One TINY Car...Many BIG Lessons Learned!

Wow, what an awesome day! It is still so surreal that Natalie is here in Italy with me and we are renting a car to travel around Northern Italy in...so crazy! Today, I let Natalie sleep for as long as she could because she had been awake for a good 50 hours by the time we went to sleep last night. The girls and I made eggs this morning (or course) and played in the pool for a bit. By the time we were taking a shower around noon, Natalie was awake and ready to go! We made the girls lunch, hot dogs and fried potatoes with peaches. Let's just say that it wasn't our best attempt at making hot dogs...we burnt them to a crisp. So much so that it pretty much tasted like bacon. What a disaster! These girls are just the best eaters though. They ate them and said, "Delicious!" After lunch, we put the girls down for a nap and started to find a hotel for tomorrow night around Lake Garda. Our plan for tomorrow is to spend the day in Verona, which is about 2 hours away by car. After we have made all our stops in Verona, we are heading to Lake Garda and its surrounding cities. Our AMAZING hotel is seaside in a town called Brenzone. It has a pool inside, free breakfast, AIR CONDITIONING, and free parking! Man, we really got a great deal on it too for how nice it is. We decided to splurge a little so we didn't end up in a place where we were nervous to stay. All around the lake are cute little towns that look like mini versions of Venice. It looks spectacular and we are very much looking forward to spending the day there on Sunday. After a long day in Verona tomorrow, I think the pool or jumping in the lake is just what we will need! Paradise! When Angelo got home, we headed off to Treviso to pick up our rental car! All they needed from us to rent the car was our passports, driver's licences, and a credit card on file. I'm assuming it is similar in the US but I have never rented a car before. Italians think it is crazy that we can't rent a car until we are 25. I think so too but they are flabbergasted that we can do almost anything by 21...besides rent a car of all things! I figured out today that Natalie does know how to drive manual, even though I don't so it was a good thing we found an automatic. This car is so small! I can't get over how little it really is...I feel like a giant driving a little toy around. When we left the dealership, I was so stressed that I was going to crash in the first day of driving. I sort of got the hang of it by the time we reached Treviso's city center. Natalie and I decided to stay for the evening and cross our first city off our list! I couldn't remember if there was parking inside the city center so we parked about 10 minutes away from the entrance in a parking lot. There was a sign that said the gate to the parking lot closed at 9:00 so we had about 2 hours to go explore and then be back in time. Once we got there, we found a street market that had a lot of neat stuff. Once we went through that, we started walking towards what I thought was the right direction! I forgot (again) to bring a map with me so we just followed the road to the giant church steeple in the distance. When in doubt, find a big church and that is the city center! Sure enough, we found it and it was as beautiful this time as it was the last. We found all the places that I had been to with the cousins from Sicily and somehow found our way back to the main road. After dipping our feet in the river because we were so hot, we thought we would start heading back to the car so we wouldn't be past 9:00. The thought of getting there and the gate being closed on us was our worst nightmare. We thought we would get there in plenty of time but...there was a slight problem. I guess the entrances to the city center are very similar because I stepped out and knew we were in the wrong place. There were at least two entrances that each had the same bridge with the same winged lion statue on it! We were completely turned around and had only 30 minutes to walk around the entire city center and about 10 minutes down the block to our car before the gate closed. We were speed walking around until we finally reached the parking lot at 8:55...AND THE GATE WAS CLOSED!!! We just stared at each other for a minute or so...we were on time and it still closed on us! There were about 5 other cars in the parking lot but we didn't know what to do. It was getting dark and there was no other way out but through that gate. We found a small gate on the side that we went through....but it wouldn't let us back out! We were now trapped inside the gate with our car...not a good situation! Natalie walked around to another side of the lot but found no other exits. We were screwed! There was no way we could call Angelo or Gianna and tell them we already failed miserably on our first few hours of being by ourselves. Accepting this massive defeat was not an option, at least not on the first day! Then, while Natalie and I were staring at each other in the lot, exchange curse words, there came the most beautiful car and man I have ever seen! A black Audi with a young man in a suit came driving up to the gate and it opened! It was a miracle! I threw Natalie the keys and told her to go start the car and drive it as fast as she could out the gate before it closed again! Like a pro, she started the car and drove it through the gate while I was about to cry on the street. We somehow won that battle and we were shocked that it was okay now! We were thinking of ways we could stay the night in Treviso or stay homeless in our car overnight. We laughed so hard and it is more funny now that I am writing it all down and reliving it with Natalie all over again, every cringing but hilarious detail. It is one of those moments that you wish you had your own tv show and had caught it on camera. Now that we had our car back, we thought we would drive to Conegliano for dinner and then head home. Easier said than done without a map...we made a few wrong turns in Treviso that led us through the long country road and not on the highway that is much faster. We ended up in Vittorio Veneto and ate at Galium. It was packed with people tonight and loud music. Natalie and I shared a plate of the best fries with some sort of good white sauce. We ordered a pizza that said it was for two people. Well, it could have fed at least 4! We finished half and were so full! It was really good food and a great atmosphere. The dj played "Sweet Home Alabama", "Born in the USA", "YMCA", and "Stand By Me"...it was awesome to see them all knowing the words and dancing next to their tables in the aisle. Well, tomorrow should bring some interesting adventures but we are ready to go! I can't blog while I'm gone because I won't have Gianna's computer so be ready for a huge update on our long weekend getaway! Ciao!