Busses and Mountains

Karl does not enjoy bus rides in Italy. Invariably, our bus rides take us over zig zagging mountainous roads and jaw dropping drop offs.We have seen cars pass our bus at high rates of speed on impossible curves.We have thanked God when a car has blocked our kamikaze bus driver on a winding downhill. We have felt the scrape of our bus against a stone walland watched the driver back down and up again in order to make the turn.

Karl reads a book on his phone or writes blog posts when we are on a bus in order to distract himself from the terror. It is up to me to chronicle the trip and tell Karl about any interesting animals, crops, rocks, ocean views, farms, or villas I see along the way.

Today, we traveled from San Giovanni Rotondo to Monte Sant’Angelo by bus. We had to come to a stop several times in order to let oncoming cars go by, and several times they had to stop for us because the bus did not exactly have a great turning radius.

Today’s ride did not bother me. We had a priest on the bus who was quite calm throughout, although I did have pause when I saw the woman in front of me cross herself at one particularly steep drop off. This was not as bad as the bus ride from Foggia to San Giovanni Ritondo the day before. Note in the reflection in the window of this photo that the Cappucin monk in front of me is desperately clutching the hand hold on the seat in front of him.I must admit that even I have my limits. I refuse to take a bus from Sorrento to Amalfi. I would have nightmares the night before going, and I would not be able to calm down until at least a day after my arrival.