Italian Scams

There is much talk in recent times about conspiracy theories, mostly political, but usually lots of idle chatter for idle minds.  However, I’m here to let you know that there is a real conspiracy going on and it is happening in Italy.

The Italians, ever resourceful and seldom burdened by moral considerations, have come up with an ingenious way to once again separate the tourist from his Euros.  The government, working in cooperation with rental car agencies throughout Italy, have found ways to extract fees, fines and taxes from those of us silly enough to rent cars in Italy, months after the car has been safely returned to the vendor.  I shall illustrate with a specific example, ME!

Loyal readers will remember that last October, after a lovely cruise with dear friends, we decided to rent a car from Hertz in Venice and spend a week anchored in Bassano Del Grappa.  (yes, that Grappa).  We picked up the car and headed to Bassano, a beautiful little town high in the Alpine hills north of Vicenza.  There is a famous bridge over the Brenta River where the brave Italian Alpini Troops tried to stop the Germans in two different wars, both times failing and suffering the consequences. We know this area well and wanted to share this beautiful town with our friends so they could see a little bit of the real Italy.

We drove there with no difficulty but were startled to discover that we were arriving on the final day of the big Chestnut Festival and the town was bursting with activity and thousands of people.  Some roads were closed, others open only to local traffic and those with stickers, and still others blocked by illegally parked cars or parades of people.  After several revolutions around and through the town, we finally found our hotel and its private parking and were much relieved to dump the car in favor of walking all around the festive town.

The car stayed in place for several days until we wanted to take a nice ride to Vicenza and show our friends where we used to live.  It was a lovely day filled with grand past memories and new ones in the making.  We returned without incident and once again parked for a few more days until it was time to head back to Venice, turn in the car and fly home.  The trip to Venice was beautiful since we took only secondary roads and the traffic was light.  The car was returned, inspected and signed off on by the agents at Hertz. All was right with the world, until December.

During a weekly check of my credit card charges, I was surprised to find a charge of 45 Euros from Hertz.  I challenged the charge and got a temporary credit until Hertz could be more specific about what the nature of the charge was.  Several weeks later I received a letter from Hertz that contained a detailed description of the charge for speeding on the road, specifically going 56 kilometers per hour in a 50 KpH zone on a portion of the highway leading to Venice.  The date matched our trip and the location was certainly one we had passed and I actually remember the area since we commented on how the speed when from 90 to 50 with no advanced warning, a typical speed trap.

Now, I don’t speed, in fact Cindy has had many unflattering things to say about how I never go fast enough, but I have also never had a speeding ticket in my more than fifty-five years of driving.  Therefore this was a shocker, especially since it was only six kilometers above the limit.  And that, dear readers, is what this is all about.  It is the game of Gottcha, played out in the beautiful countryside of the Veneto.  Did I have options, yes of course, I could contest it in person, or hire a local lawyer to contest it for me. Well of course no one is going to do that for 45 Euros so I paid and vowed never to rent a car in Italy again.

Skip ahead six months and what should appear on my credit card but another charge for 42.70 Euros.  Assuming it must be the same charge I already paid, I contested it and AMEX said they would investigate. Today, I received another letter from Hertz in Italy informing me that at some point while driving around Bassano during the festival, I violated a NO TRANSIT AREA RISERVATA at 11:51 on 18 October 2015.  Here we go again. If I had not lived in Italy, driven in Italy and didn’t understand traffic signs in Italy, I would have let this slide, but I am a very careful driver and can’t imagine I violated any restricted area. But then I remembered that the locals can make any area reserved for any reason without posting a single sign.  The locals, I’m sure, knew that during the festival you couldn’t do this or that, but not so the happy tourists.

But here is where it all gets very interesting.  Most tourists, when receiving this notice from their rental car company, assume that the company paid the fine and this is what it cost.  NO WAY LUIGI.  These two charges were only for the administrative fee and tax on the fee, not for the fine. In other words, Hertz charged me for simply providing my name and address to the relevant authorities, who now have up to a year from the date of the offense to send me a bill for the actual fine associated with these ‘infractions’.  So Hertz made 70 Euros for simply sending my details, despite the fact that for decades they have also sold my details to other. The state charged 22% tax on the 70 Euros and now I wait for the other shoe to fall!

