Ok, so I thought day two was unbelievable. Well the unbelievability of day three so far surpassed day two, it pretty much obliterates it altogether! The day began rather uneventfully. We got up and got dressed, went downstairs and ate breakfast at the hotel (very nice!) and then checked out. We caught the #2 bus to the island. It went directly to where we needed to go. No issues... everything was goiong smoothly. We walked around Venice, stopping in shops, buying all kinds of nic-naks for friends and family, and took TONS of pictures along the way. The weather was pretty cold, which drove us into even more stores than we probably would have gone into (all things considered, we really did not spend that much money). We went to Spizzico (an Italian Pizza chain) for lunch and also stopped in to buy a cappuccino (every lunch and dinner has been pizza - three of those meals were at Spizzico).
After the sun set and we had had enough of the cold, we caught the #7 bus to the #10 bus and found our car, right where we had parked it the night before (thankfully, nobody had broken into it). We really had no idea where we were, or which direction we needed to go to make it to Florence, so we began driving and figured the answer would come to us along the road. It did. We stopped in at a gas station and C asked for directions in Spanish, the gas station guys responded in Italian, and I listened in English. =P Eventually, we figured out what we needed to do to get to the Autostrade (a toll road); from there we knew we could just follow the signs to Firenza. We meant to get gas while we were asking for directions (even though we still had half a tank left in our little Fiat), but we were anxious to get on our way. As we sped down the Autostrade at 126 kmh, we talked and laughed sang along to the mix CD playing in the car. After a while we got into the right hand lane so we could get off at the next gas station, when suddenly this guy cut us off and we got distracted and missed the exit for the gas station. We were on empty, so we just hoped another gas station would come along SOON. It didn't. And before long we were stranded on the side of the road in a foreign country with a rental car that had no gas. I have NEVER in my life run out of gas before. I could not believe my first time had to be in Italy. We quickly learned that Italians are not the most helpful.
So, what do two smart girls do when faced with this kind of a situation? First, they turn on the hazard lights, then they put the reflective hazard triangle on the ground several yards away from the not-running car, and proceed to jump up and down, flailing their arms, and waving a reflective yellow vest. This continued for a good 45 minutes before anyone acknowedged these efforts with anything more than a flash of the high beams or a honk of the horn. The first person to stop was a truck driver, who told us he would be back after we explained that we were out of gas. He did not. The second person to stop (about 10 minutes after the first) was a guy who said he was a mechanic. He made a call and told us to wait 20 minutes, which we tried to do patiently, despite the cold and the fear that the car battery would also die as we waited.
As promised someone did come in the allotted 20 minutes: aTOW TRUCK! Now, granted, we were in a bad situation and needed help, but please! a tow truck?! Isn't that a LITTLE extreme? I mean, all we needed was a gallon of gas so we could drive to the nearest gas station. We saw the red gas can on the back of the tow truck and thought, "oh good, he brought gasoline with him." Relieved and thrilled to see this stranger, we greeted him excitedly. Our excitement quickly turned to fear however as he lowered the flatbed. "No, no, no, SOLO NECESSITO PETROL! We JUST NEED GASOLINE! Our car works. We do NOT need to be towed." He replied that he would tow us to the nearest gas station so that we could fill up. Of course, we know better to expect anything for free and asked how much this was goiong to cost us. "122euros" he said. We quickly redouble our efforts to convince him that we did NOT need to be towed. 122 euros is more than we had paid to rent the car for 4 days! There was NO way we were about to pay that! We told him that we did not have that much money. He calmly assured us that he would take us to an ATM so that we could pay him. As he was telling us this, he proceeded to try to hook up our car to his truck, but we firmly stood our ground between him and our poor little Fiat. He tried to tell us that the polizia required him to tow our car away. Come on! Did he really think we were born yesterday?! Please!!! He then called someone who spoke English. This person spoke with C, telling her that we had no control over the situation... our car had to be towed and we had to pay for it. Thankfully, C is not one to be bullied by empty threats, and told the lady that it was our car and NO ONE was going to tow it, nor were we about to pay to have it towed. Despite all of our bravado, we realized the gravity of our situation. If we left the car, it would be towed away and we'd have no idea where to find it (plus we would lose all of our worldly possessions which were in the back of the car). If we stayed with the car, it was unlikely (ok, more than unlikely.... more like unfathomable) that anyone would stop to help us. And if we split up, the odds of us meeting up again on this side of eternity were nil to none... How do we manage to get ourselves into such conundrums?!
We continued to block the man from our car while he starts calling someone else on his cell. He talks for a while in Italian, checking the license plate and registration on our car, reading it out over the phone, while we stand by, watching helplessly as this story unfolds in front of us. So, he FINALLY gets off the phone and walks up to us; "I will tow your car for free because it is new." (or course most of those words were actually in Italian, but we still understood free or "gratia"). We thought we misheard though. "WHAT?!" we asked in unison. "Because your car is new, you do not have to pay. I will tow your car," he said. C, ever the sceptic questioned him, "promise?" "Promise," he replied and shook our hands. C showed her gratitude in true European fashion, hugging the man and giving him a kiss on each cheek. The New Yorker in me would not allow me to show such emotion, so I smiled and thanked the man as cordially as I could. True to his word, he towed us to the nearest gas station, where we put 20 euros of gas in the tank and got back on the road.
It wasn't until that point that I really had a moment to realize how bad our situation could have turned out. I had been whispering frantic prayers throughout the whole ordeal and now stopped to thank God for protecting us and providing for us when it seemed like help was nowhere to be found.
By now it was midnight and we still had an hour's drive to Firenza (Florence). We spent the remainder of the drive, re-living and laughing at the crazy things we had just done. I will forever have that image of the two of us jumping up and down, frantically waving that reflective yellow vest, indelibly imprinted on my mind! =) You just can't make up stories like this!
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