I had showered and dressed by 8am, at which point Stuart was starting to show signs of dragging himself out of bed as well, although it was clear that he could have done with another couple of hours sleep.
I'd just finished my breakfast, and Stuart had settled down on the patio with a coffee when Sue arrived, so the three of us sat outside drinking tea/coffee and chatting in the lovely fresh morning air. Come 9am we decided it was time we set off, so we piled into Sue's little old Fiat Panda and set off for Montecatini Terme.
Sue had looked up directions to Europcar and scribbled them down on a piece of paper, so once we arrived in Montecatini we followed those directions - but couldn't find Europcar. We did a couple of laps of the town before pulling in and Sue hopping out to ask someone for directions. It seemed we were close - we just had to double back on ourselves and it would be on the next roundabout - apparently 'you can't miss it'. Hmm, well, it turned out that you can miss it. There was nothing at the roundabout that had been described.
By this time, Stuart had managed to get the navigation app on his phone working. We found the right road, checked the numbers of the buildings, but there was no Europcar office in evidence. We drove around a bit more, before pulling over again. Sue got out again, asked for directions again. Again, it seemed we were close - we just had to double back on ourselves and it would be on the next roundabout (sounded familiar!). We did as instructed, but saw no Europcar office.
After the third time Sue had stopped to ask for directions, we followed the directions scrupulously and spotted a tiny 'autonoleggio' (car hire) office with green coloured branding vaguely at the location to which we had been directed. However it wasn't Europcar. Sue got out again, went into the office and asked them a. if they might secretly be Europcar in disguise (they weren't) and b. if they knew where the Europcar office was. Here, she struck gold, as the people in the car hire office told her that Europcar had very recently moved, and that their office was now near to the station!
We thus headed for the station, but again, saw no signs of Europcar. Sue pulled in at another garage and asked for directions to Europcar - this was the first time that the question seemed to draw blanks on the faces of the people asked, but when Sue said it was supposed to be near to the station (to which we were very close), they suggested we left the car there and tried searching on foot. Which we did. We passed the station - no sign of Europcar.
Eventually, Stuart got out his phone, called the office number, and Sue spoke to the man on the other end to ask where on earth their office was! He gave very specific instructions, which we followed, and about two minutes later, we spotted across the road from us a tiny office, with no branding on the outside, but through the window we could just about see a tiny Europcar sign! Bullseye! (Turned out we had already driven past it twice, but with no branding we hadn't spotted it. Still, better late than never.) What we couldn't quite believe was that it was immediately next door to the mattress shop we had been in last weekend!
By now it was 10.30am - it had taken us an hour and a half to find the place, and an hour and a half of Sue's time eaten up. We are so very, very grateful to Sue for having helped us out. No idea how we would have managed without her!
As she had plans for the rest of the day, Sue headed off when she had safely delivered us to the office. It was all smiles and sighs of relief for us when we finally found the office, but they were short-lived when the man on the desk told us that although we'd booked a Ford Focus estate (station wagon), he didn't have one of those, so he was giving us a Fiat 500L instead. Our hearts fell, and thoughts of not being able to get the kitchen parts (the worktops in particular) in the back of the car flashed through our heads, but the man seemed confident that the car was roomy, and when Stuart went outside to have a look at it with him, he seemed to be satisfied that, actually, it might just about be ok. To be honest, we didn't have a whole lot of choice in the matter!
Despite the fact that Fiat 500 was cheaper to hire than the car we'd booked, we were unable to get it for the lower price because I'd pre-paid online (ironically in order to get the car for a cheaper price than I would have to pay if I paid on collection...). However, to 'make up for it', he said we could wait until 1pm before bringing it back next Saturday, rather than the 10am originally stated. (Mind you, it might take us until 1pm just to find it again!!!!)
While we were filling out all of the paperwork, the man explained that they had only moved to the office a week ago - which explained why we had been sent on a wild goose chase by so many people, and explained why there wasn't any prominent branding outside the office. It also meant that he didn't even have a computer system up and running yet, so all the paperwork had to be done by hand.
When we eventually took possession of the keys and sat in the car, we felt utterly drained! It felt like we'd been through the wringer already and it was only 11am! It was lovely to be able to switch air con in the car - such a novelty after weeks and weeks without any, and very much appreciated as today was another hot and sticky day.
We knew we needed to do a supermarket shop and collect the repaired/new laser printer from town, but realised that 1. we didn't have our shopping bags (or list) with us and 2. the market was on in town so parking would be difficult. We decided to delay both tasks and head straight for home instead. I have to say it was reassuring to arrive back home in/with a motorised vehicle - it just makes us feel slightly less isolated.
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| Our temporary set of wheels. |
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| Roomier than it looks, in fact. |
After a short spell catching up on emails/doing some work, we headed to the patio for a lunch of bread, pate, cheese and salami in the searing hot sunshine (with the umbrella up of course), then Stuart went to measure up the inside of our temporary set of wheels, to try and work out what we dared to try and squeeze in when we ventured to Ikea.
We set off in Pisa direction, hoping that this might be the last time we had to come to Ikea, but realistically thinking that we might end up needing to make another trip after this one. Our plan, on arrival, was to go and buy the largest, bulkiest items first, to then fit them in the car and see what space was left, and go back in to buy more if there was enough space left.
Before we went for the bulky items we had to buy some more guest bed linen and pillows and a couple of other small items, and then it was straight for the oven, the hob and the sink. Once that little lot had been paid for and wheeled out to the car park, we were pleasantly surprised by how easily it fitted into the back of the car. So we went back in for Round 2. This time, it was the work tops that were the crucial items - we thought that these would only just squeeze into the car, and didn't want to push our luck, so just paid for these and wheeled them out to the car park. Surprisingly, these went into the car remarkably easily too. So we went back for Round 3. This time, we attempted to finish the shopping list: cupboard doors, shelves, drawers, hinges... the list was quite extensive, and about three quarters of the way to finishing it I got nervous and Stuart was obviously not quite confident enough about the space in the back of the car to wing it, so we paid for everything, headed out to the car park... and squeezed everything in with (some) room to spare. So... we went back in for Round 4 (it must have seemed like ground hog day for the staff - 'I'm sure we saw that British couple in here earlier...'). Round 4 was the final round (thank goodness - I was ready to leave after Round 2), and we managed to get the last of the items on our list!
By the time we'd finished, the car was rammed full, but if anyone is wondering about the capacity of a Fiat 500L, it can accommodate: an oven, a hob, a sink, several cupboards, shelves, cupboard doors, two sets of bed linen, a tap, two adults, a bag of cat litter, some cat food and a pack of meat and vegetable kebabs (for the BBQ).
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| Who needs a station wagon?! With the Fiat 500L, you can quite literally take the kitchen sink with you. |
We picked up the last of the items mentioned above on a quick dash into Esselunga on our way home. Having run out of space and energy (and with no shopping list), we decided we would just get the bare essentials (cat food) to tide us over until tomorrow/Monday morning.
If we felt drained after our morning in Montecatini, we were doubly drained by the time we returned from Ikea - although happy that we'd managed it all in one trip and that (touch wood) we won't need to make another trip to Ikea for a while!
We toasted our shopping success with a cold beer on the patio, before Stuart went to light the BBQ and I came inside to write this post. While the BBQ was getting itself going, Stuart unloaded the car - it's quite impressive to see everything that was squeezed into it:
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| A kitchen! |
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