Dave & Meredith’s Travel Blog

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at a sign, a menu or something in a store window here and spent the brain cycles to decipher the Italian only to realize once I’m done that the English was already there right below. But that said, it’s been amusing reading the English because it usually isn’t 100% right. Sometimes it’s technically correct but very flowery or awkward. Sometimes it uses wrong grammar or is misspelled. Sometimes it’s amusing such as the pizzeria in Florence with a handmade sign on the wall. The English part read, “Please retain your paper plate for the inevitable second slice.” Then there’s this one in a public toilet in Manarola where I felt compelled to take a picture:

Now, unless I’ve been doing it wrong all these years, I think you need to flash the toilet before and during the act, not after. Maybe things are different here. I hope I’m not unfairly judging another culture.

- Dave

Here are some pictures of the Incident. I made them all black-and-white to give them that gritty, breaking-news, as-it-happened feel. Trust me, it’s like you’re at the scene.

Above, I’m standing right where the Incident occurred: at the Riomaggiore police station, on the landing of the stairs that are to my right, leading to our parking garage above. Meredith is aided by valiant paramedics to the waiting ambulance. She sets her jaw, a glint appears in her eye, and she boldly hops forward.

Above, Meredith, with ankle wrapped and moving with determination, bravely approaches the ambulance door.

Above, through the ambulance back door, another paramedic straps Meredith in for the twisty, treacherous 20-minute drive down to the emergency room. You can’t see her face but, take it from me, it shows true grit.

Above, the orthopedic technician is overcome with emotion and can’t go on. Meredith must take charge, pointing and directing him on what to do next. Her strength is unwavering.

Above, the next evening, we go to a cafe with rules. Emboldened by the latent reserves of power revealed during the Incident, Meredith laughingly calls them: “rules.”

Above, emboldened by her victorious dance with death, she places her plastered foot on a chair, scoffing at signs clearly meant only for the lesser.

Above, Meredith confidently uses her crutches to vault away from the cafe and up the near-vertical streets of Riomaggiore, smiling with the thought that she can put her feet on chairs now with impunity.

And that’s how it happened. Trust me. I was there.

- Dave