If you look at the weather it is hard to believe that we are in Italy in late May. It is cold ( 12 or 14 or some such low number in centigrade), drizzling to raining, foggy to partly cloudy. And we are woefully underdressed. Where is the Italian sunshine? Where is that special brand of light that makes the stucco glow? Where is the warmth that draws you out at night to sit in the piazza or on a lovely terrace overlooking the valley?
While we are waiting for the sun, we're making new friends: at our local coffee shop (where the owner insisted that we taste a couple of digestifs - one made from artichokes) and at the gelateria (where I think Michael would live if he could). In general, everyone is quick to greet us with a giorno or a sera. And everyone is infinitely patient with my struggling attempts to speak Italian.
Tuesday we settled in, did shopping, took at nice stroll around town and ran over to Spoleto to pick up our English friends, Robin and Faye, who have joined us for a few days. Yesterday after it appeared that the heavy fog would lift, we ventured out to visit the nearby Roman ruins at Carsulae and managed, by sheer luck, to have the clearest skies and warmest weather so far as we strolled through the wildflowers exploring the site.
Then our plan was to go a little further to Narni (the inspiration for the Narnia of fictional fame) for a nice lunch and some exploration. On the way, however, the car started acting up. Well, in all fairness, it wasn't exactly right to start the day in as much as it wouldn't start. Some steering wheel lock issue or such (we thought). And then once it got going it was insistent that the boot was open when in fact it absolutely was not. But coming up to Narni Michael kept losing power (not a good thing under any circumstances but really distressing when driving up hill into a tiny Umbrian hill town!).
He managed to get it parked. (And as we struggled to find some coins a kindly Italian gentleman was nice enough to lean out of a fourth floor window to tell us that we didn't have to pay to park.) Off we went to find lunch and to call Hertz. Unfortunately the 800 number for roadside assistance can't be dialed from a foreign cellphone (very helpful). But again, helpful Italians came to our aid. The waitress dialed the number from the restaurant phone and a tow truck operator miraculously appeared. (most all of this in Italian)
We knew there was a Hertz office in Orvieto but after much discussion and many phone calls, he informed us that we could go to the office in Terni instead. So Faye and I sat in the cab of the truck with the driver and Michael and Robin rode in our rental car up on the flat bed. (In case you are wondering, no, non e permesso for passengers to ride in the car that is being towed. ) But off we went through the Umbrian hills as I tried to make polite conversation with the driver in Italian. I think his only daughter (no sons) is 32 years old and is traveling to Amsterdam for 4 days or has a 15 year old child herself or is an astronaut or all three; that it may or may not ever stop raining; and that Obama is a good man. Needless to say it was a long 15 minute trip.
Quite honestly, for having a broken down rental car, things were really going quite well at that point....until we arrived in Terni in the pouring rain, to find that the Hertz office there did not actually have a single car on site. So why did we go there? No idea. Then we had the option to pay the tow truck driver to take us to Orvieto after all or to take a cab for the same price. So we let Michael and Robin come down off of the flat bed and took a 120 euro cab ride (that they promised would be reimbursed to us when we return the car) to Orvieto where they still didn't have a car ready for us and insisted on charging us for the 1/8 tank of gas we had used before the car died.
Finally, 5 hours later we were back in Todi drinking Campari Spritz's on the balcony feeling a bit more sure that we are, indeed, in Italy.
While we are waiting for the sun, we're making new friends: at our local coffee shop (where the owner insisted that we taste a couple of digestifs - one made from artichokes) and at the gelateria (where I think Michael would live if he could). In general, everyone is quick to greet us with a giorno or a sera. And everyone is infinitely patient with my struggling attempts to speak Italian.
Tuesday we settled in, did shopping, took at nice stroll around town and ran over to Spoleto to pick up our English friends, Robin and Faye, who have joined us for a few days. Yesterday after it appeared that the heavy fog would lift, we ventured out to visit the nearby Roman ruins at Carsulae and managed, by sheer luck, to have the clearest skies and warmest weather so far as we strolled through the wildflowers exploring the site.
Then our plan was to go a little further to Narni (the inspiration for the Narnia of fictional fame) for a nice lunch and some exploration. On the way, however, the car started acting up. Well, in all fairness, it wasn't exactly right to start the day in as much as it wouldn't start. Some steering wheel lock issue or such (we thought). And then once it got going it was insistent that the boot was open when in fact it absolutely was not. But coming up to Narni Michael kept losing power (not a good thing under any circumstances but really distressing when driving up hill into a tiny Umbrian hill town!).
He managed to get it parked. (And as we struggled to find some coins a kindly Italian gentleman was nice enough to lean out of a fourth floor window to tell us that we didn't have to pay to park.) Off we went to find lunch and to call Hertz. Unfortunately the 800 number for roadside assistance can't be dialed from a foreign cellphone (very helpful). But again, helpful Italians came to our aid. The waitress dialed the number from the restaurant phone and a tow truck operator miraculously appeared. (most all of this in Italian)
We knew there was a Hertz office in Orvieto but after much discussion and many phone calls, he informed us that we could go to the office in Terni instead. So Faye and I sat in the cab of the truck with the driver and Michael and Robin rode in our rental car up on the flat bed. (In case you are wondering, no, non e permesso for passengers to ride in the car that is being towed. ) But off we went through the Umbrian hills as I tried to make polite conversation with the driver in Italian. I think his only daughter (no sons) is 32 years old and is traveling to Amsterdam for 4 days or has a 15 year old child herself or is an astronaut or all three; that it may or may not ever stop raining; and that Obama is a good man. Needless to say it was a long 15 minute trip.
Quite honestly, for having a broken down rental car, things were really going quite well at that point....until we arrived in Terni in the pouring rain, to find that the Hertz office there did not actually have a single car on site. So why did we go there? No idea. Then we had the option to pay the tow truck driver to take us to Orvieto after all or to take a cab for the same price. So we let Michael and Robin come down off of the flat bed and took a 120 euro cab ride (that they promised would be reimbursed to us when we return the car) to Orvieto where they still didn't have a car ready for us and insisted on charging us for the 1/8 tank of gas we had used before the car died.
Finally, 5 hours later we were back in Todi drinking Campari Spritz's on the balcony feeling a bit more sure that we are, indeed, in Italy.
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