“And after tchotchke shops near Trevi,” she says, “we can have an early dinner at that cute little restaurant we found near there… something with “Heart” in the name?”
“Which one?”
“You know the one you liked with the picture of Sinatra.”
“Oh… “That’s Amore”, the “heart” circles the name…yeah… what street?”
“You have the card in your travel folder, where is it?”
“It’s here in the computer bag….Nope….Hmmmm must have taken it out… look on the bed.”
“Not here.” she says”
The all important blue travel folder… the center of his life for the last 2 months…the bible he swears buy for details, maps, driving directions, PLANE TICKETS, etc… AIN'T HERE!!! NOW WHAT?!?!?
Aahhhh the panic… the chaos… the drama…
But let’s start this episode properly…
The alarm drug us out of our warm covers, high on the mountain overlooking the fog shrouded valley below. After a hurried last minute packing, Chuckie heads down to the wireless access point to double check directions to Rome… the one he has is from Banfi and we’re not going that way. It’s then that he realizes… he has no way to print them. The nice desk clerk says she could Google and print them… but her Google is in Italian and she can’t figure out how to change to English. Another clerk show up… changes the language, prints the directions, grabs a local map and highlights the route.
With these in hand, and quick trip to the dining room for rolls and coffee to eat on the way, he goes to retrieve the car from the parking lot… which is down an even steeper driveway than the street to the hotel. It takes 3 tries to get the manual-diesel Fiat [they didn't have his Alfa Romeo] up the VERRRYYYY steep driveway amidst a large cloud of diesel smoke.
Bags in… now no Illy… she’s wandering around shooting last minute pics of the town, the valley in the fog and the parking lot?!?!?Once aboard, we head out of town, missing the turn at the gate and make the first Girare-u of the day, back in the right direction. A quick stop for gas and it’s
onward through the dense fog, down and up some very winding roads… visibility maybe 20 feet; but… not before we stop for some more dirt for Randy [?!?] I’m sure we'll learn why soon enough.Now, with all this fog, Chuckie is getting concernedabout making it to Rome by noon, the deadline so as to not incur another days charges. And it only get better…
The fog lasts pretty much all the way through the mountains including through the small towns often causing us to miss the directional sign and thus…more girare-u’s.. White knuckle navigator Illy has stopped trying to take pics and is white knuckling the dashboard as Mario Andretti Chuckie is whipping through the almost blind twists and turns at 70kph.We finally find Autostrade A1 to Roma, grab a toll ticket and settle in for a 200 km ride.
More fun will begin soon enough… once we get close to Rome so tune in for more Chaos… Panic… Drama
Ciao 4 Now
Chuck and the seriously white knuckled and glad we’re out of the fog, Dragon Lady.
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