First day in Italy (and our first mishap...)

We had our first little incident of the trip yesterday morning (only 4 days into the trip!). It ended up being not a big deal, but was super scary at the time.

We had packed up and were driving to Italy for the next couple of weeks so our car was stuffed full. We were low on fuel from the past 4 days of driving. Right before the highway entrance, Dave pulled into a gas station to fill up. We spent some time struggling with the French only instructions, and there were no attendants around, but we finally managed to fuel up. All was on schedule, and we headed off on the highway by 9:30am.

First indication that something is wrong: at the tollbooth into the highway Dave heard strange knocking noises coming from the car. About half a mile later, the car started feeling sluggish, and the knocking worsened. At first, I thought Dave was just having difficulties with the stick, but soon the check engine light came on; the car slowed to a snail's pace, and we pulled over to the shoulder.

We both knew what the problem was - we had put the wrong type of fuel into the tank. The car required diesel but we had used something called "Diesel 95," which in France, is apparently not diesel at all. Whoops! But we had no idea what to do next. How badly is the car damaged? What and how long would it take to get back on the road? Do our phones work in France??? Luckily, a highway maintenance vehicle saw us stranded and called a tow truck for us. And our US cell phones did work (although roaming was expensive).

The worst hour was waiting for the tow truck and not knowing where we were going or what was going to happen. Fortunately, the tow truck driver was able to get us to a nearby Hertz location, and a little more than two hours later, we were back on the road in another car. Whew! What a relief. The cost to us: 400 euros plus 2.5 hours of down time in Italy.

Lessons learned: always double check what kind of fuel to use, and rent from a major car rental company! :)

The rest of the day was great though. Once we made it into Italy, we stopped at the picturesque waterfront villages of Camogli and Portofino, before spending the night in Levanto.

We finally arrived in Camogli! Took a nice walk through the town and had crispy focaccia sandwiches and gelato by the harbor. 

Beautiful harbor at Portofino, reached by a 30 minute drive along a windy coastal road.