Vegetation – Road Signs – The Sweet Smell of the Strimmer – Road Laying Machines – Roofrack Of The Day
1. Vegetation
We’ve been in “Mediterranean Arid” (as I think Kew would call it) pretty well since crossing over the central Bulgarian hills, but in Italy it’s definitely different. Trees to inspire Roger Dean, often full of extremely noisy colonies of parakeets (actually I think that’s the only sort of parakeet there is). And prickly pears. This feels pleasantly foreign at last.
2. Road Signs
Italy has a habit of saving money on road signs by putting two on one stick. This gives plenty of opportunity for musing about what they really mean. “Beware of falling cows” is shown in the picture.
“Swerving round wild animals can cause fog” was another favourite.
And the highly-specific “beware of deer for 10,200m” which was actually a single sign in Serbia but still makes me smile to remember it.
3. Ah, the sweet sweet scent of the strimmer
Yes, we are back in strimmerland, but the seasons have moved on, the grasses and flowers are setting their seed and Germaine Greer will be less upset about it. Mediterranean verges seem to contain a lot of herbs so we are cycling through the smell of crushed mint and thyme. Yummy. As long as you don’t get too relaxed by it and drift out into the paths of the other traffic trying to avoid the verge-trimming machinery.
4. The unsteerable road-laying machine.
We came across some very nice sections of road as we descended from the Appenines (did you see how I nonchalantly did that bit of place-name-dropping) but, mysteriously, they were only on the straight bits of road.
“Hey Massimo.”
“Yes Giovanni?”
“This is a great road laying machine isn’t it?”
“I should say so!”
“I especially like the way that it can lay roads in a straight line automatically.”
“Yes, that-a is fantastic-a” (sorry I forgot to add on the Italian accent)
“Actually, do you know how to make it turn corners?”
“No, we never-a did-a that in the basic training course.” (I might stop with the accent now)
“Hmm. OK let’s do the straight bits and we can come back and do the wiggles once we’ve done the advanced course.”
5. The game of li-lo and Roofrack of the Day was won simulaneously by a woman in Civitavecchia driving her car along while holding a slightly floppy inflated double mattress on the roof with her left hand.
“Hey Silvia.”
“Yes Flavia?” (sorry I only seem to be able to remember names from my Ecce Romani Basic Latin course)
“My-a lovely son is coming to stay with his worthless wife. I need to find a bed for them, ideally one that is slightly uncomfortable so that she will go home early.”
“OK-a. I have an inflatable mattress but no pump-a.”
“Hmm. We-a can’t inflate those by blowing into them, can we?”
“No-a way, it took me several hours to get it blown up now even with a borrowed pump-a. Tell-a you what, I will bring it over blown up, that will sort things out. And if it is-a a little floppy, then maybe she will-a go home early!”