Day 14: A butterfly flaps it's wings

Well, we are about to embark on the most disasterous day of the whole vacation so strap yourselves in and return your seats to the upright and locked positions.  There is turbulance ahead.

The alarm rings at 4am and we jump out of bed before we can be lured back to sleep.  It's time to get up and get Brian and Shannon to the train station so Brian can get to Florence for his 11am-ish flight back to the U.S.  We all make good time and hop in the car and drive to the little town of Buonconvento where the train station is.  As we pull into the tiny parking lot we look across the street to the bar that sells the train tickets and it's pitch dark...as I feared it would be.  As we were figuring out what to do Brian says, "Guys, I left my jacket back at the villa.  And it has my wallet and passport in it."  So, it's 5:30am and the train leaves at 5:55am.  We try to haul ass back to the villa but time is not on our side as it's a little over a 10 minute drive each way.  Couple this with the fact that we were already on fumes in our little car and had to slide into a gas station to get some fuel there was no way in hell we were going to make it back in time for that train which would have been the last one that could make it on time for his flight. 

Hungry, under-caffinated and in a panic we try to think of solutions.  I tell Brian to get on the phone and see if the airlines can offer any solutions.  Dan and I are willing to help pay to change the flight if it's reasonable instead of having to drive over 2 hours each way to get him to the airport and back and miss the remaining family and friends leaving us that day.  Of course there is a 20 minute wait...on international cell phone rates but Brian waits it out and when someone answers on the other end it's an amount way out of our league so....let's get on the road, everyone back to the car.  We jump back in and Dan turns the key and the car starts to gurgle and sputter and I smell gasoline and tell everyone to jump out of the car.  It's a diesel.  In our bleary-eyed rush poor Dan accidentally put regular gas in the diesel.  He was told that the regular gas nozzles wouldn't fit in a diesel and the handle was green which here in the states indicates diesel.  But of course it's opposite in Italy!  Dan goes to wake up Ryan becasue he knows cars.  He says we are screwed so we ask him if we can borrow his car and he tosses us the keys.  I ask him if they can please help us out by calling Hertz/a tow truck to see if we can get this fixed and he, like a CHAMPION, says they will.  Dan runs down the hill to the parking area and we hear a "crunch" and when he gets up the hill and we get in he says he backed out and the side mirror hit the pole and crunched and fell out.  He picked it up and basically crammed it back in and it stayed!  This morning is really racking up the $$$, we will tell Ryan later that we will pay for that if they notice at the rental place.  Now...back on the road.

We stop for a bite to eat and drink some liquid energy once we are safely on the road for a while.  I love that all the rest stops have these giant containers of Nutella that Dan particularly fell in love with.  We wanted to bring some back for all of you but buying that many seats on a plane to get them here just wasn't going to happen.

Fortunatley we made it to the Florence Airport without much incidence and in time.  Brian hops out and runs in and Shannon hugs us and wanders off to find a ride into town.  We re-program the GPS to get us back home but it shouldn't be too difficult, the highway was right near the airport.  Which is why I'm a bit surprised when we start driving away from the highway....and into the center of Florence.  "What is up with this GPS Dan?  Why the heck is it taking us into the busy, confusing heart of Florence?" 
"Hmmmm....I may have hit a button here....hang on.....yup."
"What button?"
"No toll roads route."
"What?  Why would you do that?  You drove us here and the highways were fine."
"I DON'T KNOW!"
hahahahaa...I love this man so much.  Isn't he adorable?  *Please note that conversation may have gone slightly different but you get the gist.*
Anyway, we re-re-program it and it takes us past where we stayed in Florence and we both sigh wistfully and then get back on the highways.

