Day 3 (Life Reclaimed)

Day 3 - So our romantic third day in Italy begins at the Naples Police Station.  We had a note the police had written at the scene last night to hand to the guy in charge in Naples so he would know what to do.  It must have said, "treat these guys like idiots and talk real loud and fast".  Well, good luck for once.....the nearby hospital hires an English interpreter every tourist season, so this Chief of Whatever calls and gets her to come over.  I think this picture is from the time she expressed shock that Cherie would pay $225.00 for a cigarette lighter!  Cigarette lighter?  Well how else would you interpret "Kindle Fire"?  I'm serious.

Working through a translator doing  the Police report

With all the people in the police station, this Chief's typing and another woman's loading the copy machine several times, this was the only actual work being done in the place. So.......with a police report in hand, we were ready to move on.  This time to the consulate for Cherie's new passport.  This involved actually driving in a large Italian City, where no one can drive a car larger than a VW because every inch of the road is packed.  NO ONE pays attention to marked lines on the road!  Ask anyone who has driven there!  Every car we saw, which was thousands, had dings and dents.  And you see them really well because they are two inches from your face!  Motorcyclists drive and weave across double yellow lines and will go anywhere....sidewalks, between parked cars, etc.

US Consulate in Naples

Cherie and Karl go in and Martin and I wonder what in the world to do because we knew this would be hours.  We can't find a parking space and it would cost us a small fortune if we did.  Luckily, we found a space kitty corner from the consulate, on the outside lane of a round about with some yellow stripes painted on the spot.  We know from experience that these don't mean anything to Italians.  Perfect!  We parked and waited.  Every once in awhile, we would take our life in our hands and drive around the block, just in case we missed seeing them come out.  Well, evidently, on one of those trips, they came out and looked for us.  We were nowhere in sight so they looked where we had parked previously.  A couple of hours later, Karl shows up at our car window.  Ah, finally.  Now we get something to eat at a cafe across from the consulate.  Food is good but expensive.  I get in a conversation with a couple that has a wife who speaks perfect English and a husband who can barely speak any.  They have been married 34 years.  She was from New York and went to Italy for fun, met this Italian guy, got married two days later.  Still Happy!  Just had first grandchild.

We go on and drive to Sorrento that night.  GPS doesn't work and we are lost.  We think we know where we are going, but the toll road we need to take is closed because it is Sunday we guess and they don't want to pay their tollworkers.  The drive involves wild guesses and alot of time.  Luckily, we call our Hotel and they are willing to wait for us.