June 12  Verona

            Well, this has been an intense week, with unexpected experiences. 

            Let’s start with Tuesday.  I had the afternoon classes this Tuesday, and Marco had said on Monday that we should all get together, students and teachers, on Tuesday for dinner.   So after the class, I asked Marco if we were getting together, and he quickly replied, “Yes, I’m cooking at your place.”

            Okay…..and I had already decided to go with Alex to see San Zeno, the furthest church of the group of great Verona churches.  So we set off to San Zeno.  It was fun to visit that church again, to see the doors and cloister, to photograph what was not accessible for Alex.  The only problem was that the buses on that side of town were not accessible at all for her wheelchair, so we waited for nearly an hour before we caved and got a taxi.  We got back to my place after 7:00.  And it must be the first time ever in my life that I sat in an empty kitchen, a half hour before there was going to be a party in my place, for which I had done nothing!: no shopping, no cooking, no cleaning (although our landlord and his mother had cleaned that very morning).

            Eventually, when I recovered from shock, I made a salad.  Alex, meanwhile, was bumping herself up two flights of marble stairs (with some help from Amy, Rachel and Joel).  Then I called Marco to ask: are you coming?!

            So he did arrive, with pasta, garlic, onions, and tomatoes in hand to create his tomato sauce.  Terri brought over risotto, and I left to get some things to drink.  When I returned, she had left and never returned.  But otherwise, it happened to be a really fun time: twelve people packed into my little kitchen, with extra chairs, plates, glasses and utensils borrowed from the other two apartments in this building.  The party lasted about 3 hours, from 8:00-11:00, when the more energetic students decided to leave for gelato.  That was fine, because I was more than beat. And in my heart I will always be grateful to Chantille and Sam who had quietly done all the dishes, so I only had random glasses to take care of once the place was evacuated.

            I have to admit that it was a bit hard to get up early Wednesday to make the Padua field trip departure time of 8:00.  Several students were late, so I expect they also found it a bit hard. 

            We stopped first at a cheese factory in a small town (the name of which escapes me).  The owner of the factory, in family hands in 1964, was very outgoing and lots of fun.  We put on blue booties to protect our shoes from the wet floors as much as any sanitary reasons, I think.  Alessia translated for him and we saw cheese in the making (in several stages) as well as the stored rolls downstairs. 

            About 10:00, we went upstairs to taste several cheeses.  We tried nine varieties of cheese and several things to drink.  I really liked the yellow and blue variety of gorgonzola; others liked the goat cheese or the more cheddar styles that we had seen being made (and tasted in various stages of aging).  It was a really fun time, and by the time we began to get ready to go, I think we were certainly feeling the effects of the rich cheeses.  (In fact, I think I was joined by the majority of students in nap for the hour trip to Padua.  Next time we should leave a bit earlier, closer to 11:00 than 11:30, to give us more time in Padua.)

            In Padua, we fairly staggered from the bus, and it was a bit hard to get our legs moving again.  I led the group quickly to San Antonio, a richly complex church with influences from Byzantine, Gothic and Romanesque styles.  Several girls were prevented from entering due to low cut dresses or short skirts. (Duh…and how many churches have we seen where we have had this prohibition?! Like one per field trip?!).  But the rest of the group enjoyed it, once they all woke up.

            On the way back to the Scrovegni Chapel, we made a slight detour for the Piazza Cavour and the famous, fancy café.  However, we really had not allotted ourselves enough time.  I had a quick capucchino, but others were still eating and drinking when I decided that we really had to get moving, at 2:20, for our 2:30 appointment.

            What I didn’t understand, and what was not on the ticket information sheets that I had, was that we were supposed to be there 20 minutes before our stated time on the tickets.  (Frederica had told us this weeks ago, but I had forgotten.)   I knew we were cutting it close, and then we got a bit lost in the park there, and I called through the gate to a guard to ask directions.

            Consequently, even those of us in the lead were a couple minutes late for our 2:30 appointment.  The rather nasty lady at the ticket counter told us to quickly check all bags and get out there quickly.  We missed the introductory video and I had actually given up on Terri and her smaller group of students.  But we did catch each other by phone, and they came to the gate which the nicer guards unlocked just in time.

            When entering the chapel, I tried to relax and feel the humanity around me.  We are imperfect people, it is written all over the chapel in the forgiveness that radiates from Christ and all the figures.  I just love that chapel.

            We then got back to the bus, but some students wanted to stay later, so we checked at the train station for schedules back to Verona and left a half-dozen students in Padua.  Meanwhile, at the beginning of the trip, Alexandria had told me that her foot was not good, and  I had had a swollen eye that morning (problems we ignored so that we could do the field trip), so we decided to stop at the hospital on the way home.

