It was a four-hour drive from Tuscany to Rome where we were headed for the rest of our stay in Italy after the wedding, and the GPS had been loaded with the whole map of Italy. This meant that we had free rein on where to stop for lunch or a bathroom break, except that aside from me and my partner who was driving, the rest of the car was asleep.

It was a straight drive on the A1 and cars zooming past were a tempting invitation to speed. The pilot obliged, she didn’t get a rental car upgrade to mosey along when there were no cops in sight like we’re used to in the US – and where her permanent rep as a “lead foot” affirms itself on a regular basis. At one point she leaned over to me and asked, “I think we’re going really fast. What is 160 kmh?” She was going about 100 mph on a highway we later learned was notorious for capturing satellite images of your car and sending you tickets in the mail. Internationally, they even said. Knocking on wood on that.

The pilot’s preoccupation with speeding left me to my own devices and, armed with a couple of library books I decided to take the exit to another hilltop town, this time only a little outside the city of Rome.

We thought Orvieto would simply be a bathroom and lunch destination but turned out to be a very pretty quaint town with it’s own duomo and share of rustic medieval culture. The best part is that since it’s tucked away from major towns tourists were few and appeared more subdued. We took a short walk around town and found ourselves a decent restaurant to hold us over till our final destination.