If my readers aren’t bored with tales of travel nightmares, I’d like to give them one more, which is instructional. Indeed, in the wake of this journey, I finally learned my lesson that if I had preplanned our trip, the following wouldn’t have happened.
A few years ago, we vacationed in Italy, basically a completion of a previous trip during which we’d had plans to go from Florence to Rome. It was short-circuited when one of my attorney husband’s clients woke us in the middle of the night demanding that David high-tail it back to Los Angeles because the Feds were going to arrest his son. That’s another story — one we’d like to forget.
This trip, we were going to tour Pompeii, then on to Sorrento for the catamaran to Capri, once the playground of Roman emperors. This was the second time we had schlepped six pieces of heavy luggage, deluding ourselves that we really needed all of that stuff.
We arrived in Pompeii, and it was all I expected and more. Meandering through the ruins of the once-elegant city was like a free fall back in time. The only thing we didn’t find was the storied directional sign to the bordello.
About mid-way through our tour, it began to rain, and we figured that we should head on to Sorrento. Although it hadn’t been possible to book the ferry to Capri in advance, we didn’t give much thought to the schedule, believing we had plenty of time. As we entered the car park in Sorrento, the attendant asked how long we would be and I told him, “three days because we’re catching the ferry.” He looked at me in wonder and said: “The last ferry today is about to leave! Okay, here’s what you can do; your husband and I will park the car, you take a couple of lighter pieces luggage, run to the boat and let them know you’re coming,” he said, helpfully. “Your husband can bring the rest and meet you, there.”
I don’t believe that I’ve ever run that fast. Thankfully, it was downhill. As I got near the boat’s boarding ramp I asked the attendant how long before departure, then panicked when he responded with an I-don’t-speak-English shrug. I pleaded, “could you please hold the boat!” promising that my husband was coming. Thinking back, I can’t believe I asked that. Scheduled boat departures don’t hold for tardy passengers.
Now, mind you, David was 75 years old and running slightly over his normal weight at the time, and I worried that he could have a heart attack running with four pieces of luggage, none of which was on wheels. I was sweating bullets as I heard the boat’s horn, signaling departure at any second. Then I saw him. He was jogging with a suitcase over each shoulder, one around his neck, and another in his hand. What probably took him five minutes to reach me felt to me like an hour. I grabbed what I could from him, hearing the hum of the ramp. I turned around, and the smiling attendant ushered us aboard.
This vacation had a happy ending but missing that boat would have resulted in us having to sleep in our car until the next day’s first boat to Capri. Before departing L.A., we had tried to book a hotel in Sorrento for our night of arrival, but the hotels were full. So, we booked three nights on Capri, instead, pre-paying the first night at $600. Missing that ferry would have been a big loss.
The take-away, of course, is to do one of two things: book through a travel agent who can schedule your trip with an itinerary. An agent provides you with travel segments that include distances and length of time necessary to arrive or depart the next leg of the journey. Or, do your homework; Google, upload GPS maps to your Garmin Nüvi, make sure you’ve got up to date in-country navigation maps, and plot your trip before you leave home.
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