Day in San Remo

On the 18th of March, a good friend, Helen, and I, went to San Remo to do some shopping and have lunch. We were on a timeframe, as I was going to the dentist back in Monaco at 2:30...so, we went off early.

After a leisurely drive into Italy, we got to San Remo around 10 AM....and found a parking space on the street where Art and I have parked when we went to market there on Saturdays. I parallel parked like a champ...(NY upbringing) and got my parking ticket, put it on my dashboard and off we went to shop.

The day was brilliant, and we so enjoyed the shopping...sweaters, more pashminas, pesto sauce, table cloths, and more!!!

We had a great lunch, PIZZA in a little cafe' with cappuccino...and just talked for a bit.

We headed back to the car as I had paid for three hours, and go there right on time...but, we could not find where I parked the car....we thought, this is the street, this is the spot, but NO CAR!!! Oh my, what a feeling...CAR IS GONE!!! NOT THERE...what to do?

Now, there were soooooo many Policia at the market, trying so hard to catch BUYERS of knock offs, and the sellers just get shooed away....but no, no police to be found!!!

We walked about ten blocks, staying on the same road...and finally came to a news paper stand, where we asked if they knew where we could find the police. The gentleman was nice, spoke a bit of English, and he called the police.....and...lo and behold...they knew right away, they had my car...WITH MONACO PLATES...they knew it and knew someone would be looking for it!!!

Again, we had to walk many more blocks...MANY...and came to the police station, up a hill...Poor Helen trudging along with me.

Of course, I had to PAY to get a release from the police, but not til AFTER I walked ten blocks to get the paperwork out of the car...and when I got there, of course, it was LUNCH TIME...1:30, and they don't reopen for an hour....I waited...and waited...then a car came and opened the gate...a nice woman came to me and asked me if I was looking for my car...of course, I said yes...and she showed me where it was. The nice policia called her on her cell at lunch and told her I would be coming...so she came back quickly...AMAZING!!!!

After retrieving my paperwork, and walking back to the police station, paying my 74 Euro, we headed back to the towing company and paid another 75 Euro there to have them release my car.

Not sure I'll venture out too much in the near future...I do think they towed my car because it had Monaco Plates...getting money out of us "rich"...if we were "rich" we wouldn't be here in the FIRST PLACE...ha ha! No, all kidding aside...I need to read the street markings better, and the road signs...the police said I was in a handicap parking space...it was lined in gold...all others were blue...but in Italy, gold is for handicapped...US is blue...go figure!!!

Well, it's all worked out...we were tired and hot when we arrived home, got a lot of chuckles out of this mess...but, Saturday, we are going AGAIN....SUCKERS!!!!