In the morning we took an epic walk to find out why my Italian sim wasn't working. Turns out, as we thought it is because Iphones SUCK when you are overseas.

We almost ran back to the hotel to check out then dragged ourselves and our luggage to the car hire company.

We have a little Ford Focus (called a fusion). It's manual with the gears on the right hand side and only i can drive coz Q couldn't his physical licence before we left.

I shoehorned it onto the road and the first hour was a white knuckled struggle to not hit scooters that seem to pop into existence right next to you on the left (passanger side here) and cut in front of you when you are trying not to stall or drive off the cliff where there is a couple of hundred foot drop. I also had to avoid being hit by oncoming traffic who were on the wrong side of the road, including massive buses. Yikes. Q was my navigator and was very calm and patient while I drove round blind corners on the cliffs and avoided random traffic disaster areas along the coast.

Turns out i made a booboo (again) and booked our hotel in Tuscania - not Tuscany (or Tuscano). That meant we had a little divert but in a way was a blessing as after 5 hours of driving I was losing my mind.

Q liked to tease me about Autogrill which are the roadhouse style 'eateries' and over priced 'convenience' stores dotted along the auto strade. Its hard to pull over at the last second when you are doing 120-130 k's in the slow lane!

Tuscania was out in the coutryside and had a walled city and was very quaint. It was a nice mistake as we got to see some beautiful scenery including walled cities perched on top of hills and lots of wildflowers.

The downside is we miss florence and Venice is still 6 hours away. It is going to take longer in general than we planned to drive places so we wont get to do sightseeing and sleep in the next 2 days anyway. Now we will focus on getting their safely and not damaging the car and paying $1300 excess! Seeing how damaged all the other cars on the road are is daunting. Seeing the way people drive is downright terrifying!