My Aimless Life

Okay so I actually need to tell the story that goes with this pic!!  What a day!!  (Get comfey cos this is a long story!!)

It all started when I missed my train to Camucia-Cortona.  No big deal, I’ll just get the next one.  Two hours later I’m on the train & talking to an energetic French-Canadian archeology student on her way to a dig in Perugia (I think).  At the ripe old age of 18 she’d already been to Italy 3 times & was a wealth of information on the best places to eat & visit in Cortona.  Armed with even more info & now really looking forward to exploring the town, I got off the train at Camucia & eagerly looked around for the bus which would take me up the steep hill to the town of Cortona.

No bus.  No big surprise since everything in Italy happens at its own slow pace.  I spotted the bus shelter & walked over to find out when the next bus was due.  I wasn’t the only slightly lost tourist; another tourist, a guy with a huge backpack, was also checking out the bus schedule.  The one thing I learned about travelling alone is that you have to ignore what your parents told you & talk to strangers.  Me being the friendly person I am immediately said hi & asked if he’d managed to decipher the bus schedule.  No he hadn’t.  So after few minutes of trying to work out the colour coding (don’t ask because that will take way too long to explain & this story is long enough already!!) we figured out the next bus was due in an hour.

Plenty of time to walk up to the Tabacchi to get tickets.  On the way we got to talking.  He was actually a semi-tourist; a student from Pisa who came to Cortona for a week for university courses.  He spoke perfect english so I didn’t have to subject him to my broken italian.  Bus tickets in hand it was just a matter of waiting for the next bus.  Life was good so far; nice warm day, great company, plenty to talk about & the prospect of a gelato in Cortona.

Suddenly out of nowhere I felt an insect hit my lip & a painful sting!!  I brushed away the offensive thing & looked around.  In the corner of the bus shelter was a wasp nest.  Bugger!!  My lip was now starting to tingle & go numb.  Carlo was now starting to look at me funny.  I don’t think he’d seen the wasp.  So I pointed out the nest & at the risk of sounding like a pick-up asked if he could see anything on my lip.  He said I looked fine.  Trust me I was not fine.  The lip was pretty numb & I could already feel it starting to swell up.  Then he asked if I am allergic to wasp stings.  That stopped me.  I had no idea.  I’d never been stung by a wasp before.  Thinking I should act fast I said I was going to go look for a pharmacy.  Carlo insisted on coming with me saying he would catch the next bus with me.

By the time we reached the pharmacy at the top of the main street the right side of my bottom lip had puffed up.  It was a good thing I had Carlo with me because my command of the italian language does not cover what to say when you’ve been attacked by the wildlife!!!  So Carlo asked if I could get an antihistamine while I stood & pointed at my lip.  I really didn’t need to point because the lip was pretty obvious & the pharmacist & his assistant were looking at me like I was the Hunchback of Notre Dame

He said an antihistamine would not help since I did not appear to be having an allergic reaction; just localized swelling.  So I bought an ice-pack & we headed back to the bus stop.  Only to be passed by the bus going the other way.  Bugger!!  Next bus in an hour.  Now that the initial panic had passed I was feeling kinda hungry so with an hour to spare we went looking for food.  The annoying thing about lunchtime in small italian villages is that everyone goes home for lunch & a nap.  So the food places were closed.  Fantastic!  We spent another 15 minutes walking around trying to find a pizza shop.  No luck.  We ended up at the bar where we bought left over pastries from breakfast.  Buying food from a place is also an excellent way of getting to use their bathroom.

I found it at the back of the bar & thankfully locked the door as I rushed to the mirror to examine my ginormous lip.  What a beaut!!!  Looked like a botox injection gone terribly wrong!!  Telling myself there was nothing I could do about it & on the bright side at least I wasn’t allergic I tried to unlock the door to leave.  The key wouldn’t turn.  Bugger!!!!  I tried a few more times but no luck.  I looked around at the window.  No escape there; it was covered by a wire mesh.  I’d almost decided to start shouting out for help when my internal voice of calm kicked in & said, “Shut up, calm down & for god’s sake don’t scream.”  So, calmly & carefully, I tried the lock again.  It turned!!  Holy Mother of God thank you so much!!!!

Carlo must have been getting to know me a little by now cos he didn’t even blink when I mumbled, “Don’t lock the door” as he passed me on his way to the bathroom.

I thought things were looking up at last as we finally got on the bus up to Cortona.  Missed the train, stung by a wasp, missed 2 buses & almost locked in a toilet, but at least the weather was still great.  Carlo continued to be excellent company.  Laughing our heads off about the whole thing we decided we deserved a gelato after all that.  Yeah!!

Walking out of the gelato shop happy to be there with the cool gelato providing great pain relief & glad that I’d stopped drooling (half a fat lip will do that to you) we set off for the piazza.  That’s when Carlo’s gelato fell off his cone!!  He caught it just it time & plonked it back on but there he was with gelato all over his hands & shirt.  HAHAHAHA!!  Me to the rescue this time.  I have to mention this because Carlo loves this bit.  I had these travel towels that are compressed into a pellet & when you pour water onto them they expand & you have a handy wet towelette.  Amazing invention but to Carlo they were the Magic Towels!!

We sat in the piazza eating our gelato & playing Spot-The-Tourist.  For example, lady reading the sign on the church - tourist; another lady actually going into the church - tourist; guy with a map - tourist; ancient old lady sitting on a bench - local.  Tons of fun!!

Carlo had some time to spare before meeting the rest of his group so we decided to take a walk up the hill to the fort.  It was a steep climb & by the time we got to the top we were both out of breath & sweaty.  Nice cool breeze at the top was very good & the view over the countryside was great.  Then the nice cool breeze started to turn into more of a wind.  And then came the rain.  BUGGER!!!  Out came the umbrellas and we started to make our way back down.  The quaint steep street turned into a small slippery stream.  A few hundred metres down my sneakers were full of water & I was squishing along trying not to fall over.  Quick stop to put away my camera before it too started to get wet.

By the time we reached the piazza again the legs of my jeans & my shoes were soaked.  And it didn’t look like the rain was going to stop :-(  So much for exploring the town.  Carlo had to leave to meet his group so I thanked him again for being so nice & helping a strange girl with the stupid hat ;-)  He said that I looked so scared at the time he couldn’t leave me alone.  Aaaaawwww :-)  Good to know chivalry is not dead.

Freezing my ass off on the way back to Florence on the air-conditioned train I could not help thinking that even though so many things had gone wrong it was still an awesome day & the best day I had in Italy.