What did I say in the first blog entry? Something about road signs in other languages? Now it’s happened twice in one day. Funny thing about Europe. Several countries have “low emission zones” and you can’t drive in those zones unless you have a green badge on your car. Of course you have to purchase said badge for a car that you own, and one country’s badge isn’t accepted in a different country. Or at least that’s the best info we could find on the subject. Our car rental agency assured us that all their cars have the badge. Great, but that doesn’t do us any good in Germany or Italy. So, in Germany we managed to avoid all roads in the zone because our GPS notified us where the zones are. In Italy, however, we were searching for a laundromat, received no warning, and ended up smack in the middle of a huge zone encompassing the area around Como. We got ourselves out, but as has happened in the past, we might end up with another letter regarding a fine.
And to add insult to injury, as we scooted down the autostrada, we came to a toll plaza or what we thought was a toll plaza. There we were, faced with a number of lanes, all with signs that we couldn’t read and pictures that looked to me like they might represent credit cards. There were 2 lanes that said, “biglietto”. Since we certainly didn’t have time to whip out the Google Translate, I shouted out, “there, those lanes take credit cards.” And that’s how we found ourselves trapped between a gate that wouldn’t go up and a huge truck on our butt. And that lead to the discovery that biglietto actually means “ticket” and that this isn’t where you pay, only where you get an entry ticket. How can we say “Grazie” to the truck driver who backed all the way out so we could change lanes?
What are the chances that we can now expect a second letter from the Italian authorities?
As for how the languages barriers are going otherwise? In France almost every service provider speaks English and Google Translate took care of everything else. Same thing in Germany and Switzerland, however, few of the menus were in English. With our trusty translator, there was no problem. Unfortunately, we ran into a major issue in Germany. No one in the restaurant spoke English and the menu was in German. The problem? No internet or cell service and I couldn’t figure out what to eat. I held up the process with my dithering for quite a while until I spotted another guest’s meal. It looked ok, so I ordered it, but unfortunately it didn’t taste nearly as good as it looked. And that brings us to Italy.
Our search was for a laundromat with parking, and not in an emission zone. It wasn’t easy to find, but eventually we located one in a small town, Sannazzaro de ‘Burgondi. Of course, being off the beaten track, no one spoke any English, not even the Asian guy who sold us a coke. But we were able to get the laundry done and as it was getting late, set off back down the road toward Nice, over 3 hrs away. Once again we were wondering where’s a McDonalds when you need one. That’s when we came upon a gas station with a little cafe, again where no one spoke English. Google Translate came thru so we could get a slice of undercooked pizza and ensure that our water was still, not fizzy. It seemed like a good plan until I tried the water…which was very fizzy after all… and about 10 miles down the road, we came upon an autostrada service center with an actual McDonald’s.
Maneuvering through all the route changes in Italy was nerve wracking but nothing like maneuvering through Nice looking for our hotel. It was rush hour traffic and our Nav system kept telling us to turn, only for the street to be one way- the other way. Recalculating didn’t happen nearly as quickly as decisions had to be made. But the jewel in the crown was when we discovered that I had only programmed in the street of the hotel, not the actual address. We knew it was a big yellow building, with a parking lot and we found ourselves in front of a big yellow building. It didn’t look like the picture, but hey the GPS said we had reached our destination. Behind the building was a very narrow driveway and I could see a car in there so I told Brian that it must lead to the parking lot. It didn’t and Brian didn’t think he could turn around as the space was very small. You’ve heard of the 3 point turn? It was at least a 7 or 8 point turn! But he made it. It was while he was working on it that I realized my programming error. Got it straightened out and located the real hotel. Unfortunately we saw way more of central Nice than we wanted to.
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