Shopping in Palermo: More dangerous than it sounds

Sunday was a beautiful day in Palermo, Italy on the island of Sicily.  The sky was bright blue, and I was feeling relaxed and shopping with my Grandma.  As we were walking down what seemed to be a pedestrian street, I heard the honking of the horn of a Vespa and looked back to watch as, seemingly in slow motion, an ~18 year old vespa driver and his distraught girlfriend/passenger careened out of control and knocked over the cycle, in the process knocking into my grandma and sending her crashing to the floor.

That's the basic story of how my grandma got her arm pretty badly cut up and began bleeding out onto the street, but it is only half of the story of the day.  The other half is Sicilian hospitality.  In spite of the fact that my grandma did not and does not speak a word of Italian, she managed to get some sort of help from practically every person we passed: an ice pack from the street vendor, a paper towel from a clothes seller, the use of a restroom from a restaurant owner, and finally the wound was cleaned and dressed by the restaurant owners aunt.  All, thanks to the fact that she was not seriously hurt, making for a somewhat traumatizing and unique experience.

The day ended with my grandma getting treated by the ship doctor and beginning to feel a bit better.  I'll end with what she said on the way back,

"Well Max, you got an adventure today."