At 07:30 I started the long drive South along the East coast
road, which was fairly boring to start and it got more boring. Lots of
small towns, traffic lights, traffic, suicidal mopeds and pedestrians,
and speed limits. The plan was to
go 80 miles further, to Termoli before crossing to the West coast but, by
Giulianova, I'd had enough. I headed for the hills, through Teramo, and
L'Aquila, and loads of scenery, to Avezzano. Italy has a real problem with
road signs, or rather with the lack of them. I drove through Avezzano, without
seeing any signs at all, and came out of it pointing North, which
definitely wasn't the
plan. A quick, and probably illegal U-turn, for another try. This time I
came out pointing South, which was an improvement, but still no roadsigns
to anywhere. I gave up, and asked a man at a filling station the way to
Sora. "Continue along this road" he said "and at the third roundabout, turn
right". I continued along the road and, almost immediately, I saw a sign
to "Sora". At the third roundabout there was no further sign so I continued
until it became obvious that the road was going nowhere. I re-traced my
path and, from the other direction, the junction was properly signposted!
I turned left. Approaching headlights forced me to concentrate on the crash
barrier, so I didn't drive off the road, and when I could see again, I could
see a sign "Avezzano" above me. I had accidentally taken an exit from the
road to Sora. Reversing, with a car behind me, was out of the question so
I continued into Avezzano centre, but this time I knew roughly how to get
out. Using main beam makes the signs, above the road and not illuminated,
much easier to see. The road to Sora is about 30 miles long, and single
carriageway all the way. It's terrifying. The locals don't give double
white lines and speed limits even "Government guideline" status. The road,
through Isernia, to Benevento was similar and reasonably signposted but
getting to Avellino was a nightmare: hills, bends, and few signposts, but
I reached Avellino centre where, again, the signs disappeared. Fortunately
the stars had appeared so simply driving South and hoping became a possible
plan. I found the motorway to Salerno, and parked up about 10 miles south.
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