A worthy debate

I have left the Alps and made it to Turin. But I almost got stranded in a forest.

I was the only reporter on the bus from Cesana Torinese to Oulx this morning. At the Oulx transportation hub I was going to switch to a bus headed to the Main Press Center in Turin. But the bus driver didn’t know that. Nor did he seem to care when he got off the highway and started heading away from the transportation hub.

“No, no, you need to go left to get to the hub,”? I said.

“No, I go over there,”? he said in broken English, pointing to a far-off parking lot filled with buses. “You walk through woods.”?

Sure enough, there was a thick patch of woods between his parking lot and my transportation hub.

I had four pieces of luggage. Taking a nature hike was not an option.

“No, no, no,”? I said.

“You do not understand,”? he said.

He backed the bus up and put it in park. We debated the best we could, given our language difficulties. There was a lot of pointing and pleading. It wasn’t heated, but it was intense.

Finally, he put the bus in gear and took the bus to the transportation hub. After we arrived I thanked him profusely.

“Grazie Mille. Grazie Mille,”? I said, shaking his hand.

After I got on the bus to Turin, I made sure to thank my old debate coach, A.C. Eley.