Speed Bumps and Stick Shifts
I’m on the brink of tears, looking up at the hilltop town of Orvieto. The sun is hanging above the honey-colored houses. A large church juts up from the old center. And I’m in a medical parking lot in the valley below.
I had driven 45 minutes to get here—my first time driving our stick-shift car alone, in Italy. I had traversed steep hills, downshifting and upshifting. I had gotten in and out of 5th gear and avoided the tiny Fiats whizzing past me on the highway. I had even figured out how to pay the tolls, and how to take off from a toll booth located on a slant, with the dreaded e-brake start.