One afternoon, we decided to go into Pordenone to walk around and check out the city, perhaps to have a tasty cappuccino. Sounds fairly simple....we set off in the morning and all went well until we got into the city. Driving here is like playing a video game, only if you hit a pedestrian, you are going to Italian jail for life. There are people walking, people riding bicycles, dogs running, cars, motor scooters, taxis, and buses with which to contend, not to mention one-way streets and the penchant for Italians to post 10 signs when we Yanks would only post one- maybe two if it were a really scary situation. No small task- also, there are usually two small folks in the seat behind me saying, "mama?" over and over again.
Now you would think that Juney and I would have our Navigator/Co-pilot roles fairly well ironed out by now. That is also not quite the case- shall we say we need more practice with our roles? I think that would be fair, Nanny, no? I think this might be the only time when you actually want your mom to backseat drive and SHOUT out the directions! In fact, during this visit, I mentioned to Nanny, something like, "it was great that you taught us to drive stick shift," and she quickly replied, "I DIDN'T teach you to drive stick- remember?" That's right, I think Nanny took me driving once and then relegated that task to my ever-so-patient father, oy.
Anyway. So, we were driving along and the road veered right, so far so good. Then I had to make a left at the end when it came to a "T." There were 2 choices, one to the far left and one to the right. Nanny said something like, "I think you should go to the left side," to which I rather snottily and with much distress said, "What are we in England now?" and proceeded to go to the right side and then around the corner to the right head on into oncoming traffic! The oncoming traffic was led by 2 motorcycle polizia! One sped off- to report us to the mob and the other came toward us- all the traffic behind him started to back up. I started to sweat. The policeman started talking to us (with lots of hand gestures) through the window- none of which we understood. "Sono perduta," I replied in my poor-excuse Italian. He then took his helmet off to hear us better. Wow, was he one hot cannoli.
As soon as he heard my accent, he said, "Now I understand, you stay? or you go away?" I told him we stay. He told me to follow him and backed us out. (Of course, I went up on the curve a couple times, I couldn't find reverse and it was awful!) So, at that point we just parked to get out of the car! Lovely. He got on his motorcycle and said, "When you go away, you go this way," and pointed to the left side of the road and off he went. Who would have guessed that I should go to the left- Nanny, is who!??? It was magical.
We headed off into the city, trying hard to remember each corner to be able to find our car to get home.
We had a lovely cappuccino, a long discussion with Gordon about a dead bird (this is number 2 for her, she has lots of questions) and a close call with what I thought was a bomber. All in a lovely afternoon
Yeah, that's me and that's a sippy cup....if you ever think that it's a good idea to shake a cup containing a carbonated beverage to "get rid of the bubbles," let me tell you, it does not work. Try not to order carbonated water when you want to share it with over-heated tots, right Nanny? (not a common problem stateside : )
Comments