Days of Thunder

20/5.  and also some 21/5
Today we left Pistoia, Jackie and Peter to travel to Gab's ancestral home, ie,  her dad's village, Sefro.

This involved a train trip to Florence (easy), to  pick up a rental car (not).  We arrived at Europa Rentals 2 hours prior to our booking to find a crowded street, cars everywhere and a long line of fellow tourists with giant suitcases lined up outside the office, in the sun.  Imagine 'our' reaction.
After nearly two hours of waiting and signing papers,  we were ready for our car, a Mercedes instead of the BMW we had expected. Oh well.

And so it began. First issue was turning it on, then working all the gadgets and then trying to program the Tom Tom.  Our wonderful friends, Lee-Anne and Kevin had lent us their Tom Tom with Italy all programmed in which sounded simple.  Until faced with a strange car, packed streets, right side driving and an audience of fellow waiting renters (in the middle of Florence).  And just for fun, the fact the Europa office was opposite a Caribinieri station (think police but will explain later),  meant the Tom Tom did not work.
Gab drove.
And she eventually got the Tom Tom programmed and working. We had a lovely, though somewhat unexpected drive around some back streets in Florence until we finally got on to the main road out of that scary place.

A couple of Autostradas later, Paul also drove and did the last part to Sefro (ancestral home) around narrow curves and small villages. Hardest part is remembering to leave enough room on the right hand side of the car. Kept almost hitting the right hand kerb which is pretty scary for the passenger sitting in the gutter so to speak, though at times, quite literally.  Actually much easier to drive than be the passenger as we were warned.  The front passenger seat is  henceforth known as the 'seat  of death'.

As it turns out, Paul is better at being the driver and Gab is better at being the passenger. hmmmm.

Wonderful to arrive in Sefro and see the family and the waterfall again..

Our house, in the middle of the street, (repeat)

The waterfalls are still spectacular running through the village.