Gas and Other Problems

The morning we left Ortesei, the wife had a cough and wasn't feeling top of the pops.  She went out to get a COVID test, which fortunately came out negative.  We informed our traveling companions at breakfast and compassionate Katie said she was glad it was negative because otherwise we'd have to strap my wife to the roof rack for the drive to La Spezia.

It was on that drive that we had some interesting interactions with gas station employees.  As I mentioned on the last post, I had a receipt with a QR code for about 20 euro of petrol.  We arrived at Lake Garda and pulled into a station selling the same brand as on the reciept. I showed it to the guy and he told me it was only good for the station in Cortina where I had gotten it.  That was the gist, but the manner in which he explained it to me would have made you think I had just cursed out his children. My brain translated "piss off" into "grazie".

We did some walking around Lake Garda, the largest in Italy.  It was still in seasonal vacation status. We had some good salads by the water and then continued our journey.  Katie had to make a bit of a jaunt to pay the parking fee, but we got out without a problem.  Not the same could be said for one of our encounters at a toll booth. We happened to pull into a lane with their version of an EZ Pass, which we of course did not have. I told TCG to back up but somebody was already behind us.  That somebody was kind enough not to lean on his horn.  We had a chat with the attendant, who raised the gate without us paying, likely because she did not want to deal any further with clueless tourists. This reminds me of another toll issue we had on the way to Ortesei. We had gotten our ticket at the entry as required, but when we got off, it or the credit card would not work. We had a tete a tete with the toll guy. He said "you need a ticket" about five times. We responded "we have a ticket" each time. He then put on someone who spoke English and we got it resolved.

Would you like to hear another gas station story or something about the beauty and history of Italy? Alrighty then. We needed to fuel up before returning the car so we went into a small town. We could have just pulled into a station on the autostrada but that would have been too easy. The guy inside the station ran a cafe and it didn't seem like he had much to do with the petrol.  We tried our credit card again, which did not work. I put in 20 euro in cash, which did not fill it.  So I put another 10 euro in.  Guess what? It only took 4 of the 10. I guess I'll never learn.  I went inside and tried to explain the situation in rudimentary, broken Italian. I'm pretty sure the guy said to his amici sipping coffee that "I gotta go deal with this child".  Needless to say, we were out six more euros. The last thing I'll say about our driving trip is that we learned early on that it is best to have a driver from one couple and a navigator from the other.

On to Cinque Terre. I'd say it's magical, but you know I'm not the type of guy to call anything magical. But it was gorgeous and we had a lot of fun. We got there just before things would start shutting down for the season. Our rooms at La Spiaggia Hotel in Monterosso were dinky but nice enough.  A good breakfast was served daily and the staff was quite accomodating. Our first dinner there was enjoyed by all but me.  I got a pizza that could have come from Round Table. The next day we had the real thing at Kepris Pizzeria in Riomaggiore. It was recommended by TCG's son, who went there four times during his recent stay. That first full day The Big Three took off for a hike, which proved to be pretty strenuous, between Monterosso and Vernazza. I took the train to Vernazza to meet them. Katie said the train sometimes stops in the tunnel at the station, so I should just go toward the light to get to the station.  Go toward the light? What, am I croaking?

The next evening we had a sunset cruise with Edo,short for Edoardo, a 25 year old entrepreneur. He explained the vagaries of getting a tourist license each year for his boat. He was quite outgoing and showed us all five of the small towns from the Ligurian Sea. We were going to take a swim but were wimpy and decided the water might not be bath temperature. Before we returned to the dock, Edo broke out a couple bottles of Prosecco. We shared them with another couple from the UK that had joined us.

Our last day we spent the morning on the beach near our hotel. The 35 euro charge for two chairs and an umbrella was apparently cheap compared to the cost of same at the Christian Dior beach near Portofino. They would not have let our type near it anyway. In the afternoon we took a train to Santa Margherita and a ferry to Portofino. We had a cocktail and snack there but none of us were overly impressed with the town. I wanted to see celebrities, damn it!

Yesterday we took a couple trains from Monterosso to Florence, with a change in Pisa.  We just made it on to our connection in Pisa. We got some seats but the train was full of tourists and their luggage. I'd complain if I wasn't part of the problem. Our taxi driver at the Florence train station was quite pleasant, as opposed to one cranky bastard we had in Milan. We got to our digs at Borgo degli Albizi and were met by Stefano. His family has owned the building since 1929. He was very engaging and spent time showing us the apartment and the documents that detailed the hot spots.  He basically said there were a lot of tourist traps to say away from, like wine windows. Bad wine, high prices. Stefano pumped me up when he told me my Italian was not bad. That afternoon we got to marvel at the statue of David.  My savvy wife had gotten the tickets ahead of time.

The Jaguars/Falcons game from London has kicked off so TCG and I plan to go to The Lion's Fountain, an Irish pub steps from our place, to see if we can catch part of the game.  Ciao