‘Mom! Do you have the permit?? WHERE IS THE PERMIT???” I yelled above the engine of our custom Cantiere Ernesto Riva motorboat while zooming along Italy’s Lake Como.
My heart was beating fast and my hands were shaking on the steering wheel. I had just gotten comfortable in my captain’s perch, and was trying to adjust to the throttle and watch where I was going despite the wind whipping my hair in front of my face. Then, a gust seemed to sweep away the paperwork required for taking out this stunner of a boat, at a whopping $190 an hour.
I slowed us down, shifted to neutral and started frantically looking by my feet, in my beach bag, under the seat — careful not to drift too close to any of the million-dollar homes. My mother, meanwhile, looked around the bow, where she’d been otherwise preoccupied trying to distinguish George Clooney’s villa from the others dotting the shore…