Breakdown!

Going up into the hill to Deruta, I was stuck behind a car going veeeery sloooooowly. My little sweet thing started acting strangely, and then completely stalled out. Okay, fine, just pull the starter again, right? Except there was absolutely niente in response.

Next plan: let myself drift back down the hill in the hopes of turning it around & roll starting. Unfortunately, the road was a wee bit narrow, so I wasn't able to turn as far as I would have liked; I ended up nose uphill, across a narrow road. Hmm.

Onto plan C: pull out the cell phone and call Claudio & Daniele, staunch speed dial allies. The conversation was short and sweet...because of course at THAT point, my cell phone decided that it wanted to alert me to a dying battery. However, Daniele told me that he had a friend in Deruta, no problem, and if the friend couldn't come, he himself would come rescue me. I described where we were, and all Angela and I had left to do was wait and watch the other cars try to get by my sweet thing.

Not a shabby view to look at while waiting on the mechanic

Medieval wash basins outside the town walls

I finally got to use the triangle stashed in the trunk!
Which, ironically, a driver ran over and flattened....

While we were waiting, the most enormous potato chip delivery van (think a Lay's delivery truck...that style) drove up. If you can tell in the picture, the wall curves at that point. So going through can be tricky in a wide vehicle. The young driver inched up as far as he felt comfortable, engaged the parking brake, and looked through the passenger window to check out his room. With an inch to spare on each side, he made it through! Bravo! He even stopped to help by pushing the car, but when he heard that the mechanic was on his way, decided that it could wait.

That was contrasted by other, more experience drivers in smaller cars who were completely unnerved by the situation.

Eventually (within about 15 minutes, I'm guessing), up came our hero -- but I've unfortunately forgotten his name now. He clearly had never seen the guts of a cinquecento, but was very brave. He called Daniele for advice, then decided that I needed a new battery. Maybe. 

At that point, I gave him my keys and cell phone number (with the instruction not to call me unless he really needed me because of the phone battery situation), and told him that Ang and I would be wandering in the town. 

We had only been in the first shop for 5 minutes when the call came: "Your car's all ready." So out we popped, looked over the wall to the scene of abandonment, and it was gone! Gah! putt.putt.putt. I looked behind me, and there he was! My new best friend with my little car putting merrily away! Turned out that the battery had managed to slide against the carriage of the car and had shorted out -- leaving us without our auxiliary power on the uphill! He had provided a "temporary" fix (meaning, I'm sure, spacers made from cardboard boxes) and instructed me to see Daniele because he didn't want to poach clients. Are you kidding me?  

Upon asking what I owed, he said "nothing, no problem." I fixed him with a steely eye & told him he was being ridiculous and that that answer would not work for me. He offered, "10 euros, then."

Love,

Alexandra