Nothing’s Easy

Oct. 9, 2003- In Transit
(photo:Florence)

I tried to upload the email from a floppy at an Internet café but they didn’t have computers nor could they tell us who did. Either we find a place to do this in Florence or you get all the emails at once when we get home.

I think Italians have gotten a bad rap as drivers. They drive fast, cut in and out, and scooters and motorcycles are a plague, but there are rules to their game of chicken. They obey traffic lights, park mostly in the street and not on sidewalks, and give way to pedestrians at crosswalks if enough are clumped together waiting to cross in a number that would be conspicuous if run down at once. Passing other cars is an art form. The front fender of the passer is maneuvered until it’s flirting with the rear of the passee. There’s a moment of truth when passee acknowledges passer and decides to move over or not. No horns are sounded. It’s a civilized negotiation and transaction. Reflexes are well developed. Must be something in the Chianti.

Florence

We went to Florence by train. Again we had an issue with seats. David was sent to check out the automatic ticket machines where he got a tutorial on their use from Irish tourists. He purchased what he thought were two sets of two seats facing each other. What the ticket really said was that we had three of those four seats. Fortunately the woman who owned the fourth seat traded for the one of ours that was across the aisle. We hoped to see the exquisite countryside but were in and out of tunnels after we left Rome. My description of the scenery was going to be basic black. Ah, but there was the proverbial light at the end. We cleared the suburbs and rocked and swayed ourselves into Tuscany. The hills with requisite castles, the red roofs, the vineyards, the sheep, the olive trees all spoke of paintings in museums and movies extolling the “Tuscan sun.”

We cabbed it to our hotel, the Best Western Capitol, on the outskirts of the city. We hoped to be closer to the town center, but decided we’d make the best of it. When we tried to check in the clerk told us they were experiencing “technical difficulties” with some of the rooms. That was never defined, but the solution was to put us back in a cab paid for by them and ship us into the center of town to the Best Western Lauris. It was an upgrade from three to four stars. Our hotel in Rome, The King, was a three star and although clean, it was a tad shabby. That extra star definitely adds style and amenities if not room size.

We ate dinner at Ciro & Sons. Aside from the food being divine we struck up a conversation with “& Sons” about one of their sons whose pictures were prominently displayed. We offered that our thirteen month old Talia would be a good match for his seven month old, Ciro. Our banter turned into a request from them to have a photo taken with us and our promise to send them a copy.

The big payoff came tonight as we sat on a rooftop patio eating gelati and overlooking the Duomo, a neo-gothic 14th century cathedral with a baptistery dating back to the 4th century.

As you’ve realized we did find an Internet connection. It was managed by a woman from Worthington, Ohio with an MBA from Indiana University who is now living in Florence and also giving classes to executives at G.E. and Eli Lily. I’ll keep the comment about smallness of worlds to myself.

Drama

The drama of the day was that our VISA cash card from our account at First Merit Bank didn’t give us any money. It worked yesterday. David went to a bank in Rome and they refused to help. The clerk at our hotel was very cooperative. After locating the correct number for VISA in Italy and being connected to the States, we were on hold forever. The result was that only the bank in Akron had the information about our balance. They gave us the Akron phone # and David called from Florence during business hours in Akron. There is a six-hour time difference. They ran through all possible scenarios but found no reason for the card not to work. The last series of questions revealed that David was asking for too much money at one time. There is a $300/day limit on ATM withdrawals in the States. When David asked to withdraw EU300 he forgot it was over $300 due to the exchange rate. Problem solved.

Toby