And, we are off.  Our final day in Bella Italia – spent cleaning/organizing the apartment, making sure we have the keys with us to get out the gate when we are loading the car, then Ed guarding said gate, keeping it open, until I return from the apartment after depositing the keys. Finally on the road – we easily make it to the gas station we had scoped out, only to find it is closed, meaning no personnel, but the pumps still work.  The challenge here is that when these stations are closed, our credit card won’t work – it is either rejected flat out or we need a PIN, which we don’t have – so it is cash only – and no change returned.  Ay Yi Yi.  Fortunately we have 40 Euros in small bills, and mange to get almost full.  We’ve got a 2 + hour drive, so know we will need to get more gas, but at least we have the bulk of it at a decent price here in Caserta. 

From the station, it is a quick couple of blocks to the A1 and we are Autostrada all the way.  And oh, what a ride!  These drivers are crazy.  And we mean crazy!!!  They are either whipping past in the left lane, or driving super slow in any lane.  There is no in between.  And oh God, when they pass?  They merge in front of you so close, inches to spare.  Nuts. 

And then let’s talk about the motorcycles shall we?  As we are tootling along the A1, at about 130kph, here comes this motorcycle past us – in the right lane – at easily 200kph (or 150 mph)!  I mean – scary, nuts, crazy. Oh, and then here come his buddies. Obviously a big group, pulling wheelies at 130kph.  We kid you not.  Then they slow down, waiting for some others in their group, and take up the right and center lane, slowing everyone down, and not caring one little bit about it. Nuts.  Of course, once they are all together they take off like bats out of hell and we are left with just the Audi Assholes speeding past and merging closely.  Really stressful driving!

We’ve got time to burn though – so we aren’t going quite as fast and also decide to stop for a cappuccino.  Unfortunately the first Servizio is jam packed – there isn’t a parking spot to be had.  Wow.  So, we’ll wait until later.  Later comes, and this place is jam packed as well – but we do find a space – only to see that we have caught up with the crazy motorcycle gang!  And they are all old!  At least older than we expected, as in 40’s and 50’s.  We figured they’d be young kids, driving the way they did.  What can we say?

Inside the grill and shop area, it is wall to wall people.  No way we are getting cappuccino here, we’re lucky enough just to get into the bathroom, which surprisingly enough was not busy at all.  Back out in the shop though, a steady stream of people are coming in and heading to the bathroom – TIE – we’re outta here!  Heading to the car we see a couple of buses have pulled in – yep, perfect timing.  

Back on the road we hit massive traffic – of course – around Rome.  These Italian traffic jams are wearing on our nerves.  It’s all about merging and how they don’t do it well.  Actually, they DO do it well (meaning they get ahead of you by waiting to the last second and blasting their way in).

Finally to the airport, we deposit the car, get checked out – all is well. And our Italy Loop drive is done!  1872 kilometers total.  From Autostradas to little more than dirt roads to narrow mountain roads to teeny, tiny old Civita lanes.  Ed has won his Italian racecar driver’s badge honestly!

Car done, bags in hand, we hoof it through the long corridors to Terminal 3, where we have an even longer walk all the way down to the end of the terminal for our United Check in.  Hey – it’s our exercise as we’ve not had any today.

Check in was a breeze, security just as easy, passport control all electronic and self-kiosks.  Easy peasy.  Straight to the lounge we go, where we spend a nice 2 hours munching on salad (yum – so needed!), soup and antipasto for Ed and olives, tomatoes and a few slices of salami for me. Oh, and beer and wine of course!  Ed deserves it after successfully completing the last leg of our Italia driving loop – and all the other segments quite frankly!

Boarding time arrives, and we are at the gate and 2^nd in line for our boarding group.  We get on pretty easily (a bit of a clog on the jet way when we were all lined up and people coming down the escalator with no where to go), then sat at the gate for a while due to “congestion” in the airport. Finally on the runway and off about 30 minutes late, which the captain says we’ll make up flying – and we’re close to the end of our Trans-Atlantic/European/Italian driving adventure.  And he does. Our connection to CLT is seamless and we are flying South with no stress (so much better than our last trip home in February!). Can’t believe we are heading home already – seems like just yesterday we were driving toward Florida.  Time do fly.