Check-ins for 2023-07-19
- Melegnano, Italy (#2270)
- Piacenza, Italy (#2271)
- Parma North, Italy (#2272)
- Campogalliano, Italy (#2273)
- Modena, Italy (#2274)
- Bologna Casalecchio di Reno, Italy (#2275)
- Barberino di Mugello, Italy (#2276)
- Firenze, Italy (#2277)
- Arezzo, Italy (#2278)
- Grosseto, Italy (#2279)
- Tarquinia, Italy (#2280)
- Roma - South West, Italy (#2281)
- Roma - Urban, Italy (#2282)
- Roma - North, Italy (#2283)
Check-ins for 2023-07-20
- Ceprano, Italy (#2284) (First to check-in)
This was a tougher day than expected. The directions to some of the Italian superchargers are not good.
@Bredo was quite helpful in giving me some advice on some of them, but no amount of advise could have helped me in Rome. The driving in Rome was actually surprisingly easy. The supercharger hunting was just dreadful however.
The Southwest Rome supercharger was in the back of a Sheraton parking lot out on the periphery and was no problem.
The central Rome supercharger was in a modern garage and not too terribly hard to find. However, it scanned your plate and wanted you to insert a credit card to enter. I've had some problems with the card readers in Italy. I think maybe they don't recognize my American chip? Because whenever I can tap the card, it works, but about half the time when I have to insert a card it does not work. So I think it works when it reads the strip, but not the chip. And whenever I run into this issue, I have the same issue with *all* of my cards. So far, it hasn't been a huge problem because I've always been able to pay cash, but this garage was the exception. So I push the button, ask politely using simple English thinking they will just hear "Tesla supercharger" and open the gate for me. Instead the guy says like two words in English and then starts mumbling in Italian about how he can't speak English and so and so isn't here to help him. So then I attempt to explain the situation in my broken Italian. To his credit, he was quite receptive and after a little back and forth he says "I'll just open the gate for you. No problem." Then I hunt around a little, find the supercharger, plug in for a bit, and then go through the same process on the way out. He kept opening the wrong gate and letting other people out for free lol, but finally he opened my gate and I was off with a "Grazie."
Now, the Rome-North supercharger is where the fun *really* began. It literally took me over a half hour to find this supercharger. The Porta di Roma shopping center has a multi-level parking garage which probably takes up approximately a square kilometer footprint. It was big enough that hunting around on foot was not an option. I circled and circled and circled and couldn't find a damn thing. After a couple times around I finally see a Tesla logo with an arrow, and then a 2nd Tesla arrow sign but then the scent goes cold and I find myself in a part of the garage I've already been in before. It went on like this for another 20 minutes. I must have circled the entire structure and it's 8 different entrances 5 or 6 times. Sometimes I again found the Tesla arrow signs and sometimes I completely missed them. The only good thing is it was so late at night that after being polite initially, I decided that I would drive any which way I wanted to backtrack to the Tesla signs and start over until I found it. There were no gates or tickets or anything like that at least. OTOH, there was no one to buzz to ask where the f the supercharger was either. And there was no map of course. My phone stopped working earlier in the day, otherwise I would have tried to consult plugshare. Just an unreal clusterfuck of a supercharger. And if I had to go back and find it again, I'm not sure I could. I was ready to give up on it entirely until I realized I didn't have enough charge to get down the highway to Ceprano and back tracking to the Central Rome garage and buzzing the guy to ask him to life the gate for me twice more didn't seem like a good option either. So I persevered and eventually found it. It was literally the biggest relief in my supercharger hunting career. Happy I don't have to go back to that one. I can't imagine that anyone will use it since it's basically impossible to find lol.
I'll be a late arrival in Naples tonight. Need to skip the Afragola supercharger since it says you need to call to be let in between the hours of 1am-6am. My phone miraculously started working again right after I found the Porta di Roma supercharger, but I don't really feel like dealing with that so I'm doing a long charge in Ceprano and driving straight to the hotel.
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