In Better Hands...: The Night We Almost Got Mugged

Tonight might be a short blog. I am wiped out! My body can tell that I have been traveling for almost three weeks now. It has been the trip of a life time and I am so glad that I decided to go, however, I am exhausted! Today we had a driver take us from our hotel into the town of Sorrento. We did a little browsing of the city and then we had lunch. We ate at this cute place with outdoor seating right off of the main strip of shops. There was a man signing and playing his guitar. It was exactly what you imagine when thinking of eating at an outdoor cafe in Italy...except your worst nightmare!! One thing to know about Italy-LOTS OF PIGEONS. They are every where. Sometimes I will be walking down the sidewalk and I will have a face off with one of the nasty birds. They just walk around the towns like they own them! So here we are drinking our water and munching on our bread when I see something out of the corner of my eye. I look down and I see this pigeon walking underneath my legs and my chair!! I about freaked out, which of course freaked my mom out. It walked away and we made a promise not to drop ANY food on the ground, thinking that might keep them away. My mom had a long dress on so she tucked it all in just in case. She did not want one to fly up her dress she said! Our waiter brought us out our food and it did not take two minutes for all these pigeons to comes to our table. There were at least 5 or 6 headed our way. I could not relax. I was constantly getting up from my chair and flapping my napkin at them. I am sure I looked like an idiot because everyone else seemed just fine with the nasty things walking around their feet! I finally had to request that we move inside. I am sure they were thinking-high maintience American! Although when I apologized he said, "Don't worry! Be happy!" So just like that we grabbed our backpacks and all our shopping bags and our waiter grabbed our food and our drinks and we moved inside-much better.

After that adventure we took a taxi back to our hotel to get our car. We really enjoyed our stay at Hotel Mirerva. The staff was over the top wonderful. The parking garage is small and has to be accessed by the bell boy. He had carried all our bags down earlier and now he was walking us down to the garage which by this time was jammed packed! There were cars in the aisle back to back. This man had to back up three cars and a motorcyle onto the very busy street just to back up our car for us. It was like a puzzle but he was so sweet because mom was too nervous to try and back out herself and I don't blame her. The road is busy and the people here drive nuts! It was much better to let a seasoned native drive it out for us.

The drive to Potenza was beautiful! It was full of rolling hills, large trees, green pastures and small towns. It was very enjoyable and only about 2 hours away. Once we entered town we had a bit of trouble which is normal. It seems that every time we enter a new town we encounter some type of trouble. This time the GPS was taking us to a dead end. We stopped and asked a police man and with the little English he spoke he told us that we could not drive to our Bed and Breakfast and that we would have to walk. We are almost three full weeks into this trip. Our already heavy suitcases have expanded to the max, we have a car full of shopping bags and as of today we have an extra suitcase that we bought to bring our souviners back in! We are FULL FULL FULL and there is NO way we are walking. So we went into a hotel near by and they called the B&B for us and they owner of the B&B came and got us! We thought we were going to have to park our car in town and ride up with him but he was planning on driving our car to the B&B. Remember, I said that our car is full. There is no extra room for a fourth person which meant one thing-Grandma was sitting on my lap to the B&B. Let's just say, it was a good thing I had just used the restroom in that other hotel!!

Once we got to the B&B the poor man unloaded our car and carried our heavy luggage up the stairs and to our room and then he parked our car for us! What awesome service!! The B&B is cute! It's my first time staying in one. The rooms are decorated so cute and we have two seperate rooms. Although we probably could have shared because my Grandma's is a single with one double bed and my mom and I's is a double with one double bed and a twin size bed which is what we have been staying in most of our trip. But it is kind of nice that we all get our own beds and I have my own little nook with my little bed.

We ventured into town for the evening to explore Potenza. I am sure this place looks so much different than it did when my Grandma's Grandparents lived here but it is still fun to imagine. We asked a few people tonight if they knew the last names of her grandparents but no one did. Tomorrow we are going to look up the names in the cities' records. Tonight we walked in and out of the shops in the main plaza and then made our way to a place for dinner that some lady recommended to us. It was harder to find than what she said so my Grandma asked these two men that were standing with their friends talking in the main square. They did not speak English and they tried to direct us but we were having a hard time understanding so they offered to walk us there. We began to follow them which seemed alright at first but then we headed down this street away from the main sqaure. I began to get a bit nervous because these were big men and they were speaking a language to each other that I did not understand. I started imagining that we were about to get mugged in this small town in Italy! I started telling mom that I did not think we should follow them any longer as we turned onto another dark street even futher away from the main sqaure. I began to say that we could just go back to the sqaure and find a place to eat but they insisted that it was not too far. They were laughing because I am sure they could tell we were afraid but they were right-it was not too much further and they led us right there. I should not have let my imagination get the best of me I guess.

We ate dinner made by a cute Italian chef-this guy was younger and did not have a wedding ring on but I was just too tired to flirt with him! I think my dad would have liked him because he said he wanted to open his own restaurant! However, I don't think he would want to open it in Colorado and I know some people that would be a little upset with me if I moved all the way to Potenza, Italy. The men in Italy are just the same as the men in America. They were all sitting around the TV watching soccer just like men watch football in America. We watched with them for awhile and pretended that we knew what was going on. I think we were pretty convincing too. Besides, the young chef most of them spoke only Italian so we did a lot of nodding and smiling with each other. It was a fun night.

Tomorrow we will be heading to Cosenza which is in the Calabria area. This is where my Great Grandpa's family is from. It is about a 5 hour drive which leaves little time to see the town. Pray for safe travels and a wonderful last couple days in Italy for us please!

ps-I guess tonight's blog was not short after all! Ciao!