Living in Italy: The Real Deal - How to Survive the Good Life (an expat guide) by Stef Smulders

Author:Stef Smulders [Smulders, Stef]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Babelcube Inc.
Published: 2017-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

Cowboy Land

We were stuck. Truly stuck. Sideways on the road. Groups of cyclists kept on coming round the corner at high speed and being scared to death by the car blocking the road, which could only be avoided by braking hard and steering even harder. Rude Italian expletives were thrown at our heads. There was a deep ditch behind us leaving us no room to turn around. But driving forwards would have resulted in the car completely blocking the road, which could have proved fatal because we couldn’t see if any more cyclists were coming. Yet it wasn’t an option to remain as we were, sideways on the road. We had to take a gamble.

On our way to an agility competition for dogs in Voghera, we had unwittingly stumbled into the middle of a cycle race. We seemed to be going in the opposite direction from the race, climbing up the winding road uphill, and every time we came across a group of cyclists on the descent, we were as shocked as they were. It was an awkward situation and there was a point when we just couldn’t go on any further. We decided to turn round, and that’s how we got stranded sideways on the road.

We risked it and completed the three-point turn. We were relieved that none of the tour contestants had ended up under the wheels of our Fiat Punto. We took a different, less risky route. We were covered in cold sweat nearly all the way to Cowboy Land, the amusement park where all kinds of clever dogs were going to demonstrate their acrobatic skills. We had already had our share of stunts for the day.

As we arrived, we immediately struck lucky because the agility competition for medium sized dogs, taglia media, was just about to start. Cowboy Land is a bit like a theme park with a ‘Wild West’ vibe, where you can stroke goats, look at bison, throw horseshoes and learn to lasso. We collected all the information we could get our hands on for our future guests with children: unfortunately, the attraction is only open at the weekend and there are no information leaflets in English or any other language. “No, we never get any foreign visitors,” said the lady at the ticket office. I’m sure you don’t, and at this rate, you never will!

It was good fun to watch the clever dogs jumping enthusiastically over bar jumps, doing the dog walk, creeping through tunnels and slaloming around poles on a very tight course. It was even more fun to watch their masters hurrying breathlessly after them. They all did pretty well, the dogs were well trained. Some of them overdid the barking a bit as they were completing the obstacle course. They didn’t quite get what the big deal was: “OK master, I will jump over that fence again if you like. Don’t you worry yourself,” they seemed to be saying. The championship was won by a Norwegian. We saw him walking up and down with his fast brown furry friend just before the beginning of the race.

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