I’ve spent today exploring a few North Italian motorways.
The A4 from Venice towards Milan is nice and spacious, but it was much too wet for my taste. It rained on and off for most of the time, and the lateral decorations are mostly urban and industrial in nature. All in all practical but not very inspiring or pleasing to the eye.
The A21 was better in many ways. It was definitely warmer and dryer, with mostly sunshine and very little rain. On the negative side, it is rather narrow, only two lanes, and the lorry drivers seemed very chatty, insisting on driving side by side, thus slowing down both lanes. The lateral decorations were non-descript, mostly cultivated fields. All in all not an unpleasant experience but neither one than remains with you for long.
The last motorway was the A7, which was completely different. It was nice, dry and warm. Still narrow, but the lorry drivers seemed more focused on their own affairs, and definitely less chatty. The best part was the side decorations. I must say, this is one motorway where they had thought about the surroundings, striving to create a complete experience and not just trying to be functional. The motorway curved in and out between small forested mountains, delightfully interspersed with little towns and traversed by small streams. It was a pleasure driving there, and in the end it didn’t matter much that the curves forced us to go slower. Italian traffical creativity at its best. More motorways like the A7 I’d say.
So, if you have plans of spending your summer holidays on the Italian motorways, I can heartily recommend the A7. It was by far the best experience of they day.
Now, I don’t know why anybody would want to spend their holidays on the motorways, but people seem to do it a lot, and who am I to judge.
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