By Cole Butcher
On what was supposed to be a nice, relaxing walk on one of the first sunny days in Paderno del Grappa, I found myself frantically speed walking on the side of the road, sticking my thumb out at every car speeding by. Having eight kilometers to walk before my class started in 10 minutes, hitch-hiking was the only option I had left. Finally a white van with no windows pulled over to the side of the road, and I had to make the crucial decision of whether I should get in or keep walking.
I had always been told to never hitch-hike. From a very young age my mom, like most worried moms, told me never to talk to or take candy from a stranger, and never to accept rides from a person I didn’t know, unless they knew the secret “password.” As I was a kid at the time, my parents told me the secret password was hippopotamus so I would remember it. Once I got my drivers license, they told me to never pick up hitch hikers, as they may carry machetes in their back packs and they are all crazed lunatics and murderers.
Before deciding whether I should get in the van or not, I had gone on a field trip to Asolo with my Italian class to get a brief history tour of the city. After an hour, it was time to hop back on the bus to Paderno. However, it was such a clear, sunny day that three of us decided to stick around Asolo for lunch and some gelato. Michela Marin, our Italian professor, suggested walking back to Paderno, as it was a beautiful day and it would only take us one hour to get back to campus.
However, we forgot one important piece of information: Do we go left at the bottom of the hill or do we go right? After debating for five minutes, we finally noticed a sign that said “Paderno del Grappa” and it pointed to the right. Trusting the sign would lead us in the correct direction, we began the one hour walk back to Paderno.
After walking on the right side of the road for 30 minutes we decided we needed to walk on the left side. This way we could see the Italian drivers speeding toward us. I could then brace myself for the impact and hopefully leave the driver’s tiny Smart Car in worse condition than I would be.
After nearly 90 minutes of walking we questioned whether we had gone the right way or not. We asked an old Italian man how far Paderno del Grappa was. With an astonished look, he pointed down the road and said “Paderno del Grappa, dieci kilometers.” Ten kilometers! I had a class starting in 30 minutes. I left my classmates behind and started jogging on the side of the road.
I soon realized I would never make it in time. Hitch-hiking was my only option. As cars sped by, some nearly taking my arm off, I lost hope and thought I would surely miss my class. Then it happened. The white windowless van pulled over to the side of the road.
Without asking the driver if he knew the password (hippopotamus) I ran to his van and jumped in. The driver was a man in his late 20’s or early 30’s with a spider web of dirty dreadlocks on his head and a dirt stained shirt. He nodded that he understood where Instituti Filipin was, told me his name was Renato, and said he would take me there. I must have told him grazie a million times. Though I couldn’t understand most of what Renato was saying, he was a very nice man. When we arrived at the campus I tried to give him money for the ride. He waved my hand away and gestured that it was not necessary. Although I was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, I made it to class only three minutes late.
Before coming to Paderno, I never would have considered hitch-hiking, especially in a foreign country. The fear of the unknown had always kept me from it. Reflecting upon this experience, I recalled the words of Chris McCandless in a letter he sent to a friend he met while hitch-hiking across America:
“In reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”
Hitchhiking in Italy while speaking very little Italian is something I never thought I would do. Though I know I will never regret it. I have had so many new experiences while I have been here. But hitching a ride from Renato in his windowless, white van is one of those experiences that will stick with me for the rest of my life.
Cole Butcher, a University of Oklahoma public relations student, studied in the CIMBA undergraduate program in the spring, 2009
On what was supposed to be a nice, relaxing walk on one of the first sunny days in Paderno del Grappa, I found myself frantically speed walking on the side of the road, sticking my thumb out at every car speeding by. Having eight kilometers to walk before my class started in 10 minutes, hitch-hiking was the only option I had left. Finally a white van with no windows pulled over to the side of the road, and I had to make the crucial decision of whether I should get in or keep walking.
I had always been told to never hitch-hike. From a very young age my mom, like most worried moms, told me never to talk to or take candy from a stranger, and never to accept rides from a person I didn’t know, unless they knew the secret “password.” As I was a kid at the time, my parents told me the secret password was hippopotamus so I would remember it. Once I got my drivers license, they told me to never pick up hitch hikers, as they may carry machetes in their back packs and they are all crazed lunatics and murderers.
Before deciding whether I should get in the van or not, I had gone on a field trip to Asolo with my Italian class to get a brief history tour of the city. After an hour, it was time to hop back on the bus to Paderno. However, it was such a clear, sunny day that three of us decided to stick around Asolo for lunch and some gelato. Michela Marin, our Italian professor, suggested walking back to Paderno, as it was a beautiful day and it would only take us one hour to get back to campus.
However, we forgot one important piece of information: Do we go left at the bottom of the hill or do we go right? After debating for five minutes, we finally noticed a sign that said “Paderno del Grappa” and it pointed to the right. Trusting the sign would lead us in the correct direction, we began the one hour walk back to Paderno.
After walking on the right side of the road for 30 minutes we decided we needed to walk on the left side. This way we could see the Italian drivers speeding toward us. I could then brace myself for the impact and hopefully leave the driver’s tiny Smart Car in worse condition than I would be.
After nearly 90 minutes of walking we questioned whether we had gone the right way or not. We asked an old Italian man how far Paderno del Grappa was. With an astonished look, he pointed down the road and said “Paderno del Grappa, dieci kilometers.” Ten kilometers! I had a class starting in 30 minutes. I left my classmates behind and started jogging on the side of the road.
I soon realized I would never make it in time. Hitch-hiking was my only option. As cars sped by, some nearly taking my arm off, I lost hope and thought I would surely miss my class. Then it happened. The white windowless van pulled over to the side of the road.
Without asking the driver if he knew the password (hippopotamus) I ran to his van and jumped in. The driver was a man in his late 20’s or early 30’s with a spider web of dirty dreadlocks on his head and a dirt stained shirt. He nodded that he understood where Instituti Filipin was, told me his name was Renato, and said he would take me there. I must have told him grazie a million times. Though I couldn’t understand most of what Renato was saying, he was a very nice man. When we arrived at the campus I tried to give him money for the ride. He waved my hand away and gestured that it was not necessary. Although I was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, I made it to class only three minutes late.
Before coming to Paderno, I never would have considered hitch-hiking, especially in a foreign country. The fear of the unknown had always kept me from it. Reflecting upon this experience, I recalled the words of Chris McCandless in a letter he sent to a friend he met while hitch-hiking across America:
“In reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”
Hitchhiking in Italy while speaking very little Italian is something I never thought I would do. Though I know I will never regret it. I have had so many new experiences while I have been here. But hitching a ride from Renato in his windowless, white van is one of those experiences that will stick with me for the rest of my life.
Cole Butcher, a University of Oklahoma public relations student, studied in the CIMBA undergraduate program in the spring, 2009
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