From the Big Fiddle to Opera House
In 2010, Valerio Torresi and his girlfriend, Serena Tavoloni, planned a dream summer vacation in Australia. The young couple from central Italy used a travel agent to book flights to Sydney, but when they stepped off the plane there wasn’t a kangaroo in sight. Instead of landing in the Australian metropolis, they were in Sydney, N.S., population 31,500. Here is their story, as told by Torresi to the National Post’s Graeme Hamilton.
It all began in a travel agency. We wanted to go to Australia, and the agent got us a good price, but we had to go through Canada. As soon as I saw the ticket I got scared. I said to my girlfriend, “Why does it only take four hours from Toronto to Sydney?” She reassured me by saying, “It’s because of the time zones, honey.”
The ticket was written Sydney, N.S., which we thought referred to New South Wales (N.S.W.) in Australia. Clearing customs in Toronto, we were told we would have to go on to Vancouver, but the person who checked our bags said we should check the screen for our flight because we were not going to Vancouver. We thought we misunderstood because of our poor English. We didn’t even know there was a Sydney in Canada.
We found the flight and eventually landed at a small airport. It was late, and the airport was closing, but we still hoped to find our plane for Australia. The airport was almost deserted, so we approached a taxi driver for help. “We have to go to Sydney,” my girlfriend said. He laughed and told us, “But you are in Sydney.” And that was when we panicked!
The taxi driver had a laugh and took us to the nearest hotel. The next day we found the CBC, where the reporter, Gary Mansfield, was very patient with us. We talked with gestures to explain that in Italy we had bought a ticket for “Down Under.” The CBC helped us spend two days on beautiful Cape Breton Island, and arranged an Italian-Canadian interpreter.
We were able to see an Indian reservation. We saw the largest violin in the world (the Big Fiddle on the Sydney waterfront). We ate lobster and had a great time.
After straightening out our reservations with the travel agent, we returned to the airport. While we were waiting for our flight, we saw a woman reading the Cape Breton Post with our faces on the front page. The headline was “Down East not Down Under for Italian travellers.”
We had to make many stops — Sydney, Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver and finally Australia — but our bags were left in Canada.
I do not know where to stop. There would be many strange things to tell in our 46 days in Australia, but I think that is part of any normal travel. For sure the trip strengthened our relationship.