RULES FOR THE DRIVE ALONG THE AMALFI COAST

As submitted by a writer to a forum about Italy.......

1. Don't look down.

2. Don't look up.

3. Don't look—it's easier that way.

4. Forget about camels not passing through the eye of a needle.

5. Timidity will get you nowhere—literally.

6. The solid center line in the middle of the road is merely a suggestion.

7. Whoever gets to a lane first has the right of way—it doesn't matter whose side the lane is on.

8. Traffic mirrors are put there so that you can see what you are about to hit head-on.

9. Tour buses will back up. (This one is true; they don't want a fender bender that will upset the itinerary of all their passengers.)

10. Garbage trucks won't back up.

11. Motorcyclists are fearless.

12. Pedestrians are fearlesser.

13. Five headlights coming toward you equal two cars plus one motorcycle, or one car plus three motorcycles, or five motorcycles—all equally probable.

14. The probability of an accident is very low; at 40 mph around a hairpin curve 1,000 feet above the sea everyone pays attention. (Same is true for the Autostrada: at 130 mph, nobody's attention wanders.)

15. Have plenty of limoncello on hand at the end of a day spent driving the coast.

Rosenatti, another writer on the same forum, added the following coda:

"If the large, orderly group of people approaching your car from the opposite direction looks like a marching band, this is because it is a marching band. No, it will not turn around."

Positano and the Amalfi Coast road.............