Today I was told off several times. Christina and I are now used to stopping at the Autogrill on the autostrada and buying a rocket fuel coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice and a brioche filled with custard. We consume all three standing at the bar with all the truckies as is the custom. Today they had a special deal on, which if we'd spent time reading all the deals lining the walls we would have understood but as we are now conditioned to a system we thought worked we decided to follow the established norm. Of course you have to pay at one end get a receipt (scontrino) and then head for the coffee bar and order....firstly I asked for the usual but instead of a brioche I asked for a panino cut in half. The checkout chick suddenly announced without looking at me that I needed to choose two brioches. I at first thought she was talking to someone else and then questioned whether I had ordered correctly. She then motioned to me to select two brioches. Cristina looked at me dumb founded when I handed her hers and I shrugged my shoulders as I too was confused...we then trudged over to the bar with our scontrino and placed it on the counter as is usual and the barista asked me what kind of juice would I like. When I questioned what options were available, he replied in Italian, "how do I know, what you want". Then he went off to serve someone else and Cristina and I started to speak in English trying to decipher what had happened as we were used to our norm and what had happened to the panino? Then he realised we were foreigners and came back for a second shot and so we discovered that we could also have bottled juice as an option. Whilst I was dealing with him, Cristina noticed all the brioches randomly left around the shop from the Italians who also didn't want the deal they were offering. Again we laughed all the way to Tivoli and realised that sometimes it's a disadvantage speaking Italian as they presume you are one of them.
We then had a terrifying drive once we entered Tivoli, saw the remains of a smashed up motorbike, part of a road accident that had just happened which made us nervous with all the chaos of traffic and ambulances. The Tivolese drive like the Romans even if you have a green light and the right of way they refuse to wait and nudge their way in from either side of you. Anyway after parking illegally in some little piazza, we trudged up a cobble stone path until we found our B&B. The signora at the B&B was having her hair done when I called as there was no one at the B&B and so she emerged with her hair wet from the hairdressers and launched into a tirade over the fact that we were early and that she was expecting us at 3pm and why didn't we look at the website so that we could have gone straight to Piazza Garibaldi instead of winding around the cobble stone streets. Again, speaking Italian was a disadvantage.
We retrieved the car and drove to Piazza Garibaldi where miraculously a car park appeared and we could leave the car overnight. We were being looked after by an angel I'm sure.
Just outside our B&B was the entrance to Tivoli and now I will only take you through beauty....
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