#86 The thief in pyjamas (English)

After Lucas – my dear friend and travel buddy and by now familiar to the loyal readers of this blog – and I spent a few days in beautiful Tuscany, we arrived back in Rome late on Saturday night. After a late dinner outside, we fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. Just before I dozed off, however, a final thought crossed my mind: miraculously, everything had gone well this time. And that was actually for the first time. 

Whenever Lucas and I go on an adventure together, we somehow always end up in an unfortunate situation

Because whenever Lucas and I go on an adventure together, we somehow always end up in an unfortunate situation. In Genova, for example, we ended up with our little dinghy in the navigation channel of one of the largest ports in the Mediterranean where, bobbing up and down, we got the fright of our lives when the deafening horn of a giant container ship alerted us that we were in big trouble. In Calabria, in the dark on the motorway, we only just managed to avoid a ghost driver who caused a serious accident little after, and on the Amalfi coast, a small planning mistake from our side has us to cross a mountain pass on our little Vespa in pitch darkness for 3.5 hours on our way back to Naples. In Amsterdam, the situation was less dire but no less annoying when the outboard motor of our rented sloop got completely stuck in the rubbish from the canal and Lucas had to dive into the dirty water with his whole upper body to free us and the boat. When we’re traveling, it’s almost a guarantee too that we have to make a little outing to the farmacia at least once. In Venice, I was stung by an Asian tiger mosquito on the first evening making my elbow and ankle swell up like fire-red bowling balls and in Calabria, Lucas visited no less than three doctors after he was felled by the most severe earache of his life after seawater got into his ears causing a very nasty infection. 

I would just close my eyes for a moment while the other driver and Lucas maneuvered the cars next to each other at walking pace – mirrors folded – expecting at any moment that we might slide down the steep ditch into a lower wheat field

But this time, nothing of this had happened. And it wasn’t even so that nothing could have possibly gone wrong. For with our rental car, we had taken the most narrow, unpaved country roads of Tuscany, and quite often, it went down pretty steeply right next to the road. Such little roads that clearly have space for only one car at a time. But you guessed it, every now and then we came across a car driving in the other direction. I would just close my eyes for a moment while the other driver and Lucas maneuvered the cars next to each other at walking pace – mirrors folded – expecting at any moment that we might slide down the steep ditch into a lower wheat field. But my worries proved unnecessary and our Tuscan adventure went off without a hitch.

I sat up straight in bed and immediately realised what was going on

On Sunday morning back in Rome, we woke up blissfully unsuspecting. While I slowly opened my eyes, Lucas wanted to go to the bathroom. However, a bad surprise awaited him. Because no matter how hard he tried, my bedroom’s door would not open. I sat up straight in bed and immediately realised what was going on, because the same thing had happened to me a few weeks earlier. The door handle on the other side had become slightly loose and was no longer doing what it was supposed to do. We were locked in. Behind a door that with all the power in the world could not be moved even an inch.

There was one other option that did cross my mind briefly, but which I immediately dismissed as “too dangerous”. Lucas didn’t

Last time, however, I was lucky as I had left the balcony door in the kitchen open. That way, I could walk back in via the balcony – which runs along the entire length of the house and is also adjacent to my bedroom – and open the bedroom door on the other side. But this time the balcony door to the kitchen was closed, so we really were trapped. I panicked and thought about what we could do. Smash out the whole door? Call the elderly landlady (who was usually in church on Sunday mornings and probably didn’t even have her phone on)? Neither of these seemed to be solutions that would set us free quickly. However, there was one other option that did cross my mind briefly, but which I immediately dismissed as “too dangerous”. Lucas didn’t. It just so happens that for weeks now there has been a tall construction scaffold against the facade, right in front of my balcony. A stroke of luck in this case, because before I knew it, Lucas had snatched the key to the front door from my cupboard and climbed over the balcony railing onto the scaffolding. In his pyjamas and on flip-flops he clambered down. And as I followed his fearsome steps from my balcony, I realised that we might had another problem on our hands in no time: my over-anxious – mostly elderly – neighbours with a disproportionate fear of thieves who would immediately call the police if they saw a young man on the building scaffold on a Sunday morning.

Lucas tried to reassure her – and her loudly barking lapdog – and to explain the situation in his best Italian, but it probably all sounded too absurd to her. Trapped inside the bedroom?

And indeed, Lucas had not even climbed down one floor when I heard the lady from the apartment beneath me let out a scream. Lucas tried to reassure her – and her loudly barking lapdog – and to explain the situation in his best Italian, but it probably all sounded too absurd to her. Trapped inside the bedroom? It was only when I managed to get her attention from the balcony above that she finally calmed down enough to listen to me. Lucas then continued his way down like an accomplished abseiler and a few minutes later I was finally freed – like the Disney princess Rapunzel – from my bedroom. We laughed out loud about the somewhat hysterical situation, mainly because the sight of Lucas in his pyjamas, his tousled hair spilling out in all directions and his flip-flops made me think of nothing but a dangerous criminal who had come to rob little old ladies of their jewellery. And so, I realised once again that, until the moment Lucas has taken his seat on the plane back home, I’d better be prepared for anything.