Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh Napoli!


Well October rolled around and it was time for the cats to come to Italy. So my parents made arrangements to fly with the them under the seat, they all flew to Rome first class of course. During the flight Mum would take Sebastian to the bathroom to smell things (LOVELY) and Coco just traveled from lap to lap sampling the many delicacies that first class has to offer! That is still an issue for my husband, the cats have flown first class and he never has! Poetic justice I guess. Anyway, Mike and I met the whole gang in Rome.

Now it was time to drive to Naples, 2 hours south of Rome. It’s not a bad drive, but when you have been on a plane for 24 hours it can be a little hectic, you see Italians don’t drive like Americans. Matter of a fact, Italians don’t drive, they "race" down the Autostrade, especially southern Italians. Mike and I soon learned that if we were going to get anywhere in Italy we better learn to drive like an Italian. What’s the saying? When in Rome, do as the Romans. Well we did. So we were in the car racing down the Autostrade to Naples going about 100 MPH when Sebastian decided that it was time to pee. He was sitting on Dad's lap and he looked back at me and did his pee pee meow! I immediately showed him the box on the back dash of the car. He tip toed over Dad, luggage and coats to get back there and then.....peed and peed! Thank god Mike didn't have to slam on the brakes or the whole shebang would have flown forward! After he was done, he just settled down for a nap.

When we finally arrived in Naples both the cats started to wrinkle their noses. Naples is quite aromatic so they had a lot to smell. There was burning trash, volcano farts and nasty exhaust from old cars, welcome to Bella Napoli! It had to have been one of the worst pollution days I had ever seen. And we arrived right at rush hour! Then I said, “The only thing that would top this, is a traffic jam in the tunnel.” Need I say more, you guessed it, we got stuck in a traffic jam in the tunnel. As we were sitting there I heard the not so distance siren of an ambulance! Yep, that ambulance needed to get through the tunnel! "Where is he going to go?" my Mum exclaimed! I said "Right here between these cars!" "There's NO ROOM!" She said, "Yeah, I know, so maybe we better put the side view mirrors in." I said in an unusually calm voice. Then here it came, like a Tasmanian Devil! It went right between us and another car, with inches to spare ("good thing we put the mirrors in" I thought) then there were 5 cars in hot pursuit! That is how Neapolitans get through rush hour traffic, they follow ambulances! Just another Naples day! WHEW, glad that ordeal was over, now we can focus on getting home to the peaceful tranquility of our Italian villa. When we arrived, the cats didn't even care, all they wanted was dinner and a big cat nap, can't say I blame them....

No comments: