May 24, 2010
It has been a mixed day, full of excitement, relief and terror. The terror was entirely related to driving in the Alps. The rest was about beginning the next leg of our trip.
We had our usual breakfast with my aunt outside, on yet another spectacularly beautiful day. It has been sunny and hot ever since we arrived in Piemonte - almost too hot by moments, but we have not complained! Sunscreen, hats and when needed, shade, have provided the
relief from the worst of it.
We set off a little after 10 in my aunt's car. She and my cousins had insisted that it was ridiculous for us to rent a car when my aunt has hers and she nearly never drives it; she relies on her sons to get her
what she needs or to drive her where she needs to go. We finally agreed to take her car, if for no other reason than they wouldn't tell us where to rent one. And wouldn't you know it, but Federico gets a job and has to go off to work for four days in Milan, more or less marooning my aunt at her house, which is in the country, a kilometre or two from town. But my aunt just laughed it off and said that I must be a good luck charm since Federico hasn't worked in a year and a half
and suddenly he had two jobs: one on Saturday and Sunday, and another this week.
So off we went. I don't know how to drive a manual transmission car, thus Derek is the default driver. That makes me the navigator, which is the opposite of how we do things at home. I knew it couldn't go well for us. I don't read maps in a hurry, so if/when we take a wrong turn, I can't find our location fast and I often have to stop. Derek, on he other hand, can figure out in seconds where we are. What I do best is watch for signs and remember landmarks, not burying my nose in a map.
The first part of the trek was a breeze: we found our way to the toll highway and made it to Aosta, the capital of Valle d'Aosta. Finding
our way to the apartment, however, was another story. Derek had the address, and we bought a map, but the map wasn't detailed enough and we ended up driving around in circles, at times stalling the car on hills, having to turn around on very narrow streets, and having some rather upset Italian and French drivers on our tails.
We finally called the man who is renting us the apartment, and he met up with us to show us the way.
Our new home was worth the wait, and perhaps even the stress of driving around here. The house is built on the side of the mountain; we're overlooking the valley below and have a view of snow-capped mountains in front and to the side. Apparently, we're lucky to see the snow: normally, most of it on these peaks would be gone by this time of year, but all the cool temperatures and rain we got on our first two weeks in May made it so that it snowed up here.
The girls are very happy with the apartment: they have bunkbeds in the loft and a ton of places to hide or just curl up in. Maia even hung up all her clothes in her child-sized closet.
We had no food in the house so a trip down the mountain to town was in order. We wandered along the main street of Aosta for a couple of hours, then did some groceries and came home. There were more stalls, more turning around and more getting lost (the maps are horrendous). Maia and Solanne, being children, at times wanted to talk to us, at times wanted to understand what was going on. Derek and I asked them a number of times to stay quiet so we could figure out what we were doing. Quiet isn't always their forte, and the stress of the driving and navigating got to us, and we both yelled at the kids. Soon we had
honking drivers behind the car and crying children in it - and even more stressed parents trying to find our way back.
The best part about being a parent is that your kids love you. And they have an amazing ability to forgive. The moment the car was safely parked in its spot behind our building, Derek turned around and apologised and explained what was going on when we were driving. We got hugs and kisses and a whole lot of loving and forgiveness.
It took me the better part of the evening to unwind and let go of the day. I hope that we get our bearings soon and that I can start to enjoy travelling around the most beautiful area we have seen our whole trip.
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