Paul and the Italian Police

October 21, 2008 Paul and the Italian Police
We left San Gimigniano at 6:15PM just before dusk and decided not to follow the advice of the computerized Auto Route trip planner that suggested we drive north to Florence and then back to our village of Anghiari. Why drive way up there and then all the way south?! That would take almost 2 hours! We could tell by the map that we were exactly west of where we wanted to be and there was a road directly east to Anghiari. Well, after one hour in the dark, just after a rain, on the one lane winding mountain road, with hairpin turns every 50 yds; we knew that we had probably made the wrong decision. We finally made it to the city of Arezzo at 8:30PM - two hours and 15 minutes later and still 30 minutes from our village. We were hungry and tired. Paul was driving and he was exhausted, too. We decided to eat in Arezzo and then finish our drive home. As we drove through the city, everything seemed to be closed; but at the curb of a main road, a police officer standing next to his car waved us over. Uh, oh. Were we speeding?! He asked for Paul’s license. No problem. Then he asked for the car’s registration papers. Problem. We couldn’t find them. Ken looked in the glove compartment. Vicki checked her purse. Paul checked the center console (candy wrappers went flying everywhere). No registration papers. The officer finally told us why we were pulled over. We had the headlights and the fog lights on! No fog lights allowed after 6PM! What kind of a law is that!!??? Well, it’s a 36 Euro law ($50.00). Fortunately, because we didn’t have the registration papers; it was going to make writing a ticket really complicated, so the officer let us go. No fine. Yeah! We all were so nervous and excited about the whole situation that we drove home to eat in Anghiari.
P.S. The registration papers were in Vicki’s purse all along.