"Le gas" and Italian utilities,

Hey all.
The past 72 hours have been an adventure. We are experiencing Italian culture to the fullest. We got into the apartment on Thursday. I took Brian to work and then went back, packed up the car from the hotel, went to the Emmezeta for some sheets and towels, went grocery shopping and then found the apartment again and parked the car = uphill. Yes, I did all the driving in the stickshift car. We made the many trips to up the to the apartment of various bags of food and dirty laundry. Thankfully, there is an elevator (very small) in the building because our apartment is on the third floor - up 4 flights of stairs. Europeans consider the ground floor as "0". We unloaded, plugged in the fans that we had bought and got to work unpacking and making lunch. I noticed that the gas stove wasnàt working, but decided to wait to try and turn anything on until Brian got home for fear of blowing us up. We left with much time to spare to go and get him, because you"ll remember that I parked uphill. In the stick shift. I'm proud to announce that I only stalled the car 3 times!!!! getting off the hill. (side story: I asked Brian what the name of our street was and Aidan chimes in "I know!!! Senso Unico!!" That cracked us both up. Senso Unico = One way.) SO I got off the one way hill, made my way around and picked up Brian. Since we were so early to get him, we spent the time searching for English songs on the radio. We found quite a few, to which Colin kept on asking me, "you know *this* song too?" And I swear if I hear Mariah Carey squeal "touch my body" one more time.... ugh! SO we drive home and that's when we discvoer we have no gas. No gas = no hot water. We called Mario and Luisa, who "own" the apartment (their daughter technically does, but she is only 18 so we are figuring it is a tax thing for it to be in her name) They said they would come over (all in italian/spanish) at around 9. They arrived at 9:45 pm (Italian time...) and explained that they would call "La gas" for us again tomorrow and I should be at the apartment all day to let the gas guy in. Meter is only accessible from the balcony through the apartment. Mario and Luisa then helped show us a few more things about the apartment, how to turn things on and such. Mario and I spoke spanish together, as he spoke a little spanish as do I (thank you God, for Sra. Harrington at SPHS) but then Luisa kept insisiting "solo italiano!" to him, for how else was I going to learn italian if I kept using spanish. For which I replied, nicely, "si, pero ahora necessito comprender esto!! (yes, but I need to understand this now!) They were very kind to us, but my brain felt like it was going to explode from having a 45 minute conversation in span-italiano @ 9:45 pm.
Next day, I started the wash in earnest, having had my lesson from Luisa on the washing machine. It's a small washer, doesn't hold a lot and takes approx. 2 hours (not the hour I was told..) to wash 1 load. Then I get to hang all the clothes on the lines outside on the balcony off the kitchen. THe only good thing about the excessive heat here in Italy is that the clothes dry quicker. Then I took my *one* burner on the stove (the stove is gas!but has one electric burner) to heat up a pot of water to dump in the bathtub so I could take a sponge bath in 4 inches of water. Then I made breakfast with the kids, washed the dishes in cold water and got to work ironing all the clothes off the clothes line. The iron is the only thing that makes the dried clothes feel non-crunchy. All while I waited for the gas man.
The kids spent time getting used to their rooms - the big boys share 1 room and the younger 2 share the other room. They would help me hang clothes occasionaly and hand wash the bathing suits that smelled funky from the hotel pool ( I have NO idea what was in that water...) There is a literal wash board on the side of the washing tub in the apartment. Yes, it felt like 1947 for me. Hand washing clothes; boiling water to bathe and wash dishes with; and no AC in the very hot Italian heat wave.
Brian came home at noon to let us know that he spoke with someone who spoke to Mario who spoke with "la gas" and sadly, they were not coming today. And of course wouldn't be coming over the weekend. So with no hot water, we opted to make a road trip to Florence. Brian went back to work and I went to work finishing laundy, more ironing, and packing.
Just a word of thanks here to Grandma Betty Jean for teaching me to iron and hang clothes on a line. Without her, I'd be having a major cow right now. (And for those of you who know me well, you KNOW I'm freaking out about all of this!!!)