Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
in which something truly important requires personal attention, and you realize that you're
in the Wild West with nobody home behind the two-dimensional internet façade.
***
One fine morning on my way down the hill from my village to meet up with our tour group
in Siena, the unthinkable suddenly happens. A very nice lady doesn't see a Stop sign and
pulls right in front of me from a minor access road: screech, bam, smush. I react quickly
enough to avoid what could have been a very nasty collision. Our cars are both damaged,
but neither of us has suffered physical injury. She is extremely apologetic and acknow-
ledges her responsibility for the accident.
Wecompleteandthensigneachother'saccidentreports,andI'mrelievedthatshehascom-
pleted the section in which she admits fault for causing the accident. After twenty minutes
orso,thetowtruckscomeandhaulawayourcars.IaskthatminebebroughttotheRenault
dealership in Siena and they oblige. So far, so good.
I fax in my accident report to Zurich-Connect, and I receive an email the next day telling
me that the paperwork is in order. I'm also given contact info for an insurance adjustor, a
Mr. Cortonaso based in Siena, who is supposed to contact me within five days to authorize
the repairs.
We're leaving for a trip back to the States in only eight days. This barely allows us any
slack time for possible complications. So I call the insurance adjustor to see if, given the
circumstances, he might be able to speed things up by just a couple of days. He has a phone
number, but, alas, he never answers his phone. And there is no voicemail or answering ma-
chine. I call morning, noon and night for a couple of days without success. Finally I contact
Zurich-Connect, and they provide me with his email address as well.
Business letters in Italy are still quite formal and always end with a rhetorical flourish
worthy of Rosencrantz or Guildenstern addressing Hamlet—something along the lines of,
“Given the opportunity provided by our present agreeable circumstances, I seize the oc-
casion to proffer my most distinguished salutations”. Even after several years here, I still
can't bring myself to wax poetic in this manner, but I do send a polite email in my best
Italian recounting the facts of the case and expressing my fervent wish that we can get the
repair process started before I leave for the States. And I copy Zurich-Connect.
No reply. We leave for the States without hearing anything from anyone. But since we're
planning to be gone for six weeks, I assume that this will give the insurance company
plenty of time to straighten things out. After a few weeks go by, I write again to all con-
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