Cassy's Corner- Serendipity

As I have said in prior postings, my husband and I are in Italy. We return home in a few days, which will be a shock to our systems. I really don’t know where the month has gone. There have been so many moments over the last weeks that could easily become scenes in one of my books, scenes that would be slightly over the top if I didn’t know them to be true.

I have been silent for the last few days as we had to travel to Forte dei Marmi for business Jon needed to manage. I didn’t take my computer, hence no rapid typing of email. On our drive back my GPS talking lady directed us on a path we weren’t used to taking. Okay, we thought, a new route. We’re always open to an adventure. The drive was lovely. Until, that is, we realized we were not only totally lost but couldn’t figure out how to solve it.

Now understand, we had my iPhone with all its maps and various apps that keep you on track. We had two  regular maps. We had two people (Jon and me) who really did know the area. We had GPS. And, we were lost. When we passed the same building for the fourth time we began laughing until tears flowed down our cheeks. Originally we thought we’d stop for some lunch on our way back. Now we were just hoping to know how to get back.

I kept digging euro out of my bag as we went on and off the A1 so many times I lost count-- 13 euro in tolls (18.55 dollars to be exact), and the same damn buildings kept showing up. Sometimes they were on the right, and sometimes on the left. Truly, we thought we were nutty. It was like being caught in a time warp we couldn’t decipher.

In the spirit of “making lemonade,” we decided that this was an opportunity to visit a unique hotel, just to check it out. My husband monitors properties all over the world and this one has been on his list. It’s one of the side effects of being married to an architect. So, I typed in the new coordinates for the hotel and without knowing if our GPS system would yet again fail us, we headed into the deep countryside. Folks, I’m talking deep countryside. No sign of much more than brown corn fields, sunflowers long gone, and very few markings for letting you know where you are.

Yes, we made it. Our decision was to stretch out our backs from the hours in the car, use the facilities, and have a glass of wine- just a short stop over before we ventured home. Right? We had the wine, used the bathrooms and giggling,  decided to spend the night. It’s a wonderful thousand year old convent transformed into a hotel. Why not stay? Serendipity can’t be over rated.

So, we went to the front desk to reserve a room- TA DA! As we entered the building, Jon let out a whoop. Please know, Jon never “whoops.” Standing at the desk was his old roommate from graduate school. They lived together for 3 years. They worked for the same firm for 15 years. His former wife was the maid of honor at our wedding. We have more stories than, as my mother-in-law says, Carter has pills.

The evening was fun. We had drinks before dinner, a long dinner of getting caught up and a real sense of reconnection.

Who would think that 8 or 9 thousand miles from home we’d find an old friend out in the middle of no where? All because our GPS system led us astray. Rather, led us in exactly the right direction.

Now I need to figure out how to write about this without it seeming totally unbelievable.