Funny Update!

Upon leaving Reggio Emilia, we headed for Venice.  The first order of business was to find parking, which turned out to not be that easy.  Our van couldn’t fit into the underground parking as we needed well over 2m to get in.  Several times we had to try to back out of the in because we had discovered the entrance to the underground parking was not tall enough.  Finally we found an underground park that was 2.30m tall, so in we went.  First we tried to get in the wrong entrance, so once again backed out, after being told by some people it was the wrong way.  We found the correct entrance and cruised in, with our expectant faces pressed to the windows…. only to discover it was an underground mechanics workshop!   It was pretty full of cars with their bonnets up and Italian grease monkeys with spanners in their hands.  They gawked at us incredulously, while we spluttered and giggled and made that’s life gestures out the windows.  We rolled on round the small workshop and back up the ramp, onto the street, exploding with laughter!

In Cinque Terre, we hopped on the Train and stood in the same area as a policeman.  Someone made a crack about Jan and the pole and perhaps she could do her thing on the train.  We of course meant handstands, as per Reggio Emilia, but I suspect the cop could only translate very small portions of the conversation and I also suspect he took Jan’s skill to be something along the lines of a pole dancer!  He couldn’t take his eyes off her.  Alex noticed first and nudged me and Jan noticed and soon everyone was holding on for grim death to not be the first to laugh!  They do carry guns you know.

We stopped to have a look at the Leaning Tower of Pisa and immediately got set upon by Hawkers from Senegal.  It was true “wanna buy a watch” stuff and they had every rip off brand you could possibly imagine.  They start by giving you bead bands from their country and they put them on you as you wave your hand ‘No’ then they say Euro 2, Euro 2, so you end up giving them money because they are so pushy!  Iain ended up buying an Omega fake for Euro 10, which had started off at Euro 65!  We told the guys to watch our van and if it was all good when we got back, we might buy something else (they had bags, watches, sunglasses- all fakes of course) .  After the photos and having a look round Pisa we went back to the van and I had taken Euro 10 out of my wallet and put it in my pocket.  When the guy came up, I said I had Euro 10 and that was all I had, so if he wanted to sell me a watch, that was it.  I chose a Guess fake and he said Euro 10.  We exchanged and then he started ‘this not good deal for me, I need more” he named a few amounts to which I just kept saying “that’s all I’ve got”  He kept bleating on about it being a bad deal for him so I said, “well give me my money back and you can keep the watch” Eventually after his nagging, I gave him back the bead band he had placed on my wrist and I had fronted with Euro 1 and said, “here, you can sell this again, that makes us square” to which I nearly took the top of his hair off shutting the sliding door!