Twizzle
Westralia
Steve Coughlan
Thu 22 May 2014 07:08
The coffee machine was not working properly so I decided to ride Brompton Green foldup bike to the local supermarket near the marina to buy a new one. No luck, so I continued on to a major shopping mall on the other side of Civitavecchia, about 10km away. This became a combination of Tour de Civitavecchia and dodge em cars as I quickly became aware of why Italian drivers have the reputation they have. This involved passing the major cruising ship port, the jail, a ship building yard building a huge private motor yacht, the Molinari factory (Sambuca) and onto the wilderness based shopping complex. Walking the Brompton through the major shop in the complex I found they only sold De Longi coffee makers. I needed a La Vazza type for the capsules we had on board. I tried downstairs at an electrical appliance shop which, unbelievably, sold everything but coffee machines. When I asked where I might get one they said try upstairs.
So I set off on stage 2 of the Tour de Civitavecchia, back into the centre of town, trying to find an electrical appliance shop. No luck. I commenced the final stage three back to the marina where a cold beer was in order. I had managed to survive a Mad Max experience.
We came up with a plan that we should try and fix the coffee machine and actually read the instruction manual. This recommended descaling the machine every 3 months (it had never been done). The only acidic product we had on board was Oxalic acid. I was keen to give that a go but got voted down. A search revealed we had coffee descaling product in the galley. Following procedures we returned the coffee machine to operational condition. Now Jude would say the big feller was guiding us. I would counter that by saying why didn't he tell me to descale the coffee machine before the Tour de Civitavecchia?!
