One anxiety regarding the UK to Florence road trip was toll booths. The French and Italian ones being on the left. Not a problem with a passenger in a right-hand-drive old Range Rover. But this was a solo trip.
You can get a little box for the windscreen and glide through the automatic télépéage lanes. Nice ping. Queues bypassed. Charges taken automatically. But a single scheme covering both France and Italy seemed to need a European bank account. And my banking arrangements are boringly domestic.
Shouldn’t have worried. You just get out and walk round… as captured in this pic taken at a French péage approaching the Alps.
One Italian booth refused my cards. I fed it cash. Another didn’t sense me because I’d stopped too far back. Pressed a button. All was well.
On the few occasions people queued behind me, I gave them a glance and an apologetic wave. They didn’t mind. One shrugged.. another smiled and waved back.
Once you see someone doing their best, it would be a bit much – even for an Italian – to lean on the horn.
Andrew Greenhalgh 