I took a shower this morning (I do every morning, thank you). This was titled “Adventures in Showering”.
Our bathroom is 6 feet square with a completely tiled floor and walls with one large window. There is a toilet and a sink. In the corner is a shower curtain around a flexible-hose shower head. The floor of the entire room is continuous with one drain in the middle if the floor. Now showering requires a fixed shower head so TWO hands can be used for soap and cleaning of ones body parts. With one hand on the shower head and one hand with soap there is no other hand to be found to use. I am one hand short. Plus, losing focus on the shower head in my hand while soaping (with my one other hand) the water shoots everywhere even beyond the curtain and the entire room is soaking wet. I then must dry off with a towel that makes a postage stamp look huge. By the time I finished showering I was exhausted and wanted to go back to bed.
After breakfast we went to the Saturday market behind the Cathedral two blocks away. Ann was in heaven. A larger open air market of fantastic fresh fruit, vegetables, meats, nuts and just about everything in season I had never seen. She did not miss her weekly trek to the Redmond Saturday Market back home. Ann had $20 worth of Slovenian SIT and after loading her bag with fresh stuff she was hard pressed to spend all of the money so we bought two sandwiches for $2.50 and that used all of our funny money. We filled up on groceries because we would not arrive at our apartment in Montepulciano until late Saturday and on Sunday everything is closed.
I was so sad to leave Ljubljana. We both agreed that this place is on the “come back list”.
We entered Italy to a new excitement that our vacation was now officially beginning. After a seven hour drive which included a dead stop of over an hour waiting for no apparent reason in a mass of lines to go through a toll plaza and several other complete turn off your engine stops on the autostrada for no apparent reason, we knew we were in Italy. The total toll on the autostrada was over $25. Yipes!
We did not know it at the time but our adventure for this day had not even peeked its head above the horizon as yet.
What I am to say now can never be repeated. I mean this. Ann and I managed to take stupid to another plateau that even I did not know existed. Now, Ann was only a minor player in this drama but she did contribute.
The rain on the road to Montepulciano was torrential at times. It made Florida downpours look like a Seattle mist. Italians parked on the side of the road to let the tropical depression pass. Not us but that was not the problem. Until we missed our turnoff to Montepulciano where our apartment is located due to not being able to see two car lengths ahead, we were looking good. After missing that turnoff our luck soured – dramatically.
Coming in from a different direction than I had ever used before, we got to the town and followed the map to our apartment. We could not find the roads since there really is no such thing as a street sign in the entire realm of Italy. We drove around lost. Then we drove back to the main gate and started over again. Still lost. Nothing was right. Ann called Giacomo, our landlord, and told him we were in Montepulciano. He said forget about the map and just drive straight through the old front gate of the city and enter the old center of town where cars are not allowed. If you are stopped just ignore anyone and continue up the hill to the apartment. We tried this twice never getting stopped but never finding the roads to the apartment. Ann and I were not happy campers at the moment and I think the word divorce may have been uttered at some point by one of us! Ann then suggested the impossible. I commend her for even daring to mention this aloud to me. I swear this is true (Remember the never tell part? OK? Then read on). She asked if this was the right town. Damn! Damn! This was not Montepulciano but another hill town, Chianciano.
We were only off by 8 kilometers! It was raining, you know, poor visibility and all. So we drove to the correct town, sheepishly. All Tuscan hill towns look alike to dumb Americans but I had been to our town TWICE previously.
I would like to say our fun was over for the (now) evening. But I cannot. We had the directions up the back way (legal way) to the apartment but decided to go the easy way, the illegal way, because Giacomo said we could. Montepulciano cannot be entered by car unless a resident with a permit or commercial deliveries. Noone else may drive in this pedestrian town. Well, we got about one block up the main street before a policeman in his car blocked the road and shook his finger at us. Ann tried to explain but he would have none of it and got out of his car and came toward us. Dear Ann masterfully confused him to the point of his saying in Italian something like, “Follow me you idiotic Americans”. He then led us in his police car to the front door of our apartment!
The landlord’s agent, Maurizio, met us in front of the apartment as we arrived. After many thanks to the officer he left. Ann said that the policeman was her new best friend. To which Maurizio, curtly said, “I don’t think so”.
All is well that ends well some famous writer once said. We are in the apartment (It’s perfect). Ann cooked her first meal (It was perfect). We are exhausted physically and mentally. It’s time for bed. We are here! Buono Notte.
Lesson for Day 12: If at first you don’t succeed with the first Tuscan hill town, try, try again.