A funny thing happened to me while I was wandering around Rome…
I look like a tourist. I wear comfortable shoes, shorts and have a camera permanently wrapped around my neck. I was getting my bearings on my first day by wandering around taking photos. I’d ventured out past the Piazza del Popolo into a more residential area, when a flustered woman approached me.
“Scuzi, Senora,” she said, before asking me for what – in any language – were clearly directions.
I was taken somewhat aback, and thought: lady, can’t you see I’m a tourist?
So I said in my best Italian: “Tourista!” and shrugged.
She got the message that I couldn’t help her even If I wanted to, and promptly found someone else to advise her. I was a bit chuffed, though, that a native thought I was one of “her” people!
A funny thing happened on the way to Civitavecchia…
I had organised a shuttle to pick me up to take me to the ship. Eventually, Francesco showed up, more than an hour and a half late. He proceeded to drive down the Via del Corso (my hotel was located just off this street) when he got pinged for driving in a pedestrian only area. He was fined 300 euros, which was around AUD$350. He was fuming. “I just go where they tell me to go,” he told the cop (and every cop he saw after that).
Half way to the port, he said to me: “Ms Lee, you are handicapped. Your right knee.”
“No, Francesco,” I said. “I am not handicapped. My knee is fine.”
He insisted, and then I finally caught on. He had the bright idea of using me and my “handicap” to get out of his fine. I was so impressed with his brilliance, I agreed to help him.
So I wrote a pro forma saying I was handicapped and that it was impossible for me to walk and he had to drive up the Via del Corso to pick me up.
Ten points for innovation, Francesco!
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