Eating, Praying and Loving
Three things I have increased significantly since comming to live in Italy have been eating, praying and loving (EPL). The food is amazing and everywhere, churches are full of centuries of prayers and I am living with the one I love. Well today was no expeption of EPL, in fact it was increased from external sources. We had a date day and decided to drive around Lake Garda on the east side to visit some of the small towns near the Alps. 
The curves around the base of the lake are smooth and romantic, tourists sunbathing like happy seals on piers, and cars driving dreadfully slow "enjoying" the drive and making the long lines of followers nuts with drivers rage.
(side note: most of the bad words I know in Italian I learned on the road. Drivers dont hesitate to fling insults to each other on their mothers...I've learned a lot of ways to insult mammas in various dialects) One of the worst things about slow drivers in little scenic roads is the eventual need to use the bathroom and the lack of one available. No Walmart, no gas station, and no McDonalds. The roads are often stopped by traffic of some poor mom who jumps out to help her 4-year-old boy go pee-pee on the side of the road while drivers fling insults not knowing it is a mom. Seeing it is a mom usually stops the insults bringing back memories of going pee-pee on the road themselves at the tender age of 4.
The only option to reach a bathroom with dignity in Italy is to eat and pay first in a bar (coffee shops that also sell wine). Im sure bathroom-needs encourage local bars to hike up their prices in the summer time. Cokes cost 3 euros, beer almost 5 and all given with a smug grin of the barista who knows why you are really there....even the turkish style toilets seam to be part of the joke.
"I payed 3 euros for a warm soda and have to use a turkish toilet?!" I know I'm not the only one thinking this....
Praying. Oh how I prayed today. On the way back home we took the "panoramic" route (horror highway) that was a 2 lane street going sharply up a mountain and turned into a windy 1 lane street with sharp turns and occasional siderails. Horror. Then the suspense increased at every blind turn where another car, usually a large one was coming towards us and each driver had to inch to the very edge to sqeeze past alive.
Terror. These driving experiences have hurled a very honest "Mamma mia!" out of me. Palms sweat, I think of the babies I never made, wasted college degrees, who will feed the cats when I die. Will it hurt flying over the cliff?...etc..mamma mia...
Loving. It was my fiance's random day off, he was exhausted from work but wanted to take me out anyway. How unselfish and thoughtful is that? Drove in tourist traffic when he drives everyday and needs a break, bought overpriced drinks so I could use a bathroom, took me to see a castle knowing I have a facination for them even if he could care less and was cool and relaxed on the panoramic terror route when I was digging my nails in the car seat and uttering stomach churning prayers.
The curves around the base of the lake are smooth and romantic, tourists sunbathing like happy seals on piers, and cars driving dreadfully slow "enjoying" the drive and making the long lines of followers nuts with drivers rage.
(side note: most of the bad words I know in Italian I learned on the road. Drivers dont hesitate to fling insults to each other on their mothers...I've learned a lot of ways to insult mammas in various dialects) One of the worst things about slow drivers in little scenic roads is the eventual need to use the bathroom and the lack of one available. No Walmart, no gas station, and no McDonalds. The roads are often stopped by traffic of some poor mom who jumps out to help her 4-year-old boy go pee-pee on the side of the road while drivers fling insults not knowing it is a mom. Seeing it is a mom usually stops the insults bringing back memories of going pee-pee on the road themselves at the tender age of 4.
The only option to reach a bathroom with dignity in Italy is to eat and pay first in a bar (coffee shops that also sell wine). Im sure bathroom-needs encourage local bars to hike up their prices in the summer time. Cokes cost 3 euros, beer almost 5 and all given with a smug grin of the barista who knows why you are really there....even the turkish style toilets seam to be part of the joke.
"I payed 3 euros for a warm soda and have to use a turkish toilet?!" I know I'm not the only one thinking this....
Praying. Oh how I prayed today. On the way back home we took the "panoramic" route (horror highway) that was a 2 lane street going sharply up a mountain and turned into a windy 1 lane street with sharp turns and occasional siderails. Horror. Then the suspense increased at every blind turn where another car, usually a large one was coming towards us and each driver had to inch to the very edge to sqeeze past alive.
Terror. These driving experiences have hurled a very honest "Mamma mia!" out of me. Palms sweat, I think of the babies I never made, wasted college degrees, who will feed the cats when I die. Will it hurt flying over the cliff?...etc..mamma mia...
Loving. It was my fiance's random day off, he was exhausted from work but wanted to take me out anyway. How unselfish and thoughtful is that? Drove in tourist traffic when he drives everyday and needs a break, bought overpriced drinks so I could use a bathroom, took me to see a castle knowing I have a facination for them even if he could care less and was cool and relaxed on the panoramic terror route when I was digging my nails in the car seat and uttering stomach churning prayers.
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