How Strangers Become Fast Friends

When we arrive at Gargonza Castle our driver, Rudy (a nickname Rita gives him because it sounds (to her) more friend-like), parks the bus far below the castle since the steep hill and gravel road make bringing it up impossible. A group hike up the mountain (uh, hill) is in order. We all eye our luggage before we begin and are relieved that in this instance there will be a serious break with Rick Steves' carry-your-own-bag rules. Everything is loaded into a golf cart type vehicle for transport up the hill. 

 

While we wait outside the door of the welcome center for room keys and luggage, the golf cart chugs up the hill, rounds the bend, and stops by us to unload the first load of the sky-high pile of bags. 

 

Watching this my sis, Rita is reminded of a movie scene (she's a super-fan of the movie Under the Tuscan Sun) that features a similar cart piled high with workers hanging off every square inch of it. That cart careens up a "similar" hill but rather than luggage, men spill out of it in front of the farmhouse-renovating protagonist. 

 

Rita's vivid comparison of the movie scene to our own chug-along luggage cart has everyone in stitches. With each subsequent sighting of the jammed-packed golf cart rounding the bend and chugging toward us, the laughter and general hilarity becomes more rowdy and uncontrolled.  On and on it goes until the merriment infects everyone. No, we have not had drink one. Yet.