Tunneling Out of Italy (Thursday, October 20, 2011)

The rain poured down overnight, and the skies were clearing as we rolled out of bed. Today we leave Italy behind for France. After getting our gear packed in the car, we drove to the road along the beach that would take us northward. I got a chill when Brian said, distressed, “Oh no, we just missed it.” I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about at first, then I realized that we had come to a one way tunnel. We had hit one yesterday, and the sign then told us that the light would turn green every 10 minutes. This tunnel’s light would be green at 5 minutes after, 25 minutes after and 45 minutes after the hour. We got there at 9:47. So we parked our car for the next 18 minutes at the red light, and I took a little walk to see the beach in daylight. Such a lovely summer town—I would love to see it in full swing.

The drive took us from our beach town up through Genoa, Turin and on to Grenoble, France. We think we spent as much time going through tunnels as out in the open! We saw very little of Genoa, as most of that city we were underground.

We made a stop at a service station in Italy, one of the plazas right off the road that you can go to without exiting the toll road. We had our standard bread, cheese, ham and yogurt as we sat on the curb next to the gas station. Italy really needs to learn about putting picnic tables at these rest stops. Since they usually have a restaurant, perhaps they don’t want to encourage picnics. While we sat there, a couple pulled up right next to us. The man in the passenger seat, well-dressed in his business suit, jumped out of the car in order to spit out his gum in the grass about 2 feet away from us on one side and 2 feet from the garbage can on the other. Huh.

The terrain changed as we got closer to France and the Alps. The mountains were becoming more visible, and the fall color of the trees showed here and there. It all disappeared for a while, as we entered another highway tunnel. Before we entered it, we hit yet another toll booth. We’ve become accustomed to this form of automobile taxation on this trip, but usually it’s somewhere between 5 or 15 Euros each time we hit one. We were stunned to see 37.10 show up on the screen. This is the price we pay for the privilege of disappearing under the ground for another long stretch! Wow. We wondered what happens when people show up without a credit card and with limited cash.

We made one more stop for a bathroom break after we got to France. Not to belabor the point, but I think that all European service station designers should stop by, say, the rest area in Byron Center. Nothing too fancy, but you can find a picnic table or two, some green space, and toilets and sinks. Really. Is that so hard?

We got to France, and the service stop finally had a picnic table, even a little playground. We rejoiced. Then we went into the bathrooms. The “toilet” was a porcelain hole-in-the-ground—literally—that you step over and let yourself go, so to speak. It even flushes, but my great-grandpa had it better sitting on a splinter-ridden wooden plank in the backyard, with newspaper for tissue. Allison was not having it. I remember thinking what a difficulty it was to work with a nervous child through toilet training when you got to the automatic flushers. Imagine what the toilet-training French parent faces when stopping off on a trip down the highway.

Lucky for France, the Alps are spectacular. Just watching the snowcapped peaks move into view was enough to wipe the memory of the tunnel toll completely out of our minds. So lovely. We couldn’t stop staring as we curved our way around the mountains into the valley that is the city of Grenoble.

The Splendid Hotel in Grenoble welcomed us with what is probably the least splendid room of our trip. Most times we have at least 2 separate rooms so that the 5 of us don’t have to listen to each other all night, but this time we had a queen, a small double-ish cot and a twin cot lined up across the room. Adding interest to the setup was the sink/shower area (separate from the toilet closet) that was enclosed by a glass door. Some portions of the door had an opaque design etched in, but the first thing Brian did was go stand in the clear-glass-doored shower and wave across the hotel room at me. Hmm. Shower time will be interesting.

The upsides of the hotel room: 1) it’s in Grenoble. So pretty. 2) It’s a 3 minute walk from the apartment where Otto and Rita Selles are living with their 3 children this semester. Otto is leading a semester in France for Calvin College. Otto came over after we moved in, and after suggesting we take our dirty laundry with us, he led us back to his apartment. Rita greeted us at the door, offered us drinks and snacks, told us about the crepes we’d be having for dinner, helped me put my first load of laundry in the washer, and then she and Otto took us on a little walk around their part of town. Beautiful parks and bakeries everywhere we turned!

Andrew and Natalie went on this walk with us, but Allison stayed back at the apartment, where Isabel was doing her homework while Allison eyed her with the look of shyness mixed with admiration she reserves for teenagers who seem nice and are not her siblings.

Upon our return, Rita assembled salads, which we devoured, then served crepes (melt in your mouth!), followed up with cheeses and bread, and then served dessert crepes with 4 choices of flavors. We have died and gone to food heaven. Isabel and Anna, their high school daughters, kept things lively with their accounts of school and life in France, and Natalie’s classmate at home, Luc, showed off his magic tricks. What more could you ask for? Maybe we’ll find out tomorrow; Rita has invited us for breakfast.