Firstly, Kath is much better today.

I didn’t want to skite yesterday about how well I did finding the doctor, but on my walk this morning I decided to take some photos to help tell my story.

After using the three addresses for doctors near me Mr Google provided, Mick and I headed off in search of one where we could get an appointment for Kath. Not for her food poisoning, as she was recovering from that, but for her coughing.

We turned up blank at every one.

Thanks Google. The only one we found was a Medico Ocultist. We were surprised such a doctor existed until I asked a local woman if there was a doctor close by and she made some gestures with her hands making glasses. Oh we did giggle, my little Italian did not include the word for eyes or eye doctor.

My next suggestion was to visit the pharmacy. My brother, his daughter and a very close school friend are pharmacists and I know you can get good advice from them if you can’t see a doctor. And this looked optimistic.

But it was closed for ‘siesta’ until 4pm. Of course.

So I walked back later in the afternoon and discovered that the word British was a trick. No one could speak English but I did manage to find out there was a medico per turisti through the arches.

So I walked through them and through the next one out into an open square.

I spotted a postal worker out the front and asked him:

c’è in medico per turisti qui vicini?

He pointed across the road. But anything else he said was lost on me. However, I spotted this sign and knew I was getting warmer.

Hospital Street!!! Yeah. But when I tried to enter this building

….. two elderly men out the front spoke to me. I repeated my few sentences I knew and one man insisted I follow him until he could point to this door.

He was still watching me as I reluctantly knocked on the door. Reluctantly because this did not look anything like a medical emergency place. The old man spoke to me again and I understood he wanted me to push the buzzer to the right of the door.

So I did.

Shortly afterwards I heard footsteps and was met at the door by a short Italian gentleman. I repeated my well practised sentences to him and he told me to bring Kath back.

It was a 750m walk along Corso Umberto in peak tourist pedestrian traffic where the pace is slower than a snail’s. And, Kath couldn’t be expected to walk that far when she was sick, so we caught a taxi there and back.

Check out the two routes on this map below. We took both of them – one there and one back.

And these times are expected driving times. The roads are so narrow and mostly one way.

As I said in my last post, the doctor, whose name was Dr Amore as per his script, said Kath did not need antibiotics as she did not have a chest infection. He prescribed something to gargle her throat with as that was a bit red.

We didn’t mention that was probably because she’d spent half the night vomiting. That would have taken another half an hour.

He was actually very thorough and read very carefully her medical information she’d brought on the trip with her, just in case.

He was very impressed by how good she was for 90. “Complimenti!”

It was a funny experience as he had several pages of scripted questions translated from Italian to English, which he made good use of. Again, thank heavens for Mick.

I retraced my steps this morning to get the photos and then got side tracked up the hilly streets. Thankfully I found my way home.