Buona Sera,
Well on the 13th we were making our way to the train station to tour the other 5 towns in Cinque Terra. You can only get from town to town by boat or train and as we were walking down the train platform I couldnt believe. Standing there were Brian and Joannie Ganske as well as Steve and Jan Massey from Sedro Wooley, WA. We all know each other as Brian used to be with Snelson Companies and are a great client of ours. Had supper with them later that evening at La Cantina the rest of the table had wine while I had my gin and Brian had his Jack Daniels a great evening was had by all. We will be meeting them for dinner again in Sorrento on Friday the 18th.
So yesterday was a day of adventure. Took the train from Monterosso to Florence with a connection in Pisa. What that means is lugging luggage (now I know why its called LUGgage), up stairs down stairs, on the train off the train. Arrived in Florence NOW we have to find the car rental location. I tried calling them three separate times in the morning with no answer. Load up the address in the iPhone (thank gawd for Iphones and their maps), leave the ladies with the luggage at the train station, Larry and I start walking to the car rental place about a 15 minute walk.
Now here is the cute part, in Florence there are two sets of numbers for addresses one standard (black) and the other red... so when the address reads 100R that means its 100 RED ... we added about 10 minutes extra to our trek finding that out.
Arrive at Thrifty Car Rentals a line up of about 6 people... half an hour later we make it to the counter. I questioned if I had the right phone number and he goes "Si ees correct", I say well I called it three times this morning, he looks at me and says "thees morning?" and I say "Si thees morning" he goes "we too busy to answer the phones it slows down our business" Viva Italia!
Finally get the contract and he hands us the car and goes "hokay now you go about 3 blocks to get the car" so off Larry and I go low and behold its the car I requested when reserving the car a 9 passenger Mercedes van diesel with an automatic FINALLY something is going right. And thank goodness for no fault insurance because the vehicle looked like somebody drove it by Braille. In the words of a good friend of mine "Not my deal Man). Picked up the girls and only a couple of minor wrong turns and we headed for Montepulciano in Tuscany.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montepulciano
Yes sirree boys and girls I drove that sucker right into the middle of the walled city built in the mid 1400's to the hotel Albergo il Marzoco http://www.albergoilmarzocco.it/hotel.en.php This hotel was built in 1510 as a palace and has been a hotel since 1860. You know what that means?
NO ELEVATOR!!
It means hauling LUGgage up 61 steps.. yeah I counted them. Good thing Lary was here to help me because they were going to have to get the oxygen bottle for me. Beautiful spacious rooms and views though.
Had a fun evening last night went to a restaurant situated in the basement of one of the old wineries flour mills where where grain was stored.
I didn't partake of the wine tasting but had some blackberry lemoncello the supper had some great antipasti and I had the pasta with wild boar meat sauce. The noodles reminded me of the thick ones my dads mother used to make with her creamy chicken noodle soup it was great.
Today was spent driving to Pienza and Montalcino, both hilltop fortresses dating to mid 1400s. Pienza was rebuilt in the mid 1400's under the direction of Pope Pious II with the direction of the first architects under the rennaisance period. Montalcino is known for its wines as are all towns here. the drive the country side was quite hilly even mountainous in some areas 30-40 km/h in a lot of areas 10% grades it was a really intersting drive. Vineyards, olive groves a lot of wheat and hayfields and from some postcards saw a lot of canola as well.
Back home this evening driving to Volterra and San Gimignano. Will update later.
Bona Notte
D&D
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