We are getting close to Siena when we get a call from Carrie and she says that they called a tow truck out and they came and got the car and she managed to communicate enough with him to learn that we couldn't have it back.  Hertz said they were going to reserve another car for us and call Carrie back when they had one.  I was hoping that they would call us before Siena since we were right there but they didn't.  I called them a little past Siena and the lady at Hertz said they reserved a car at some city WAY off from where we were and I asked her if there was a Hertz in Buonconvento and she said yes so we were happy becasue we were going to pass right through there and could pick it up and forget about all that had happened.  We pull into Buonconvento and go into the bar that sells the train tickets and ask where the Hertz rental car place is.  Everyone just looks at us like we are speaking a foreign language...because we ARE!  The lady didn't speak any English and the cute little gaggle of old men at the table didn't either.  Finally an old guy walked in who everyone for some reason thought could help us but he didn't speak English either.  I manage to put enough Italian words together so he knew what we needed.  He takes us outside the bar and I thought was going to point us in the right direction.  Instead he signals for us to get into his very old Fiat.  I look at Dan like, "What the hell, he's old, how much trouble could we be in for?"  Isn't that how horror movies start?  Anyway, he drives us down the road to a mechanics and we see our rental car!  He introduces us to a young mechanic who thankfully speaks English.  We ask him about a rental place and he says he rents cars but he's not Hertz and there is no Hertz in town.  Awesome.  So I call Hertz back and they confirm there is not and that Siena is the closest.  Sigh....

Dan and I walk back to Ryan's car and go back to the villa to figure out what to do.  We are just so exhausted and can't think straight.  When we get there all of my family except my parents had already left and we didn't get to say goodbye which was a giant bummer.  Ryan and Carrie and Sal and Reen were waiting for us to get back with Ryan's car becasue they needed to get on the road to Rome for a special reservation they had later that day.  Once they left, we would be stuck at the villa without a car.  I had to go to our room for some "get my head together time" but Dan came in to get me to tell me I had to come see what was going on.  Apparently Sal and Reen had a LOT of luggage and they were attempting to get all of it plus Ryan and Carrie's luggage into Ryan's very tiny rental car.  Poor Ryan was outside trying to cram everything in while Sal was inside having some coffee and leisurely conversation ...hahahaa!  Ryan finally had to give the bad news that there was no way in hell it was going to happen so Sal and Reen decided they would take a train and meet them in Rome so Ryan took them down to the train station in Buonconvento and came back to get his lovely bride.  In the meantime we had to decide that our only choice was for Dan to go by train to Siena and try to find the rental car place and try to get a new car.  Unfortunately that meant we had to ask Ryan if he could now take Dan back to Buonconvento.  Sorry Ryan!  We were feeling so guilty at this point and Ryan and Carrie had been SO incredibly helpful and patient.

Ryan helped us out immensly and drove Dan to the train station.  I had to give Dan my cell phone and set myself up to be able to make calls from Skype since I would be the only one with a phone once Ryan and Carrie were free of the mayhem.  I think at some point while they were gone I had a tearful breakdown and Carrie had to console me....lol!  Sorry Carrie.   I'm sure Ryan and Carrie were so relieved to burn rubber out of the villa finally!  Turns out Dan ran into Sal and Reen sitting in the sun having some breakfast waiting for the train and he got to travel with them to Siena which was nice!  I called Dan about every 15 minutes which I'm sure was mega annoying but I was so worried about him and he couldn't call me.  It took Dan quite a while to find the Hertz becasue it was in some very wonky location and difficult to get to.  Apparently he had to wander around some weird underground mall thing where it was not apparent how to get out of and he walked through a door and set off the emergency alarm.  I asked him if he could please ask them for a bigger car becasue I decided we should pack up my parents and drive them to Bologna and then head out to the coast instead of putting them on a train the next day.  When he got to Hertz the guy told him he had reserved a Smart Car for us...hahahaa!  I'm just picturing my 6' 7" father trying to fold himself into there.  Anyway, they had a really nice bigger car and the guy got Dan all set up after making a little jab about making sure he knew it was a DIESEL.  Pride a little wounded but relieved to have a car my weary hubby got on the road back to us!

Dan pulled into the driveway around 5:30 or 6pm and I've never been more relieved to see him.  Amazing how a little thing like a forgotten jacket can change the course of 12 hours.  In order to salvage the day we grabbed my parents and headed up to Montalcino.  We wandered around for a bit and took some photos and went back to the place we were at the night before for dinner.  We devoured some pizzas and beer and wine and went back to the "usual place" for gelato.  As we were leaving the gelateria we saw a crowd gathering at the top of the hill so we went up to investigate.  There were a bunch of men dressed up in old time garb and they had flags and musical instruments.  They looked like they were representing different towns or clans or something.  We never figured out what it was all about but it was pretty cool to see them parade by!  When we got back to the villa I think we just totally crashed out in bed, trying to sleep off the trauma of the day. 

Tomorrow, bittersweet goodbye to the villa and off to the beach!
A few photos from the day here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjA71nZA