Yes... believe it or not, our last full day in Italy was more unbelievable than those that went before it. Just when we thought we couldn't get into any scrapes worse than we had managed thus far, we found ourselves in the middle of the greatest scrape of our lives!Our day began in an adorable hotel in Florence that we got for 40 euros a night! We headed to Pisa first thing in the morning. I have always wanted to see the leaning tower there. It's kinda one of those things that seemed to exist only in fairy tales or some make-believe land that doesn't exist. I just had to go and see for myself that it is for real. It is. =) We took a bunch of pictures, so now I can show everyone that it is real. =PFrom there, we drove up the coast toward Genova, making our way back to Milan so we could catch our respective flights out of MXP (the international airport in Milan). We opted out of taking the Autostrade (pronounced auto strada) and instead took the smaller roads through the towns and countryside. It was a VERY picturesque drive (Tuscany is just GORGEOUS!), but it took us double the amount of time it would have otherwise taken. In the end, we got back on the Autostrade, hoping to make it to Milan before dark, or at least in time to do some shopping. =) 
Just as we were approaching Genova, the view to the left of us was breath-taking! We HAD to pull over to get some pictures. The mountains along the Mediterranean Sea, with the quaint little villages in between... I just LOVED it! I had been getting out by myself, snapping pictures and jumping back in the car, but C got out and joined me at this particular spot so we could climb a slight incline and get a better view. We stopped just before a tunnel (there were LOTS of tunnels along that road!) and decided to take a picture of our car, sitting there on the side of the road. It looked so cute! We climbed up and took a couple of pictures. I got one of C and one of a single sunbeam shining on the water.
Then I turned to get another picture of our little rented Fiat, but it was not quite where we left it - actually, it was taking off down the Autostrade! At first I thought someone was stealing our car and everything in it (which included both our passports and all our IDs!), but it only took a second to realize there was NO ONE in the driver's seat! It suddenly hit me, "if no one is driving our car, then the car is driving itself and there is nothing controlling where it goes." I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomache as I ran down the hill, screaming at the top of my lungs. Caught up in the beauty of the Italian landscape, we had forgotten to engage the parking brake! C and I watched in horror as two, huge, semi-trucks came barreling down the autostrade at 120 kph while our little car crossed two lanes of traffic. The truck drivers were obviously furious with the non-driver, who had just pulled out in front of them. They showed their irritation by doing the only thing they could - they blared their horns as they passed, probably cursing the non-driver all the while. Of course, our car ignored all of this. C and I, helpless to do anything, simply sighed in relief when both trucks managed to miss hitting and flattening our car right in front of us. Before entering the tunnel, little Fiat managed to hit the guard rail on the far side of the road, and came to a complete stop. There were no cars coming at that moment, so we ran to the car, hopped in, and took off.
Unfortunately, guardrails are not very forgiving, so while our car did not get smashed into little pieces by a semi, it by no means made it through the ordeal unscathed. The driver's door no longer opens and the rubber runner on the driver's door no longer exists (but it has been replaced by a very fashionable scratch/dent). Now I know this was bad - more accurately, the worst thing I have EVER managed to do, but there was still an element of humor in it all. We couldn't help it... we just HAD to laugh, and laugh we did. Every time one of us thought about those truck honking their horns at our driverless car, we'd start laughing again. I mean the damage was already done; there was no sense in crying about it (there will be plenty of time for that when the bill comes in!)... might as well get SOMETHING out of that huge expense.
And THAT is craziest thing that happened during our short holiday in Italy (thankfully).
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!
