Thank you dad!

Dear Dad,

Thank you so much for teaching me how to drive a standard. Considering that almost all cars in Italy are standards, it came in quite handy this weekend when we rented one. I remember when I was learning to drive one and I thought it was stupid. When would I ever need to know how to drive a standard? As soon as I got behind the wheel, I was very thankful. I hadn't driven one in almost four years, but it all came back to me. Apparantly I missed the "stop and go from first gear" portion of the program though. You see, I just happened to be driving when we reached a toll booth with a very long line of cars. I may or may not have killed the car five times (okay I did). I also managed to get stopped at a red light on quite a good sized hill. In order to not roll backwards, I gunned it and we smelled burnt rubber for quite awhile. I know that I learned in our very flat backyard, which never saw traffic jams, but I felt very ill-prepared. You should have seen me in second thru fifth gears though! After reaching Assisi, which is nothing but stop and go mountain driving, we switched drivers. Annie had no problem. She informed me that her father also taught her to drive a stick shift. She later told me that he had to replace the transmission when she was finished learning! Luckily, when we returned the car they didn't inspect the transmission or tires!

Taking the train from now on,

Kim