So on Thursday, July 9, Nancy asked me to tag along with Roberta, our translator, and her for the interview with someone about family doctors that still make house calls. We met this 50-year-old man with thinning, receding gray hair by the chapel on campus. We thought the interview was going to take place there but he said, “We do interview my way.” So we hopped in his car and drove-off to God knows where.

We quickly were outside of Urbino on an old road with hairpin turns and cliffs off to our sides. We changed roads a lot, so much that none of us could remember how to find our way back just in case this man turned out to be a killer or something. We should have brought bread crumbs.

Roberta was talking up a storm with this man about politics and Obama. We eventually make it to this man’s laboratory and met some other people. Nancy did her interview, while Roberta and I were just chatting away about different things. When the interview was complete, our drive/kidnapper said, “Now to lunch.” Nancy and I looked at each other and we both knew that neither off us brought any money.

So we drive-off, yet again, to another unknown destination. We ended up in this small, ancient city with cobble stone roads and a gorgeous lake with trees and old houses along the shore. We parked near the most spectacular view I have seen on the trip. The other people met us and we walked to a restaurant close by. This place had a table reserved for us with nice dishes, silverware, and a golden yellow tablecloth. They gave us some choices of different foods and we said “sure” to most. The servings came out in big dishes and each person ate as much he or she wanted. We had ravioli made with eggs, ravioli with meat sauce, some kind of long pasta with meat sauce, gnocchi, and a dessert that was like a custard in a fried dough bowl. They also brought out three different liquors: one cherry flavored, one lemon flavored, and then straight grappa.

When we had finished this huge meal,  Nancy and I were thinking “do we have to pay?” Well we didn’t. Our kidnapper paid for everyone’s meal. It had to have been over 100 euros easily. So then we hopped back in the car and quickly discovered that this very generous man was a little tipsy. He took us on back roads the whole way. Now in Tennessee, we have some very curvy and twisty roads but the ones here are 10 times worse. I really like roads that give you a “roller coaster” feeling. Nancy was holding on for dear life most of the way back.

About a quarter of the way back, I noticed a little green grasshopper in the car. I picked it up but it jumped out of my fingers and left one of its’ twitching legs behind. I looked over at Nancy and she looks like she is about ready to scream out loud but she was trying so hard to hold it in. I tried to find what was scaring her and discovered that the grasshopper had made a new friend. I moved it somewhere and it disappeared.

We made it back to the chapel on campus and thanked our kidnapper so much for everything. I think this was the best interview/kidnapping I have ever experienced.