Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report We Didn't Drink ALL the Vino! Maitaitom's Italy Uncensored

<b> THINGS GO BETTER WITH SPELLO AND REVERSAL OF MISFORTUNE </b>

A good night’s rest, and it was time to walk halfway through the Hilton/Airport sauna tunnel to pick up the car. I thought about just wearing my trunks and a towel to stay cool, but decided against it for fear of causing a national incident. The Hertz line was a mile long, but I quickly got through the Europcar line and went to pick up our car, which turned out to be a Fiat (may it rest in everlasting peace).

It didn’t take me long to find myself in my first rental car jam of the trip. I drove toward the machine where you put the card in the slot to exit the rental car area, but the guy in front of me was having difficulty. He wanted to back up, because his card wasn’t working.

No problema, I thought. Well, no problema until I tried to get my car in reverse. Try as I might, the damned thing would not go into reverse. Of course, the more I tried, the more cars started lining up behind me. And, of course, the more cars that lined up behind me, the more I began to sweat (think Albert Brooks as the hapless newsman in Broadcast News). Finally, the guy got out of his car, walked and got another ticket, and we were all going forward again.

When I got back to the hotel room, Tracy saw my sweat-stained shirt and said, “Man that walkway must have been really hot today.” I didn’t tell her about my driving faux pas until after I quickly took my second shower of the day.

We went downstairs and each had a mediocre 12 Euro Continental breakfast (OK, the Hilton is a tad overpriced), checked out and waited for Kim and Mary, who showed up at 11:30 am.

As Mary changed clothes in the Hilton lobby bathroom, she ran into our first Ugly American, which thankfully turned out to be our last Ugly American of the trip. A young woman put her hands under the automatic sink, and, as automatic sinks often do, it took a couple of seconds for the water to start flowing. Mary said the woman screamed, “I hate Italy. You have to wait for everything!” This became our humorous and endearing catchphrase for the remainder of the trip.

We jumped in the car to head for Spello, but I told Kim about the reverse problem, and he tried for a few minutes with no luck in getting the car to back up. “Well,” I thought, “I don’t have to use reverse on the Spello drive, so we’ll deal with this minor inconvenience later.”

There was terrible traffic on the Rome Ring, but once we got out in the country, it was clear sailing. On the two-lane road heading toward Spoleto, it was exciting to see how close the cars passing other cars going the other direction actually came to causing us to have a head-on collision. I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw Mary covering her eyes so she didn’t have to witness these many near-death experiences. She was also getting sleepy.

We got to Spello in a little more than two hours and headed for the city center and our hotel for the next three nights, the Palazzo Bocci. Even with eight eyes, we passed right by it and, like an airliner missing the runway, came back around to try again.

This time I took a different route (not on purpose), which put me in a parking area near the center of town (not the parking area I wanted, but it was close enough to walk to the hotel). I saw a spot in my rear view mirror and was planning to put the car in reverse when a terrible thought occurred to me…”I don’t know how to put the car in reverse.”

This was no time to panic. No sense making a bad impression on our Spello neighbors in the first five minutes. At one point, Tracy, Kim and Mary actually tried to push the car backwards into the parking space (which was the first time Italians could have reasonably laughed at us, yet they stayed restrained, though perplexed, at the actions of their new out-of-town residents).

We tried many different variations on a theme until Kim finally came upon the answer. Put your fingers under the ring and pull up on the stick, contrary to our years of driving sticks where we pushed down. “Spello, we have touch down!”

The Palazzo Bocci was everything it was cracked up to be on the board. We had a lovely room overlooking the Tuscan countryside from our little patio (courtesy of Kim and Mary who took the room without a view). There was also a big patio where the four of us shared wine, cheese and various meats for the next few nights and met some of the hotel guests.

After unpacking, we all strolled the streets of Spello (fortunately no one recognized us as the “pushing car” Americans. We quickly partook in our first gelato experience, found some spectacular views, traversed the quiet streets, stopped in to see the Pinturicchio frescoes at the Santa Maria Maggiore and found a nice wine store to grab a couple of bottles of vino to enjoy on the patio before dinner.

Our first class airline experience unfortunately was different from our friends. They had traveled to Rome via Atlanta from San Diego in the cattle car, and Mary was beginning to feel the effects as we sat outside. She was able to talk coherently to some Brits on an Umbrian walking tour, but it seemed the wine was quickly taking effect on her mental capabilities and ability to enunciate.

We met a nice German newlywed couple who told us about some great restaurants in the Jewish section of Rome (where we would end our trip). When Mary started talking Yiddish to them (the sad part is she really doesn’t know any Yiddish), we knew Mary would not be joining us for dinner. Kim led Mary to their room where, unbeknownst to her husband at the time, she decided to take an Ambien, which sealed the deal. The next thing Mary knew was the light of the next day.

Kim, Tracy and I dined at Il Molina (the hotel restaurant located across the street and down a few doors). It had an interesting curved, vaulted brick ceiling, a fun waiter and terrific food. Tracy had the dish of the night, a pasta concoction chock full of pistachio, pecorino and prosciutto. The honeydew in my prosciutto y meloné tasted like candy. The Montefalco 2003 Rosso Antonellio was a bargain at 13 Euros. We all toasted to our great fortune of being back in Italy and realized how incredibly lucky we were to be able to make these trips.

This would be the last day for quite some time where our feet and legs would feel good, as tomorrow would start our ten day mission of exploring hill towns throughout Umbria and Tuscany.

<b> COMING UP: IT’S ALL UPHILL FROM HERE </b>
((H))