And lo, a ripple: At the Villa

Oh, my aching muscles... We spent a lot of yesterday scrapping our deck in preparation for repainting it. It's been on our list for a while now and this weekend we finally made a start. We've got about half of it done. It's tedious work and you use muscles you normally don't, so there are a lot of aches and pains, not to mention blisters. Plus it was VERY hot here on the weekend, but I'm certainly not complaining about that. Thankfully, we have central air conditioning, so we're staying fairly cool inside.

We had a nice afternoon/evening at my nephew's place on Saturday. It was great to see them and their kids. Brad showed his slides from Nepal later in the evening, and the strawberry/rhubarb pie was a hit.

Thought I would continue a bit further on our Italian journey... Fasten your seatbelts! We took the Metro from the apartment to Rome Termini station and caught an early Inter-City train to Florence. It was a pleasant hour and a half or so speeding through the Italian countryside, which was dotted with scores of ruby red poppies. We arrived at the Santa Maria Novella station in Florence and walked to the car rental agency, some of us huffing and puffing with our luggage (that would be me). The whole process of picking up the cars went very smoothly, and in fact we were upgraded to two very spacious sedans (we had reserved two compacts). Since neither Brad or I drive standard (manual shift) cars, Mary and Don were the designated drivers for the duration. They both did admirably - after they figured out where reverse was! Turns out you had to pull up a little knob on the gearshift in order to get to reverse - something the boyz at the agency neglected to tell us.

We followed the directions provided to get out of the city and onto the highway. Brad went with Shaun and Mary and, I travelled with Don and Mar. I tried to be helpful and point the way several times, but Marlene would have none of it! No backseat driving in that car! Of course, Mar was sitting in the front and had a much better view of the roadsigns than I did hunkered down in the back. I quickly accepted the fact that if they were determined to get us lost, there would be little I could do about it! LOL... I say that with tongue firmly planted in cheek. I have ABSOLUTELY no sense of direction and Mar has an amazing set of eyes for catching signs. I settled back for the ride and soon we were zooming down the highway and passing Team No. 2 on the way to Siena, which was our first stop, as Brad had rented a bike there.

Amazingly, we found the bike place on the outskirts of the beautiful hill town without a hitch. The shop was open, the bike was there and in good repair, and after rearranging some luggage and taking the front wheel off the bike, into the trunk it went and we drove the short distance to a parking garage where we left the cars and walked into the old town of Siena. (Here I have to admit that my bladder and I took advantage of the deserted, underground car park, a strategically parked SUV, and a conveniently located drain, and answered nature's call. The first of um - several - such occurrences. Better safe than sorry, I say, and who knew there was a washroom just at the other end of the garage?!)

We had lunch and gelato in Siena and walked around the stunningly beautiful city. We then hopped back in the cars and made our way to Poggi Bonsi, where we would stock up on groceries for a few days and call the caretaker to arrange a time to meet at the villa. The Coop in Poggi Bonsi is a story for another day - oh boy, is it ever! :-) For now, suffice to say that it was very, VERY busy. It was closing for two days, you see, to mark the Italian National holiday on June 2. In any case, Brad contacted Norma, the caretaker and one of our infamous maids, and we arranged to meet at the villa at 5:30. Norma speaks no English, so Brad's and my extremely rudimentary Italian came in quite handy by times.

We found the villa without a problem and Norma was waiting for us when we arrived. She was very pleasant and showed us all around, chatting away and pointing things out to us in Italian, about three-quarters of which Brad and I understood. She gave us some coffee, some canned tomatoes, some garlic, a baguette, and a bottle of wine. She left us the keys and said she would return in 2 days - she didn't work on Sundays, and Monday was the Holiday. All of our cares immediately vanished when we were left on our own at this beautiful property tucked into the hills and vineyards of Tuscany. The Internet did not lie. The place was exactly as pictured - even better in fact. The large kitchen, the dining room, the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the garden, the landscaping, the loggia, and the pool... All were perfect. After a very long day of travelling and new experiences, we found ourselves in heaven...

The main piazza in Siena - Il Campo.