. I was assured that all information would comemy way in time and there would be no problem in getting to the Bosnian consulate. Now, having grown up watching my parents prepare for trips into the unknown, I decided I was going to trust that. I bought a map of Milan, grabbed the map my roommates had bought me before leaving and sat down to plot my way across the A4 and A51. Thank god I did, because Italian roadsigns are crap. The A51 wasnowhere to be seen until we actually passed the exit. Somehow we managedto get into milan anyway, where a superfriendly taxi driver took us to our destination.

Driving on Italian motorways in the north is actually a very pleasant experience. People are quite patient and very few actually show any aggression, so the drive to Milan went very smoothly. But Milan itself!!! For those of you who have ever driven in Belgium: the Belgians are perfect drivers compared to the avarage Milanese (?)

Lanes, traffic lights, right of way. Nothing matters once rush hour hits the streets. It is every car fot itself and I was actually quite happy to be in a van as people are a bit more intimidated by it. 45 minutes of chaos and we hit the motorway once again where pandemonium continued as you have veer through dozens of lanes to stay en route to Venice. Somehow I managed.

It was a very eventful day and I will not soon forget it!!

Sas

ps. Watch out Holland once I am home!!!
pps. I've changed my settings so anyone can respond now!