| cmt |
Feb 4th, 2001 05:27 PM |
Last spring I looked into this, because I knew I needed a way to go from Capo D'Orlando to a little town in the Nebrodi Mts. and back, and at first I thought I wanted to go and return in the same day, which would not be possible by bus. I was given the name and USA tel. # of some car and driver service in Italy, which I called from home. However, they operate only out of major cities. (If I'd been planning to travel between major cities, I wouldn't have needed a car and driver in the first place!) The price would have been outrageous; they would have had to charge me for their time and mileage to get to and from the pickup/drop-off point from THEIR base, which I think was quite far--Messina or Catania. I was told by people who know Sicily (including the hotel I was staying in overnight) that it would be easy to have the hotel find a car and driver for me once I arrived, but I was too anxious to have faith in this assurance, so I made plans to take the public bus and stay overnight in the little town, then take the bus back. As it turns out, things were unbelievably easy. The owner of the agriturismo place where I was going to stay was willing to pick me up, drive me around, take me anywhere, for a small fee, but a distant cousin showed up and gave me a ride to the town instead, and then other cousins appeared to take me on excursions. <BR>Conclusion: If you're going from one major town to another, it's easy enough to take public transportation (bus or train, depending where along north coast train is very easy, elsewhere bus may be the thing) so you don't need a car and driver. But if you're going into the boondocks and will not rent a car, you'll probably need a car and driver, but drivers may be easier to find once you're there. (Or maybe relatives will pop up from somewhere?)
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