DM Blog

I came across this funny story via The Toronto Star:

Warning: Your GPS doesn’t do spellchecks

Swedish couple seeking idyllic Isle of Capri wind up 650 kms away – in industrial Carpi

ROME – Two Swedes expecting the golden beaches of the Italian Isle of Capri got a shock when tourist officials told them they were 650 kilometers off course in the northern town of Carpi, after mistyping the name in their car’s GPS.

Angelo Giovannini, a spokesman for the Carpi town hall, near Modena, said yesterday the middle-aged couple drove into the main square last week and asked the local tourist office how to reach Capri’s famed Blue Grotto sea cave.

"We thought they might mean a restaurant. Capri is an island, they did not even wonder why they didn’t cross any bridge or take any boat," Giovannini said.

The couple, who were not identified, only discovered their error when they asked staff in the local tourist office on Saturday how to drive to Capri’s famous “Blue Grotto.”

When the couple was told of their mistake, "they were surprised, but not angry," Giovanni Medici, a spokesman for the Carpi regional government, said. "They got back in the car and started driving south."

He said the couple arrived from Venice and later set off to their planned destination at the other end of the Italian peninsula.

The picturesque island of Capri, famed as a romantic holiday destination, lies in the Gulf of Naples in southern Italy and has been a resort since Roman times.

Most tourists reach it by taking a ferry from Naples; others take a plane.

Carpi is a busy industrial town in the province of Emilia Romagna, at the other end of Italy.

"it’s hard to understand how they managed it. I mean, Capri is an island," Medici said.

"it’s the first time something like this has happened."

How dumb can you be! Seriously, how could they not know they were 650km off!?

Anyways, equally interesting is the fact that this story even made the news. Hm.