Couplet 3 part 2: Kata joins us in Bergamo; we wander through Verona, Mantova, Ravenna, and pass by Venezia
Ojen Szepkis Lanje! Kata arrives at the Bergamo airport!
Donald:
Hey! This angel has stolen my place in bed!

It's almost midinight as we navigate our way into Bergamo and simply kept going in the direction of the Alta Citta (High City!) and the Centro Istorico.

We go through medieval gates that mercifully Detleff fits into nicely. The parking is amazingly simple, on the side of the Old High City wall. A terrible thunderstorm keeps us from seeing where we are exactly.

Donald:
Only in the morning do we see what is outside our Detleff. At Bergamo begins the first big foot hills of the Alps. Below us lay the lowlands

The girls need their morning privacy and I set up shop outside Detlef. Maps, shaving, and practice. Lovely ladies gayly nokking and tokking in Hungarian while they fix breakfast. La vita e bella!

Bergamo
Busking in Bergamo is a delight. We have found a pearl on the necklace of great places to play.
Verona
Verona is at first a buskers fantasy too good to be true. And in fact it was too good to be true.

Never had we seen such huge crowds of tourists.

The Gurdybuskerman is so excited that he rushes everyone: Dai Andiamo!

Ferrara lies baking in the afternoon sun. In the evening, late, it is cool and there are many strolling couples and families.

The big famous Ferrara Buskers Festival is only days away.

This is where Mackie and the Gurdyman almost got arrested for animal cruelty. Read Mackie's Woof! Woof! Woof! number 7 for the whole story.

Mantova
Montova is incredibly beautiful. And also very sleepy under the Italian sun. There are many Galleria, (Arcades), where it is cool to play. I love to play, even when there's hardly anyone around.

And you never know who those few passerbys are.

And that is how we meet Peter (USA) and Faustina, a bella Mantovian. They very quickly become not only our friends but our rescuing guardian angels.

Detleff. Again.

400 Euros needed to fix Detleff's broken Auspoof! Where can we, how can we, get such a fortune as that? The Gurdybusker goes out to the Piazza del Duomo, and sings prayers to the Virgin Mary. Even a policewoman is moved by our supplications!

In the end the Virgin does provide a miracle:
we earn almost 100 euros in the hat, the garage only charges 300 euros and we somehow have the other 200.

Peter asks a very good question:

If we left the USA because our life there was too full of stress, isn't this more stressfull?

The car breaks down and we can hardly pay to fix it. Isn't that just as bad or worse than the stress back in the old life?

I think it over. And over. and over.
And can only say that it's different. Here, living and traveling and busking out of Detlef, with all Europe as the playing field, it is somehow less stressfull for me. Expenses are not death by a thousand cuts, but simply a problem to fix.

On the other hand, the biggest stress of all is being so far away from the Boys in Boston. It is the the true high price that we pay to do this. If we could earn a bit better and have enough to see the boys every three months…

To be continued….

Adriatico
We turn north and the flat plain turns
hilly and then the hills become the Alps.
By evening we will be high in the mountains,
sleeping one last night in Italy
before moving on to Graz.
Chioggia is a great disappointment. Supposed to be a Little Venice, it is indeed very little Venice. As we are leaving however, we notice a plaque on a building across from where we parked Detleff.

It says, Carlo Goldoni, Father of the Commedia Italiana, lived in this House.

Oh my God!

Ferrara
Incredibly, Paul likes to be under Detleff and clean up the battery and generator mess. Olga goes to the beach with the girls.

Absolutely the nicest people in the world!