Day 172

After being horrendously unwell on Friday (seriously, I don't even want to know the details of it!) G, the kids and I headed to Treviso for the weekend! It was a rather long car journey, but we were warmly welcomed into G's parents' home at around lunchtime on Saturday. We spent the day there and B arrived in time for dinner in the evening. Then, they all left for the mountains and I stayed in the spare room for the night - I have to say, it was lovely having silence to go to sleep to and silence to wake up to with breakfast on the table!
Sunday was spent with me visiting and exploring Treviso. It was both very cold and very pretty. I didn't really do a lot; I was still pretty exhausted and out of the normal Sunday routine, but an hour spent on a bench listening to a Mr Higham sermon helped (even if I was even more cold afterwards!). My coldness was eased by the purchase of another large jumper and mittens however, and boy was I glad of them later on!
I thought that I had arranged with Nonna and Nonno that I would get the bus back to the house for half past 6, so I began the journey at around half 5 just to be certain (having never used the bus system there and not entirely remembering where the house was). I got on the right bus, but that's as far as the good stuff goes - it was all downhill from there! About half way through the bus journey I pulled out my phone just to check that we were going in the right direction: we were. But then we weren't. "Stay on the bus, it'll get there eventually", I thought to myself, except the bus stopped, turned the engine off and everyone that was left got off. By this point, it was dark out, about 6pm, and I checked Maps to discover I was at least an hour walk away. Perfect. "Don't panic". I went and asked the bus driver (who didn't speak any English, so it was more me pointing at the map and saying a few Italian words) and after much *so much* umming and ahhing and no lo soing he gave me the conclusion that I'd be there at half 6 and he'd call to me for the stop. "Awesome!" I thought, and sure enough, the time came and I got off the bus when he told me to. At this point I called Nonna to let her know that 5 minutes and I'd be back. Except when I called, they were at the station in Treviso waiting to pick me up. (I should point out that neither she nor Nonno speak any English, so my Italian understanding was being pushed to the limits and then some on the phone! But you can now see how a mix up could and did occur...). Anyway, no problem, I would just meet them at the house; so I looked at the pinpoint on my phone and followed the directions...to nowhere. Seriously, I got there and I had no clue as to where I was or anything, and it was at this point that it all just got too much and I decided the best option was to cry *duh, what else is a helpful thing to do...oh yeah...* and to call G to say I'm lost and don't know where I am in the slightest *because he was bound to know. Genius*. He told me the address again, and said to ask someone. (Thus begins the part of this story where things could have gone catastrophically wrong, but by God's grace (no thanks at all to my stupidity) they began to go right!). The first people I saw were two large men walking towards me, so I very shakily (I was still crying) asked them for help to find this house. They took pity on me and instead of just giving me directions told me to follow them, so I did. One proceeded to give me a boiled sweet, which was very tasty and definitely helped the freezing situation, but there was a part of my brain calling me a fool. "You've just accepted a sweet from a strange man on your own in the dark where you don't know where you are...that goes against everything you've been taught!". We wandered around for a good while, all the time they were cracking jokes about walking a small marathon, and not being entirely sure where the house was, but knowing the nub and gist! The same one who gave me the sweet gave me a tissue as well; the sickness from Friday had moved on to a bad cough and cold, so that was a much appreciated gesture! Eventually (after we walked past the same cafe twice and I finally recognised something) we made it to the gates. It was half 7, and I felt so bad for these two guys escorting me for so long that I offered to pay them, which they had none of, and we're very gracious and kind and just seemed happy that I was back safe! Of course I started crying about that too (it had been a long day!) and when Nonno opened the door I was a mess again, apologising a ridiculous amount, to which he replied, "non importa" and gave me a pat on the cheek and helped me inside, where the same followed with Nonna, who was only concerned about the fact I was freezing. I was so grateful to have so many kind people around me that evening! (And to have warm food and a warm bed!)
I went to Venice the day after, but I think that might have to be another blog post..!
Ciao!!