Sunday
I awoke at 7:30 and walked headlong into my first barrage
of an unintelligible language. Vanessa had warned me that no one in this region
spoke much English as Italians mostly visit Abruzzo. I had practised some
useful words like Bon Giorno, buona note,
grazia and ciao but colazione and an ascensore had a connection and once I had consulted my tiny English
Italian dictionary I knew what to do. I had to go to the basement for breakfast!
Consulting my dictionary I had a lovely breakfast and coffee and went back to
my room to look at maps. I didn’t have a lot of information about Abruzzo so
picking up my trusty book I went down to reception where Roberto and Barbara
were. I tried to explain ‘ Io andare…’ to wherever I wanted to go.
Eventually I made them understand me and they gave me some ‘carta geographica.’ I felt very cross
with myself for not speaking Italian. You can imagine the fun I had trying to
explain that I wanted to hire a ‘macchina’
for a few days. I had decided this on impulse and I couldn’t really afford it
but the only way to see Italy as my Dad had was to drive a Fiat around this
beautiful region. I had a lovely dinner of linguine-with-tomatoes-capers-and-olives
and tuna-and-butterbean-salad
and of course a couple of glasses of Montepulciano . Feeling very nervous but
tired I went to bed and thought about driving on the next day. I was very very nervous.
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