An expensive lesson to learn

I turned in my little Ford Fiesta rental car this evening and it was none too soon for me.  Driving has had its advantages and quite a few disadvantages:

Advantages - freedom to go where you want when you want, no baggage to haul on and off the train, safety when traveling alone

Disadvantages - cost of fuel, cost of toll roads, paying to park everywhere, aggressive drivers, narrow roads, tour buses, poor road signs or no road signs, no map or gps, no co-pilot, Italian radio stations, low stone walls

It's the last one that finally got me.  In all the years I've rented cars and with all the crazy drivers and sometimes dangerous roads I've navigated over the past two weeks it was a small stone wall, about 18" high that did me in.  The villa in Puglia had a very low wall you had to drive around to exit the grounds.  Within the first hour of being there I scraped the side of the car trying to make a super sharp turn. 

I've been dreading turning the car in every since.  I knew I've have to pay for the damage and I did.  The cost of buying insurance from Hertz wouldn't have been much less so all things considered I guess it wasn't as bad as it could have been.  Since I rented the car with my credit card I'll see if they will cover any of the charges when I get home.

All things considered I like traveling by train better but that wasn't a good option for most of my itinerary.  Train, bus and foot will be my modes of transportation during the coming week.

The before shot

Lesson learned, the hard way.