Gasoline

With the freedom of now having our own set of wheels with which to travel comes the responsibility and expense of fueling said vehicle. And gas in Italy is not cheap! It's currently anywhere from $7-10/gallon. As I understand it, these coupons allow us to purchase gas tax-free, which can mean we pay nearly 50% less than locals. We are authorized (based on the horsepower of Tony's Honda) to purchase coupons for up to 300 liters each month, which are available at the Exchange for a set price. Apparently the coupons are changed each year so they look different, and we have a grace period to return unused coupons in September and October, but obviously we haven't experienced that yet. The coupons come in a book, and there are coupons for 20L, 10L, and 5L of gas. This is important because the two authorized gas stations, Eni and Agip, can only accept coupons for the exact amount of fuel without going over. So if we buy 28L of gas, we can't turn in a 20L and a 10L coupon; instead, we turn in a 20L and a 5L and pay the difference on the remaining 3L out of pocket. The coupons are a really great perk, but they are only useful in Italy; we can't use them in Germany, for example. I think that's due to host nation agreements with the military. And if we decide to road trip to another country we have to make sure we budget fuel costs accordingly, as well as pay attention to what tolls or vignettes are required to be able to drive in each nation. Thankfully we already have our international driver's licenses! I'm glad we did that in the States before we left, though they're only valid for one year. I'll probably be able to renew mine on one of my work trips back to Florida, so that's a good option if it's difficult to do here or by mail.

I've also noticed the tolls and parking around here can get quite expensive. We just took a day trip to Lake Garda, about 45 minutes away, and payed about 12 Euro in tolls and another 6ish Euro to park for about 3 hours. We're told to expect more tolls if we drive to Venice, and that parking there can cost 20 Euro or more per day. I'm sure cheaper parking is available if you look hard enough, but then we might get stuck paying additional public transportation fees or losing out on a more secure location to leave the car. So, we are going to try to embrace public transit as much as possible! Some friends of ours just spent the long weekend in Cinque Terre, about three hours away. They drove, and paid about 30 Euro in tolls, plus the gas they used up, and it turns out their B&B was only a couple of blocks from the train station, which they used to take a side jaunt into Pisa. While they had a fantastic trip (and plenty of great pictures to prove it!), apparently in a do-over they'd just take a train down there. Since Cinque Terre is definitely on my bucket list, note to self...