Of Driveways and Celebrities

The Driveway:

“Driveway” is really a misnomer.  When I think of driveway, I think of something paved and fairly straight.  Not in Italy.  The driveway in question was not paved, had deep, narrow ditches along each side (to prevent it from washing out in a rain storm), involved going almost vertical at a couple of spots, was only big enough for one car, and it was pretty long.  The car I was driving had rearwheel drive and was a fairly large Mercedes.  There were times when I was quite sure the car was going to go backwards, or it was going to go off the side of the mountain.  I live in a valley, but I drive in the mountains to work and I’ve gone up some pretty narrow driveways on the sides of mountains.  This was completely different.  I was a little busy concentrating on not dying to take pictures, but I wish I had. 

 

Celebrities:

Our flight got into Pisa about an hour earlier than expected (gotta love those tailwinds).  By the time we got our luggage and went through customs, we were only about 30 minutes early.  Even so, our ride was about 30 minuts late picking us up because of car trouble.  We spent about an hour waiting in the airport.  At one point, I hear a voice that sounds familiar.  I look over, and not two feet from me is a not-tall black man, wearing an orange baseball cap and casual clothing.  He’s talking on the phone to someone, telling the other person where he was at in the airport.  He finishes his phone call and then speaks to a boy (he might have been about 10 or so) and says something like, “Come on son, let’s go,” and they walked off.  This took place in less than a minute.  The man?….Al Roker. 

But, that wasn’t the only celebrity I saw….Oh no.  A few minutes later, I notice a women dressed in black exercise-type capri pants and a long white t-shirt with her hair pulled back in a ponytail.  She was pushing a luggage cart (the kind you can rent at an airport) and was following someone (an airport official?), with a kid or two trailing behind her.  At one point, she said something to someone about “go this way.”  The woman?….Ann Curry. 

Okay, so maybe they aren’t exactly celebrities.  It was interesting to me that they were acting like normal people (well, normal people who flew first class and had probably gotten some sleep).  They were wearing normal clothes and their kids were doing normal kid things.  I wouldn’t have recognized either of them if I hadn’t heard them speak.