Our semi-elderly Napolian bus driver, Dominico would not converse with our group except for the occasional “buon giorno” when it was initiated by an American tourist. However, I felt like he wanted to speak with us more through beats and sounds. We first got a glimpse of his music taste when his cell phone was ringing off da hook with the catchy tune of Mr. Sax O. Beat-it made you want to fist pump and be at a club that was bumpin’ house music. Our tour director hated the song, but I could not get enough of it. (Simply add this to the list of things that annoyed Paz about me) Grazie, Domincico.
On the way home from Florence, the back of the bus began singing Top 40 hits to pass the time on the 40 minute bus ride-we tended to stay far away from the city we were visiting. The front of the bus (ok, just me) took this as a friendly competition to sing back another, better song. Challenge accepted. Nearly all bus members engaged in this a cappella greatness (except the people who were sleeping) belting tunes from Journey to Disney soundtracks to Vanilla Ice.
After about 20 minutes of on-key and off-key crooning, Dominico straight up shuts us down by turning on his Bus Mix, beginning with The Village People’s Macho Macho Man. This disco classic was followed by Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff, the song from the Venus razor commercial, and select Grammy-nominated songs from the 80s pole/exotic dancing flick-Flashdance.
The time flew by for most, but for me I was counting the seconds before I could jump off the bus and tame my bubbling stomach. (You know you have issues when you get excited about having a bowel movement on vacation) But I still kept singing along because it was so freeing, yet squeezing tightly down below. I finally saw the three stars to Hotel Parigi in Montecatini, bolted out the door and ran to the bathroom, with of course having to stop and say “buono sera” to the reception desk. I am so glad I didn’t shart this time.
Dominico, thank you for your soul-pumping compact disc. It literally got everything moving for me.
Meclizine and Imodium,
Hillstead
No comments:
Post a Comment