How to hitchhike safely

Introduction: Hitchhiking is permitted nationwide in Italy, except on highways (where it's only permitted from service areas and at toll booth entrances) and on main extra-urban roads, including junctions and interchanges. This is the requirement of the Highway Code (Article 175). There may be specific local restrictions, but overall, hitchhiking is a pleasant and convenient experience, not to be missed, offering several advantages, and not just in terms of savings.

Hitchhiking Tips

But how do you hitchhike safely, without risking any nasty surprises, and still manage to get picked up? Let's see some useful tips.

• Find out where it is legal to hitchhike, The rules vary from country to country. And it's crucial to avoid fines, even heavy ones.
• Choose a strategic position, preferably where cars are traveling at low speed and can stop easily. So, for example: never ask for a ride by sticking out your finger on a curve: just stand there wasting your time.
• Avoid roads where cars pass at high speed or they can't stop easily.
• Looks matter: excessively sloppy clothing reduces the chances of being charged to a minimum. And no sunglasses: eye contact and a smile they can be very convincing.
• Be flexible: even a short passage is useful, a couple of kilometers can be enough to reach a more strategic point, and furthermore, the journey, in stages, can become more fun.
• Being in a couple It has advantages (perhaps it makes the driver more available) and disadvantages (two people together can be scary)
• Always trust what you hear: If something makes you uncomfortable, say thank you, but politely decline the ride.
• Check if there are other passengers and quickly assess the situation before boarding.
• It is better to travel during the day and in busy places.
• Avoid night hours or isolated areas.
• Don't sleep and stay alert in the car: for safety, but also for good manners.

What is hitchhiking good for?

Hitchhiking is out of fashion, partly because the "don't talk to strangers" rule has long since passed. This isn't always the case. We shouldn't be afraid: talking to strangers is good for us, and contributes to our personal well-being. A study published in The Psychologist, He talks about the many advantages of being able to exchange, even just a few words, with people you've never met in your life. It creates the opportunity for learning and new knowledge, stimulates our Curiosity, It can help us learn new information and concepts. Furthermore, talking to strangers improves our mood, helps overcome shyness and withdrawal, and opens up space for empathy. And never mind if, in real life, there may be negative experiences: it's all part of the game.

Those few words exchanged with a stranger, just during a short car ride together, nothing else They are just a brush stroke of glue to try to put back together the pieces of our daily solitude. The loneliness of always being in a hurry, of rushing without even asking yourself where or why, of compulsively accumulating anxiety about performance, commitments, and deadlines to meet. Loneliness solipsistic life on the web, therefore virtual, and of relationships that fade away, or remain trapped, in the magical and, alas, precious swamp of the Internet.

On the other hand, each of us is aware of how much we need, like oxygen, relationships. Even brief ones, since depth in this case is not always determined by time.And we need to meet others, even just to put our ears to the ground, trying to pick out something that isn't noise in the din of everyday life. Others who, unknowingly, take us by the hand and bring us at least a few centimetres away from our navel, where almost always our narcissism aim your eyes.

Where it's easiest to get picked up by car while hitchhiking

Finally, the results also depend on the places where hitchhiking is practiced. In Rome, for example, the capital of indifference, it's rare, very rare, for someone to stop and pick me up. Everyone whizzes by, knocks, wrapped up in headphones to talk to their smartphones.. In Naples, as in Veneto, drivers are more generous. Not to mention Sicily, but even in Sardinia, with its strong ties to the region, my hitchhiking yields better results.. One last detail: it is easier to be picked up on the street in small towns, in tourist locations that are not too busy (especially in the mountains rather than at the seaside), in villages, where coincidentally the dimension of community life has not yet faded into the darkness of virtual human relationships, or ofindifference.

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