Termoli

4/10/2008
We head north to Termoli today. This is just a stop over break on the way to Lake Trasimeno and I have not booked ahead this time. So we will take pot luck with the accommodation.
The town is quite charming to walk around and has a landmark Frederick II's 13 century castle which has narrow streets and medieval houses overlooking the Adriatic Sea. This is where a lot of Italians come for there holidays, although it is fairly quiet at this time of the year.
We arrived at Pensione Osteria San Giorgio right in the heart of the town. Very little english spoken here by "the boy" but we were able to get across what we wanted... a double matrimonial, si. Uno or dooee, uno. with breakfast, yes. Then he went on about €60 plus €30 which was very confusing, and emphasising dooee. So we thought maybe he was saying cheaper €30 for 2 nights. So we kept saying uno. We were perplexed and "the boy" seemed exasperated, anyway we got our uno. We will feel like we are sleeping in the Sistine Chapel tonight as we have God and Adam above us as well as Mary and Jesus on the wall.
Later, as there was a torrential downpour we decided to eat at the restaurant in the pensione and went downstairs to book a table. Our "boy" was in the restaurant and we got across what we wanted with the usual pointing and gesturing. He pointed to all the tables and indicated they were reserved and then made a big point of setting up a table and saying dooee €30. Ahh! now the penny dropped!! Anyway, we had a lovely meal even though we got everything twice! I ordered what I wanted and Bob ordered his. Then we both got what I ordered and I got what Bob ordered as well.... all very confusing! When Bob went to pay, "the boy" told him tomorrow.
Interesting that the pensione caters for groups of men working away from home. We were wondering why there were long tables that were only set up on one side. Then 2 groups of men arrived and all sat on one side facing the TV. When one group left they handed the remote to the one of other group.
The next morning "the boy" was nowhere to be seen and we had 3 waitresses trying to work out why we wanted to pay €30. We even found the paper that he had written it all down on when trying to explain it the day before but they didn't get it. One spoke a little english and said we will ring "the boy" (although he was a man - hence we called him "the boy"). They said he was coming but we waited and waited and he didn't show.
We were just about to leave the money on the desk when an older woman arrived who looked like the owner and babbled away to the girls in italian like what are these crazy australian tourists doing hanging around the reception desk cluttering up the place... and after our pantomime once again she accepted our €30 and off we went.
We were very glad to see that our car was still where we parked it and had not been washed down the hill in the downpour last night.