Our Italian adventure is one of the craziest stories ever told (or about to be told right here in this blog) and yet it is 100% true (with a little hyperbole in the use of adjectives). We don't really expect people to believe it because we can hardly believe it ourselves, but here goes anyway... We got up around 0800, showered in a bathtub with a hand-held nozzle thing and no shower curtain (try that for interesting!). After we got dressed and ready for the day, we headed out to find the bus. It was not that difficult, but we realized after a few stops that we got on going the wrong direction. So, we got off and had to take two busses to get back to where we started. The correct bus took us to the Milan city center, where we needed to catch bus 73, which would take us to the airpoort (where our rental car was awaiting us). However, since we had plenty of time, we walked around the city center for a while. It was really beautiful! There was this HUGE catherdral there and a indoor/outdoor mall that looked ancient, with mosaic floors and glass ceilings! We did not have too much trouble finding bus 73 and we made it to the airport with no hang-ups. Once we got to the airport, however, we had a whole new set of problems. We had not printed out the voucher and could not remember which company we had rented the car from... We checked with 5 different places before finding the right one. We got a little Fiat. It is the most adorable little car. I absolutely LOVE it. It is manual, so Catherine does the driving, which has worked out quite well so far (or course that leaves me in charge of the map and directions...).We went back to the hostel (we got lost a few times, but eventually made it), picked up our stuff, and headed to Venice. Three and a half hours later we arrived at "The Island" and realized that parking is really expensive because there are no cars allowed on the island itself. So we drove back to the mainland, found some little neighborhood, where we parked the car on the street and hopped on a bus back to the island (more correctly, waited an HOUR in the freezing cold until the bus arrived and then got off to catch a second bus that took us right to where we wanted to go). We wandered the streets of Venice for four hours before we found the hostel we were to planning stay at... unfortunatley, they had no beds available, so we were back on the street again. We eventually left the island and found a place around midnight (that was after some random Italian guy offered us a place to stay at his house, but that is a story for another day). C talked the guy down to 55 euros for the night (down from 80) and he even gave us vouchers for an amazing buffet breakfast. I don't know how she does it!
Just as we were approaching Genova, the view to the left of us was breath-taking! We HAD to pull over to get some pictures. The mountains along the Mediterranean Sea, with the quaint little villages in between... I just LOVED it! I had been getting out by myself, snapping pictures and jumping back in the car, but C got out and joined me at this particular spot so we could climb a slight incline and get a better view. We stopped just before a tunnel (there were LOTS of tunnels along that road!) and decided to take a picture of our car, sitting there on the side of the road. It looked so cute! 
Then I turned to get another picture of our little rented Fiat, but it was not quite where we left it - actually, it was taking off down the Autostrade! At first I thought someone was stealing our car and everything in it (which included both our passports and all our IDs!), but it only took a second to realize there was NO ONE in the driver's seat! It suddenly hit me, "if no one is driving our car, then the car is driving itself and there is nothing controlling where it goes." I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomache as I ran down the hill, screaming at the top of my lungs. Caught up in the beauty of the Italian landscape, we had forgotten to engage the parking brake! C and I watched in horror as two, huge, semi-trucks came barreling down the autostrade at 120 kph while our little car crossed two lanes of traffic. The truck drivers were obviously furious with the non-driver, who had just pulled out in front of them. They showed their irritation by doing the only thing they could - they blared their horns as they passed, probably cursing the non-driver all the while. Of course, our car ignored all of this. C and I, helpless to do anything, simply sighed in relief when both trucks managed to miss hitting and flattening our car right in front of us. Before entering the tunnel, little Fiat managed to hit the guard rail on the far side of the road, and came to a complete stop. There were no cars coming at that moment, so we ran to the car, hopped in, and took off.
Unfortunately, guardrails are not very forgiving, so while our car did not get smashed into little pieces by a semi, it by no means made it through the ordeal unscathed. The driver's door no longer opens and the rubber runner on the driver's door no longer exists (but it has been replaced by a very fashionable scratch/dent). Now I know this was bad - more accurately, the worst thing I have EVER managed to do, but there was still an element of humor in it all. We couldn't help it... we just HAD to laugh, and laugh we did. Every time one of us thought about those truck honking their horns at our driverless car, we'd start laughing again. I mean the damage was already done; there was no sense in crying about it (there will be plenty of time for that when the bill comes in!)... might as well get SOMETHING out of that huge expense. 
