Culture Shocks: Couchsurfing in Florence

 [dropcap]E[/dropcap]very good Italian values these two rules of thumb: farsi furbo (being crafty) and stare bene (the easy life). So far we hadn’t managed either of these. All we had to do was find a couch. One that preferably didn’t belong to an axe-wielding psychopath…

 My friend Melinda and I were backpacking in Italy on a shoestring and had reached Florence, birthplace of the Renaissance. Now it had come to the crunch. Couchsurfing. With great tact and skill, we declined the offer of ‘nudist couchsurfing’ (‘all happy travellers welcome, but no clothes!’). We bid our time but to no avail, until we received an offer from Fabrizio, a seasoned couchsurfing host who offered to set us up with his friend, Tomaso. Fabrizio worked at a hostel and asked us to meet them there. I wonder if he saw the irony in sending us to a hostel to provide us with free accommodation?

I tried to calm Melinda, who had not couchsurfed before and was understandably worried about sleeping in a complete stranger’s house. Fabrizio offered us a drink when we arrived, but then Tomaso stormed in. This short, young Italian man with impeccably groomed hair and florescent basketball shorts seemed impatient, even irritable. He greeted Melinda and me offhandedly and asked us to meet him in a few hours as he had ‘stuff to do.’ We looked at other nervously. Was this really worth it? Was this an Italian axe-wielding murderer?

However, Tomaso was a changed man later on. Clearly, he had some unpleasant errand to run and now had cheered up. He showed us to his car where two Polish travellers were waiting, also being hosted at his place. We breathed a sigh of relief. He gave us a key to his house. This seemed normal.

“Now,” he drawled in Italian, “we have others at mine, do you have anything to sleep on like a…”

“Un sacco di pelo?” I suggested.

Tomaso burst into unrestrained, throaty laughter and didn’t stop until we pulled into his driveway five minutes later.

“You just said ‘a load of hair’ not ‘sleeping bag!” he chuckled.

What a great start.