Italy - June 2011
A little joke I want to share with you: Italians said they only use extra virgin olive oil. I asked what they did with the second or third pressings of the olives, they laughed and said they exported them to the U.S.! I wonder how much of that joke is true! J
Our “journey” to San Gimignano, Italy was quite an adventure. We left the States for Rome in the afternoon of June 2nd. Our flight was connected in JFK New York. At JFK, when we arrived at the gate to board the plane, I saw a large group of people gathered there, looking like they were boarding as well. There was no line. I asked where the line ended, everybody shrugged. Confused, but had no choice, we got into that bundle, slowly made our way into the plane. I’m not one who like (or can) fight and push my way through a crowd, and that meant I was pushed and shoved so that people behind me could move ahead! I was so relieved when we got to our seats. That was the strangest thing. I know about Italians and lines, but we were still in NY, and the majority of passengers were not Italians. I guess everyone decided to immerse themselves in Italian culture as soon as their trip began!
Then, once everyone was boarded, we had to wait, at first 10 minutes, then half an hr, then almost an hour because the flight crew had to do some paperwork before they could fly. Everyone was getting anxious about the delay. People worried that they would miss their connections in Rome. You would think that they had such paperwork taken care of before letting people board the plane, given that it’s something they do on a daily basis. Is it possible that the flight crew decided to adopt the “you’ll always have tomorrow” mentality as well?? Mind you, it was a Delta Flight. Then a woman had problem breathing, doctors were asked to report themselves to flight attendants for help. An American doctor came first, had a hard time communicate with the woman. Flight attendants tried to translate, but were afraid something may be lost in translation. Then an Italian doctor came, his face all flushed, seemed unsteady, had to support himself by leaning against a seat. Wait, he was drunk! Or at least half way there. I guess an hr flight delay did not stop him from enjoying himself and having a drink, or 5! But at least he and the patient could communicate. The doctor took her blood pressure, listened to her heart beat, prescribed oxygen tank and some drinks. And voila, she was fine. Then we got the good news, we were ready to take off. Finally.
When we arrived at Rome airport the next morning, the whole mess of no line presented itself again. We followed the herd, got ourselves into a large group of people and eventually made our way to the ONE small entrance into Italian Passport Control. When we were about 20-30 yards away from the entrance, a group of priests (they were in clerical clothing) joined the herd, standing next to us. Then they looked around, realized that obviously they hadn’t cut to the front of the group yet, they got out, walked around the group to the very front where that small entrance was, and worked their way in! It was hilarious. I wish we had recorded the whole thing.
The “line” or non-existent line to Italian Passport Control. See that tiny entrance with the yellow words above it? Yup, that was the entrance that the “line” was for.
After passed through immigration and custom, we got to Hertz rental car desk. Got a number, realized there were only 5 people ahead of us, and 3 representatives. This should be quick. No, it wasn’t. We waited an hour before they got to us. Signed the papers, gave our credit card, took directions to the garage. Walked out to the garage, presented our paper to the attendant, got our car. Then waited another 15 minutes for the GPS to pick up signal. Finally gave up and asked for directions out of the airport garage to Florence. Shouldn’t be that big of a deal, we had printed out Google directions as backup. 10 minutes on the highway, the GPS worked. And thank God it worked. Because without the GPS, we would never have made it to San Gimignano. Hell, who am I kidding, even WITH the GPS and the maps, we still didn’t make it to our hotel in San Gimignano! The GPS and Google maps did take us to a neighboring town…
As we were driving from Rome to San Gimignano, we realized that we couldn’t read the direction signs on the highways, nor understood some traffic signs. At each exit, there were at least 5-10 signs listing where that exit would take you. But you were going at 100 miles an hour, how in the world any foreigners could read those signs fast enough (in Italian no less) is beyond me. And if you slow down to look, people will tailgate, flash, pass then cut you off merely inches from your car and give you a heart attack. So, we blindly followed the GPS – exit here, turn right, speed camera ahead, ramp on left, etc. – all the way to our bed & breakfast in San Gimignano (or so we thought!) When we got there, it did not look any thing like the pictures. But I insisted that we were at the right place, we just needed to drive further down the wet dirt road (how could both the GPS and Google Maps fail us?!?) But failed us, they did. Now we needed to turn back on this wet dirt road full of puddles. And realized that we could not put the car in reverse! Somehow, Thuan managed to get us out of that mess and onto dry lane. I went into a house and asked for direction. Neither the owner, her husband or her neighbors spoke any English. We couldn’t speak a word in Italian. But somehow, through hand gestures, we managed to convey to them that we were utterly lost. The lady was an angel.
She spent more than an hour to help us find our way. She tried to call our friends who were already at the hotel, couldn’t get through. So she got on the phone with the hotel, asked them for directions. Then gave the phone to me, but the hotel did not know how to get us out of that place. The lady then tried to draw pictures, but of course we couldn’t quite understand. Finally, she and her husband got in their car, signaled for us to follow them, took us out of their town to where we had pictures for directions from our friends (thanks to Kate who had the foresight to do this!) Hugged and sent us on our way.
Even then, trying to be useful by helping to identify pictures and signs on the road, I got us lost, again. We then had to backtrack our way, went back to the point when we knew for sure that we weren’t lost. And Thuan took over the navigation. Despite being lost and frustrated, we couldn’t help but noticed how beautiful the area was. It was peaceful and romantic. It made us relaxed regardless of the situation we were in. To quote our friends, “If you’re ok with where you are, you’re not lost…you’re just somewhere else!” We were definitely OK with where we were, so we weren’t lost ;-) But of course Thuan, being the more responsible one, made sure that we stayed on course while enjoying the sceneries along the way. So, we arrived at the Bed & Breakfast (Fattoria Poggio Alloro) in San Gimignano 6.5 hrs after we left Rome airport. That drive should have taken less than 4 hrs. Turned out the hotel cannot be found using their address. We had to use coordinates, and it worked like a charm.
DH asked me, if Italians have such a relaxed attitude towards time, then why everyone is in such a rush to get to places. Good question. Any insight to the reason(s)?
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