In the last email on Tuesday morning Shamala was unwell. Well she went from bad to worse, we spent Tuesday wandering around a bit but a very low key day really. We walked for a short time on the wall. Did a bit of shopping and came home. Shamala really wanted to cook a home cooked meal and she made a delicious chicken curry that was absolutely yummy. Then it was early to bed.
The next morning she was worse, had slept badly and was cough, cough, coughing. She needed to see a doctor so I rang Cristina the landlady and she got in touch with her doctor. Unfortunately she couldn’t see us until 6pm but at least we had an appointment!! By this time Shamala had taken to her bed and Alan and I languished about a bit. I got restless and went off on my bike for 3.5 laps of the wall (I’ve worked out that that is about the 15km mark). Then later Alan and I went out for a coffee and a walk. Finally at 6pm we went off to find the doctor. Weirdly I followed Cristina’s instructions and ended up in a doctors surgery all right. However I was finally told that it was the wrong doctor’s surgery. Off we raced and with phone calls back and forward to Cristina, finally found our doctor.
She was extraordinarily thorough…and wanted Shamala to go off to the Emergency Dept of the Lucca Hospital for an Xray. That meant getting in a taxi at 7.30pm and going to the hospital. At the hospital the staff just couldn’t ‘get’ us with our Australian ID, a private referral and no Italian ‘number’. So they wanted us to come back in the morning. We had to argue that it was an emergency, the doctor wanted to be rung tonight etc etc. To cut a long story short she finally had an Xray which was all clear! BUT they didn’t know how to bill us and we had to go back in the morning to sort out the bill!! Finally got home around 9.30pm. Fortunately we had leftovers from Shamala’s cook up of the night before!!! What a saga!! And can I tell you (probably don’t need to) that my Italian was challenged way beyond its limits!!
This morning Shamala had the bright idea that instead of getting a taxi to the hospital and the follow up doctor’s visit scheduled for the afternoon, that we should hire a car. Good thought but it meant me taking the plunge that I have been avoiding every time we hire a car and I tell Hammy I will share the driving!! But to my credit I took a deep breath and we hired a car. A Fiat Punto. In I got and off I went. Firstly Shamala had forgotten her test results so I had to negotiate inside the walls to a spot where we could walk back to the apartment. Then I had to manage to find the hospital. We did all that, caused another stir as they tried to figure us out again in order to bill for the Xray.
Anyway…all done and then we set off for a few hours in the country. We retraced the steps of H,A,R and I to Borgo a Mozzano (The devils Bridge) and on up to Barga. All so much more pleasant in the sunshine I must say and we explored Barga to find a lovely town centre that we completely missed in the rain and the slippery roads. It was lovely and I really enjoyed it but Shamala felt like shit and found walking up the steep roads heavy going.
Then we had to get back and find the doctor in different rooms to yesterday outside the walls with an inaccurate address given to us by Cristina. Anyway eventually all done and finally parked the car near the station and left it for the night…PHEW!!! I was very proud of myself though. A job well done thought I. No-one knew how scary it was for me!!
We had a bit of tea in a little trattoria and came home. Tomorrow its off to the countryside again…hope I can pull off another day and get the car back safe and sound!!
Lots of LoveXXXXXXX