The Italian Way and Evil Trolls

Today I decided that I would do something about the car.  I was going to tackle getting an estimate on Monday, but the car would not start.  There is a mechanic in town who graciously came and tried to start it.  The battery was dead although  I have no idea why.  He was finally able to start it with a boost.  I called the insurance company yesterday and they said they would send a mechanic this morning at 9:00 but would send me a message first to confirm.  I never received a message from them, but cell service is anything but reliable here, so I called them this morning.  After many calls with bad connections they finally said the mechanic was on his way.  It turns out he was at my car waiting for the key, God knows how he found the car when all he had was the address of the house.  In this village there are public parking lots so that cars do not block the streets.  I arrived and gave him the key and he tried many times to start the car and to determine if the problem was the battery or not.  Once he finally got it started by boosting it, I was instructed to go to the Peugeot dealer in Sienna immediately and not to turn the car off until I got there....however; no one had an address of the dealership I was instructed to visit.    I knew I was low on gas and papers and wallet were back at the house.  Finally the mechanic remembered that he thought the dealership was on a street which he spelled out for me so I could program into the GPS.  So after a brief stop at the house off I went.  I had programmed the GPS to take the shortest route, which was very pretty but also slow going with many hairpin turns and blind corners.

Because it took so long for the insurance company to decide on a plan, it was almost 11:30 when I left for Siena which is only 45 kilometres away. I arrived in Siena at 12:15 and began my search for a Peugeot Dealership.  I found one in an industrial area which seemed also to be a Kia dealership.  I pulled into their parking lot and a man came out to tell me that the garage was closing until 3:00.  He tried to start the car and it started immediately.  He turned it off and tried again but it would not start. He said he would have to order a new battery and it would not be ready until 4:00.   I asked if there was anything in the area, someplace I could go.  He showed me a little snack bar down the road and I wondered how I could possibly spend 4 hours there.  It was a hot day and the snack bar was not air conditioned.  I spotted a grocery store across the street and entered just to browse and get cool. My intention was to get the battery fixed and then get the estimate to repair the damage to the car body at the same time, with any luck maybe they could take the car now, do the estimate and repair the damage in the next few days.  The insurance company said they would provide me with a rental car in the meantime.

 I returned to the dealership at 2:45 and waited for them to reopen.  The mechanic told me that they could not give an estimate or repair the damage done by previous mishap, the car would have to go to another Peugeot dealership 8 kilometres away.  I asked him if he could call them and make an appointment for me as I don’t speak Italian,  I also asked for the address so I could program the GPS. He did not know the address, or the phone number.  By this  time it was 4:30 and I really wasn’t up for yet another “adventure” to try to find the other dealership.   I did ask him if he could find out the address and phoine number for me but he did not seem to know how to do that.  I guess Italy does not have phone books and Italian car dealerships don’t have the internet.   By this time I was getting irritated.  The last time I had spoiken to the insurance company I had told then that after the battery was fixed I would go to the other dealership to arrange for a damage estimate.  \judt as |I was about to leave to go back to Castelmuzio, the mechanic said to me that I can’t get the repair done in Italy anyway, the insurance would not pay and I would have to pay for it out of my own pocket.  He told me to check the fine print of the rental agreement.  Now I was really mad!  Why did he waste my time talking about another dealership for the body repairs if it could not be done through the insurance?  Why diod n’t he tell me this sooner?  Was this just something to make me go away? 

I went to the closest gas bar and filled the tank.  I reprogrammed the GPS for the fastest way home and ended up on the highway.  Once off the highway the GPS led me astray twice and I had to make u turns to get back on track.  Very close to home, in a tiny village high on a hilltop the GPS got confused again.  It told me to take a narrow street and then told me to turn left. I had heard this before... After the previous experience in Trequanda  I knew not to trust the GPS and when the street got so narrow I did not think I could pass, I had to make a 10 point turn to turn around and go back the way I came.   This caused me to wonder how often the GPS is wrong and why it seems to happen in these tiny villages where the buildings are very close together and the streets very narrow.  I imagined some evil troll who could manipulate GPS directions and who took delight in sending tourists astray.  Maybe GPS’s are  also cameras taking secret videos of frustrated drivers led astray so their mishaps  could  be shared with other trolls who would laugh endlessly at human stupidity.  Far fetched?  Maybe, but I bet someone is laughing and it isn’t the frustrated drivers!