National Lampoon's Italian driving

OK, I usually don't sit down this quick and write about my experiences, but I had to share this one right away. I had to take the dogs to the post vet this morning to have blood drawn. I went this afternoon to pick them up and I had to take the blood to an Italian vet for testing. He gave me the directions which seemed pretty easy. Mistake number one was taking a way I have never been before. Instead of turning where I should I followed the signs for downtown Vicenza. I knew it was near downtown so I figured what the heck. Soon I finally figured out where I was and which direction I needed to head. I turned around and headed in that direction driving right past the turn for the vet office (did that about 3 times in the course of an hour). I kept looking for a place where I had to turn either left or right as buses were only allowed the rest of the way. Well, I eventually found it, but only once it was too late. I followed all the one way signs around about 100 traffic circles and found myself in the pedestrian area of town. This is an area that actually have streets, but cars are not to be on them. As I turned a corner to try and find my way off these streets all these Italians are looking at my big white American van driving down this street where I am not supposed to be. They are all shopping and eating at the little cafes. Thank goodness it was not market day or a really busy day downtown. I was just praying there were no police around and thank goodness there wasn't. I drove in circles for about another 20 min. before finally finding where I needed to be. Thank goodness. We saw much of downtown Vicenza and how to get to places I have heard about for tourist events. Not sure if I could get back there the easy and direct way, but I can say I briefly saw them today. I don't know what I was thinking not taking my GPS with me today. Oh well, now that I have written it down it will be one of the many (I am sure) National Lampoon adventures of the Whitworth family.