When thinking about hitchhiking in Italy, nothing came to mind. I didn’t expect it to be the easiest and not the hardest, just thinking it should be fine. This story is about hitchhiking in Italy, during the pandemic.
What to know before?
The people in Italy were affected by the pandemic a lot. While traveling in Italy hitchhiking, as soon South Tyrol was ending and the real Italy started, you could see many people having the mask on while driving alone in the car.
People on the street had the mask on and it was clear to see that the locals were afraid of the virus. The traveling happened in January 2021, so it was not like the situation probably would have been one and a half years later. So the experience now could be slightly different.
What was the route like?
Entering at the north Swiss / Italian border and hitchhiking through South Tyrol until Bozen/Bolzano. From then, it went to Verona and then turned to the east, to make it to Slovenia.
It started with cold temperatures and turned over the route warmer, as further we were away from Switzerland. In South Tyrol, the northern part of Italy, it was actually not a problem at all, to hitchhike through it. Especially by being able to speak German, that helped a lot.
Until Bolzano, it didn’t take until midday to make it there. The waiting pauses were always short, so freezing was not really a thing.
What were the problems like?
After being on the highway in Bolzano, in the direction of Verona, it got hard. The waiting time was getting longer. Not waiting for just a few minutes, it turned into a few hours.
It was necessary to sleep on a roundabout in between Bolzano, because neither Couchsurfing nor hitchhiking worked.
Sleeping in the tent while snow was laying outside, that could have been for sure better. When getting right back to the road, to make it further, that was taking a long time. It was snowing and to that, was it just cold and uncomfortable standing on the road.
Getting picked up by a bus driver, who drove directly to Verona, where it was luckily warmer, so waiting for a long time was more enjoyable.
Hitchhiking in Verona
Of all the parts of Italy, where we tried to hitchhike, Verona was probably the worst. Waiting on the perfect road, with much space to stop and still nobody did. The waiting time was not just a few hours, it was one and a half days!
With a sleeping break in between we waited for more than a whole day, before giving up and just starting to walk for a better stop. We walked until the town Vincenza, which was longer than 50 kilometers, where luckily someone was wanting to host us.
Like this it was possible to receive some positive experiences with locals, it was just a really frustrating way before that.
In the morning, our host was taking us to her work, which was closer to the direction of Slovenia, where we were more lucky and we made it over the border that day, thanks to a truck driver, who was taking us.
Summary
Hitchhiking in Italy is not easy, at least not during the time where we were doing it. Also from other people, I was hearing many negative things about hitchhiking in Italy. Most of them had issues with the long waiting time as well. Waiting for a few hours seems to be normal.
It is interesting to see the difference between South Tyrol and the other part of Italy, you can tell that you are in a different part and that just by hitchhiking.
During the winter time is also not that great, just when you are planning to do a hiking trip, because in those circumstances, it can actually be great, because the temperatures are not warm.
I would love to hear your experiences about this place, or questions. Share it with me in the comments.