            And what a long day that became!  We met Frederica at the Ospedale Maggiore when we arrived about 5:00, and she was such a champ.  At 9:00 she was already exhausted, but she hung in there.  We did not leave until 3:00 am, at which point all of us were utterly exhausted.

            My eye problem was by far the least important.  I was even seen first, within the first hour or so of waiting.  (My impatience with socialized medicine will soon become apparent.)  The first emergency doctor could not diagnose the problem, so he sent me ten buildings down to the very edge of the hospital grounds.  This was the geriatric ward, and I tried to follow the “occulista” signs that the doctor told me to do.  Well, I tried the second floor and walked along those corridors.  Not a doctor, nurse or receptionist in sight.  The receptionist windows were closed tight, the red waiting chairs empty.  So I went to the basement, where I had seen other occulista signs, but no better luck.  I would ask cleaning people, the only ones around, and tried to follow their directions.  I called Frederica, close to tears, but she said to try the second floor.  It was at this point that I decided to make this most frustrating experience into art, so I started taking pictures of the deserted corridors.

            So up I back up to the second floor, realizing that I had already been along that corridor.  So I began opening doors and peeking in: waiting rooms, offices, all empty.  I saw one family of three with a little girl and mumurred in Italian that there was no one here, and they said that yes there was, and pointed to a door next to the main waiting room.   So I took my papers and finally saw a doctor.  Turns out that I had an infected lower eyelid, not conjunctivitis, so I was to use warm compresses for 10 minutes at least twice a day with two prescriptions for antibiotic creams.   (I just did the compresses, and that helped a great deal.  Wish I’d just thought to do that sooner, but I was fearful of conjunctivitis, which Amy had two weeks ago, so I guess it was a good idea to get checked out.)

            Probably the most fun that I had was on my way back to the emergency room.  After a half-mile of buildings and more twisted corridors on several floors, to say that I was disoriented is putting it mildly.  So I asked for directions to the emergency room, my Italian failing as I became tired, and one English-speaking ambulance driver came out and told me to jump in.  So I had a ride to the emergency room in an ambulance.  (Little did I know that more such trips were imminent that evening.)

            So back to the emergency room, two hours after we had arrived, and no one had yet seen Alexandria.  I think it was close to nine when we had the doctor first see her.  (Meanwhile, soon after we had arrived, I had become hungry…first time since all that cheese at 11:00 a.m.  So dinner that night was a delicious chocolate pastry and a bag of chips from the bar across the street.)

            Well, Alex was wheeled in and out, and after the first or second meeting with doctors I began to join her and Frederica.  She had blood tests done, and I don’t know what else.  But it soon became apparent that they were very worried about the infection in her feet.  At midnight, I got my second ride in an ambulance that night as they put Alex on a stretcher, and Frederica and I took side seats, and we headed off for the specialist at the University of Verona hospital. 

            The facilities there seemed nicer.  The ambulance drivers waited while Alex was examined.  The doctor was going to tell Alex to go back to the hotel, with oral antibiotics, but Frederica said some things that made the doctor reconsider.  When she came back from her office, she had written that Alex should stay in the hospital for a few days while she had IV antibiotics.

            So, at 1:30 a.m., we took the ambulance back to the Ospedale Maggiore.  They put Alex in the plastic surgery ward, because that is the only place where there was room.  To get there, we went up and down corridors, from basements to wherever, through one blue corridor.  We had already done trips like this earlier in the evening (only as I write this all up a few days later, it is a blur in my mind)….it felt honestly like the Twilight Zone.  Deserted corridors, most of them, unless some surgery was going on or a few bodies asleep in rooms.  I had to explain to Frederica what the Twilight Zone was, but Alex knew immediately and smiled.

            I must say, we all got to know each other rather well that evening.  Alex has amazing courage and undaunted attitude of mind.  At no time was she upset, depressed or crying.  Always upbeat, and all of us were ready to smile and laugh at the apparent absurdity at times.

            At 2:00, when Alex was in her room, I confess that I was ready to go home.   But Frederica was determined that all the required steps were begun in our presence: IVs, wrapping of the feet in antibiotics, some food for Alex (tea and biscuits, which Frederica helped her to eat).  Frederica was amazing, because I was leaning against the walls of the room ready to fall asleep.

            So, finally at 3:00, we left the hospital.  I took a taxi, dropped Frederica off at her home, and made it to bed myself by 4:00 a.m.  What  a night!!