Three Weeks to Go

With only three weeks to go before our trip, we have emailed quite a few Bed & Breakfast trying to secure a place to lay our heads when we are tired.  We have planned almost half of our trip so far.  It is hard to believe that the first time we travelled in Europe, we just jumped in a car and drove.  We made no arrangements or plans.  We just took our Big Book of Europe and drove.  The Joys of Youth .

The first half of our trip will have a little bit more driving than the second half.  This will carry us from our start in Milan, Italy  through the Italian/ French Alps, down towards the French and Italian Riviera that boards the Ligurian Sea. 

We have booked just a few of the places that we visited on our first Honeymoon.  When Graziella asked me where I wanted to travel to this time, the first place that I thought of was Aosta, Italy.

 

You see, as I told you we did not pre-book any lodging on our first honeymoon.  These two young newlyweds landed in Rome and proceeded to drive north along the major autostradas. All was going well until we tried to get to Genoa.  We miscalculated the time and arrived just past dark.  We did not want to try to find a place to stay in this large city at night, so we decided to keep on travelling hoping to find a place further north.  We we did not.  We had to stop, tired and exhausted on a small truck stop in the middle of the Italian Alps.  I told Graziella that I needed some rest.  We decided to sleep in the car.  Yes in the car... on our Honeymoon.  During the middle of the night, while both of us were very much asleep, we were awoken by a very loud rapping on the window and a very bright light in out eyes.  I very cautiously inched the window open to see a uniform of an Italian Police Officer.  I was glad Graziella could communicate with him, but I did not like what was been translated.  The officer told us that he thought that the both of us were dead, because the location where we were parked was famous for thieves cutting the throats of stranded tourists and stealing all of their belongings. I don't have to tell you that we did not sleep the rest of the night.

In the morning, we continued our honeymoon trip, but this time we started to take the small and quieter highways.  The first small town that we arrived at was Aosta.  After that terrible night our honeymoon had a much slower and memorable feel.  I guess it is true that you are given what you can handle and help when you can't.