It's A Waiting Game

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We arrived at Bologna airport to pick up our car at 9.30 am. We are still here at 11.30am and could possibly be here all day. There was only one customer ahead of us in the cue, so we only waited 15 minutes. But the... Ray could not remember the pin for his credit card, and I could not use mine, because even though I had paid for the car with my credit card, I didn't make the booking.

So we forfeited our place in the queue and bought a sim for Italy so that he could look up his card with the bank. Meantime, Ray thought he remembered the number so into the queue once more. He finally got onto the bank site, but had to be authenticated through sending him an sms to his Australian phone number, which he can't access. However, remembering the number, it didn't matter. Only after waiting 90 minutes in the queue, the number he remembered was wrong. So out of the queue, and hopefully he can Skype the bank. I'm standing in the queue once more, in the hope that he can contact the bank.

Obviously we will not be in time to pick up Dave and Lynette in Perugia. The joys of travel. Maybe in another hour we might have a car. Ray has contacted the bank and has replaced me in the queue. I am just waiting for the car company to tell us that we should have picked up the car three hours ago and that we now can't have it.

I have been hearing horror stories from other customers. One guy couldn't remember his pin, so had to spend the night in Bologna and rebook for today. Another woman went to pay the booking with her credit card, but her husband had made the booking, and they wouldn't accept it. Conveniently her husband doesn't possess a card. They also spent the night in Bologna. Another customer had booked a car for 8am, but he was late, so they turned him away. He is here now a day later, with a new booking time, but the wait in the queue has made him late again. In the time I have been waiting, I have only seen three people issued with keys. Drivalia is the car hire company. It actually says "mobility store" on its sign. Should be "immobility store".

Finally, three hours later it is all sorted and we are speeding down the autostrada to our destination. Until we are not. On leaving the highway, we have to pay the toll. Mysteriously, the ticket to pay has gone missing, even though I have not left the car at any time. After spending 20 minutes searching every nook and cranny in the car, we decide to arm ourselves with google translate and approach the only manned collection box. Should have done that initially, and saved time. All was well, we paid the toll minus the ticket and we were on our way again, only to get stuck in a google maps loop for quite some time. Our projected 3 hour trip expanded to 4 hours. Fortunately, Dave and Lynette's plane was also late, so they didn't have to wait too long.

The wait was worth it. We arrived at our villa to be greeted by Ronnie the pooch and Philipo the English speaking landlord. The 270 degree views include mountains, a lake, a medieval village, farmland and olive groves. After an excursion to the village for essentials (Prosecco) we relaxed on the front patio and watched the sun go down. heaven on a stick.

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