We met my aunt and uncle at the Florence train station. The five of us boarded the train  for Petritoli, Italy (we were on our way to my cousin’s destination wedding). We were beyond excited, we now had an excuse to travel to Europe for a Whole Week! We were so excited to finally see the venue. I had heard so many exciting things from our family already. We heard that the wedding would be in a castle. 

During the ride my parents and aunt and uncle caught up while I imagined what our AirBNB would look like since we wouldn’t be staying in the castle. After a while we arrived at our destination. We got up grabbing our bags with utmost excitement. And began rushing to the exit. The train screeched to a stop and we prepared to exit…

Nothing. 

The door didn’t open. We pulled and pushed. 

Nothing.

 We tried and tried and tried. 

Still Nothing. And then the train started again… 

Simultaneously we began to shout and cry for the train to stop. But no one came. Since we were yanking the doors and screaming, the sea of native italians began to stare at us. 

A kind Native came up to us “ Hey, do you guys need any help?” he said in a shaky voice. I assume he spoke very little english. 

“YES! Do you know how to open the doors or stop the train?!” My mom asked, sort of rushing the man. 

He explained to us how to open the doors and then said that there was a train back to our original stop. My mom and aunt brushed off the offer, implying we had a ride. Again the train stopped. This time we were ready. The man opened the train door and my dad and uncle hopped out, grabbing our suitcases and bags. During this time my mom and aunt profusely thanked the Native. Once we were off the train we looked around and that’s when my mom saw it.

“Look that guy’s crossing the tricks!” She said to us,

“Abby never do that, it’s very dangerous!” My aunt sternly said.

We turned back around just as the train started to pull away. The man was banging on the window holding up a tan bag.

I think he’s pointing to the train I said under my breath.

“Bill My Bag!” Aunt Mary Ann screamed. My uncle began to chase after the train. He grabbed onto the rails, looking like Superman. 

“Which bag did you lose?”  My mom asked worriedly. 

“I’m not sure. That looked like my bag, right?” She said almost laughing; at this point my uncle had let go of the train, not maraging to stop it. And he was walking back towards us.

I spoke up to my mom, “Wasn’t that guy talking about a train back to our previous stop, maybe he was pointing at the train to show us it was there!” I said, realizing. 

After our big train and bag fiascos we were hoping for smooth sailing, from there on out. 

We began walking to the underground bridge leading to the road, at this point we were the only ones on the platform. Once we started down the steps we couldn’t see a thing, smoke. Someone was smoking on the underground bridge. There was no way we would be able to get to the road. Or was there. After a bit of brainstorming we decided on it. 

We would cross the tracks.

My mind instantly went back to the guy crossing the tracks not 5 minutes earlier. 

First my dad and uncle brought the bags back and forth. Then us, my mom, aunt and me. My aunt held my hand tight while we crossed the tracks. Every step we took felt like a million years. Finally we were on the other side. We climbed up onto the platform and started for the street. My mom opened up her phone to see how close our white tesla was to us. The app said the car was there. We looked and looked and looked and couldn’t find it. Then a tall man walked out of his car. 

“Are you Allison?” The man asked my mom.

“Yes?” My mom said, confused. 

“I’m here to pick you and a few others up for Petritoli.” 

“I was expecting a different car?” my mom said, questioning her device. 

The man then mumbled something while popping the trunk for us. We all looked at each other wondering how we’d be able to put all our bags in, since we had three suitcases, four backpacks and a duffle bag. We watched in amazement as the driver placed each bag intricately into the back of the car. My aunt and uncle couldn’t fathom how we would all fit into the car since it looked so tiny from the outside. Our driver mentioned that there were only four open seats in the car. And that’s when I realized that there were five of us. 

My mom looked at me with a smirk, “You can sit in the middle of me and your aunt.” She said giggling. As we packed into the car all we could talk about was how we were just like a clown car. In total our ride took about an hour because Petritoli is so secluded. 

Once we arrived we were greeted by family and friends asking about how our trip was and we told them all about missing the train, crossing the tracks and our comical confound clown car ride. Now everytime we meet family Petritoli is always brought up.