Now do you get the conspiracy theory?  My final word: Trains are efficient, fast and inexpensive; take them!

wm

North Carolina

We have just returned from a five-day trip to North Carolina. Having forgotten to bring my birth certificate I was mighty fearful the first time I approached a public toilet, but to my great relief - both mental and physical - no one attempted to ascertain my “born gender” and thus I was free to choose whichever toilet I wanted!  Everyone we encountered in either direct conversation or overheard conversation seemed truly puzzled at how a state with some pretty serious fiscal issues could expend any time worrying about toilets.

We were attending the wedding of our dear friend Tom’s daughter Sara in Greensboro, which was only about a five-hour drive from here, most of it quite lovely.  I had brought our 1998 Ford Explorer in for a complete check-up just before we left, and hundreds of dollars later it was declared fit for service.  It still only has 82,000 original miles on it and it zipped us back and forth without issue.

The wedding and associated celebrations were all glorious events and filled with lots of fun and laughter.  The actual service was in a lovely chapel on the Greensboro College campus, where both Sara and her new husband Nick were students at one time.  This was our first experience with a Quaker wedding, which was simple and for the most part silent.  I was impressed.

The reception was held at the Science Center and all of the tables for the 160 or so guests were scattered around the various exhibits of live animals.  There were sharks and other fish in an aquarium, there was a twenty-foot python, and a fishing cat who came down from his perch and gently tapped the water with his paw to lure a fish close enough to spear with his claws.  The best display, however, was the African penguins. Both Sara and Nick love penguins and Cindy found photos of Sara at one year of age, staring intently at a battery-operated penguin race game we had in our home in Germany. Not only that, but we also found and fixed up the original game she played with and presented her with blowups of the photos and the actual

toy.  She was a mighty happy bride.  (See, it pays not to downsize, ever!)

Many months ago Sara and Tom asked if I would be the emcee of the wedding so that Tom could simply relax as father of the bride and enjoy friends and family. (I personally think it was a way to cut his wine bill in half since he knew I would not drink until all my duties were performed.)  Being an emcee is like being a big meanie.  With so many people at a sit-down dinner in a spread out venue, it was necessary to keep things moving since we had to be out of the Science Center at an appointed hour.  Therefore I kept herding the cats until everything was served, toasts made, Father/Daughter dance completed, the bride and groom had sweetly serenaded the guests, and the penguin toy had been presented.  It was a lot of fun and I did enjoy some wine when the festivities were winding down.

From Greensboro we headed to Charlotte since we had never been and it was Cindy’s birthday city choice.  Since Cindy’s birthday was on the third and the wedding on the fourth, we couldn’t really celebrate for a full week, although we did have a lovely birthday luncheon on the third.  Starting on Sunday we spent two very enjoyable days in Charlotte, which is a really lovely and manageable city.  It was really very, very hot and humid, but we walked in the early morning and late evening and explored this pocket-sized bundle of surprises.  The biggest surprise was that most of the entire downtown is connected with skyways, just like Minneapolis but for different reasons. Up north it is because of the cold and snow and in the south it is for the heat and humidity. It was a gas to explore the city from the vantage point of the skyway system, but you do not want to get caught there during the lunch period, which jammed up everything.

Charlotte, if it were not for the taxes and heat, could be quite livable.  They have lots of lovely parks, a minor league baseball field right downtown, tons of great restaurants, bars, and cafes - many clustered together which made it easy to do a lot of menu reading in a short period of time.  For Cindy’s birthday dinner we ate at the Asbury, which had been recommended by Tom and did not disappoint. It has a very interesting and creative menu that is pulled off quite well.  The next night was at Sea Level, which advertised one-dollar oysters at happy hour.  We each had a dozen, and with the benefit of hindsight, should have been all we ate there.  The rest of the meal was rather disappointing since they tried to do too much with each dish. Instead of focusing on simple fish dishes, they kept adding silly ingredients that did nothing to improve the fish.  However, we did have one of the best bottles of wine in our lives, a Sauvignon Blanc from Chablis!  We had never heard of such a thing (thinking that only chardonnay grapes are grown in Chablis) but it is spectacular. It is called Domaine Sainte Claire Saint-Bris and you can read all about it by clicking on the name. 

In a first for the Embees, we were in the car and heading back to Charles Town by 10 am, which allowed us to get home by four. It was a great drive until we hit I-81 which was filled big trucks, but it is summer and I guess you have to expect traffic.  The brief looks I had at the views as we climbed I-77 higher and higher to get over the Blue Ridge Mountains were really magnificent. 

We hope the summer is getting off to a good start for all of you.  With best wishes,   Cindy and William