Week in Tuscany

I think when I last blogged, we were in Venice. The sky had opened up about the time we figured out the train station, and had made our way back into town from our hotel where we were spending the night. We managed to find the right train, didn't manage to validate our tickets, OOOPS!! And after about an hour the sky opened up and the rain came crashing down! Susie and I had left Wayne and Patti, and it wasn't long before Susie was buying an umbrella from a store. Enter the winds...umbrellas turning inside out, seeing people with plastic bags on their feet, and my camera is buried to try to save it. All I could do was laugh. It was so funny. The Oregon girls and all this rain, and here we were with umbrellas. A big no no in the land of Oregonians.

Note canals flowing over into the walkways. Yes, we were having fun!

We tried ducking into churches, stores, and wherever we thought we could escape for just a little bit. Finally we decided that it was time to get something warm, so a coffee break turned into lunch, which was wonderful. After lunch, we couldn't stand it anymore and decided to head back to the train station and head for the hotel. We passed poor Wayne who was waiting outside of church for his shopaholic wife. The church was closed, and there he stood in the pouring rain and cold. Being the kind friends we are, we burst out laughing, and left him there to wait for Patti.  After much confusion, we finally found our platform and were on the train headed for the hotel.

The next day the six ugly Americans crossed the street for the train station that would take us on our next adventure Tuscany. We were a mere 35 minutes early, and with ALL of our luggage, and stairs conquered we proceeded to wait. A train came on the tracks that were ours, but it was going in the wrong direction. We waited and waited. With ten minutes left, Gary went to check, and announced "it's ours" and off the crazy five went to meet up with him. On the train like a Chinese fire drill, some going left, some going right, and Patti and I staying put to see where we were supposed to be. Gary said left, Mark said right, and  We went in both directions..Oh it wasn't pretty, but we eventually found our seats, removing people from them, and getting dirty looks we settled in for our 3.5 hour ride. 

Arriving at Arezzo, the boys went to get the rental cars, and Wayne stayed with the women. We somehow managed to load all the luggage into two cars and headed off. We had barely made it out of town when both oil lights went on. Turn around, stopped at three gas stations, no oil, back to the car rental place, to be told, "it's perfect"  Ok here we go again. Crazy American's take three! 

We arrived at the villa about 35 minutes later and had the family waiting for us. Very warm, and wonderful people, and the villa couldn't be nicer. Thankfully it looks better in person than on the webpage. Usually it's the other way around.

We are loving the large table, great for group dinners and for playing games

The pool is so beautiful, but it isn't heated, and the weather has been nice, but not nice enough to get in. I thought we might, but haven't gotten up the courage yet.

WE had a chef come to the villa the other night, and he fixed the most amazing dinner. We ate until we thought we would pop! Wonderful appetizers, wine, rabbit, veal, and wild boar pasta that we all loved!
Then we had a guided wine tasting tour that was wonderful We are in the heart of the Chianti region, which is marked by the black rooster. Very prestigious, and they are the only people who can claim this, based on the area the grapes are grown in. WE tasted some we liked, and WE tasted some we loved! We saw so much of the area, and our guide Andre was wonderful..  Today we went out on our own, and had some fun exploring. We ended up on roads that I wasn't sure our cars would make, but we did.
All is well, and tomorrow we go to Florence on the train. Pray for the ugly American's that we can do it without being noticed too much.  :-)

 If we're not looking at acres of grapevines, it's olive trees, and red poppies. Usually at this time of year there are fields full of flowers, but this year due to all the rain, the flora are a bit behind. Boo hoo, guess I'll just have to come back on a warmer May day!

 Such charming streets we walked, I've taken thousands of photos. Hoping my computer can hold up until I get home.

An interesting coat of arms with the black rooster in it.

No big problems, everyone is still getting along...men are snoring is the answer I hear throughout the day. We will miss this place, for sure. Going to savor all the days we have left.  Ciao!