Tuscany

Wynn preparing the route to Tuscany

We have had quite a time since Mom and Dad's arrival.  Get them out of LP, and they get down.  Yesterday, we took them to the top of the "grain" church to see the view from the top floor then headed to pick up our rental car (bright blue Fiat Panda).

groovy car

 We didn't realize until later that we left the directions that Wynn spent 20 mins writing, at the apartment.  Oh yeah, and it had the address of the bed and breakfast on it.  Kind of important since we don't have phones or any internet capabilities outside of our apartment.  We decided to rent a gps with the car thinking that would help solve the problem....it didn't.  When we got the gps out of the bag, the connector that plugs into the car fell out without us realizing it, so we thought we had no way of charging it.  We used it until it went dead, which was about an hour into the drive.  We talked about how we were NOT paying for the gps since they didn't even give us a way to keep it charged.  We got all fired up about it.  It wasn't until we were getting our stuff out when we dropped it off that we realized the charger was under the driver's seat...oops.  Somehow, we found our way.

When Wynn was getting the keys to the car, the lady behind the counter gave him a map and showed him how to get to Montalcino.
Wynn: "But, we want to take SS222."
Hertz lady: "ha"
Wynn:  "Is that stupid?"
Hertz lady: "It's pretty."
Wynn: "Pretty stupid?"
Hertz lady: "It's pretty"
She was right.  It was absolutely beautiful.  And, really, we found our way surprisingly well.  Getting out of Florence was a bit of a scare and the curvy roads made Mom and I a little nauseous.  But, other than that, it was incredible!

Dad on side of road reading map that was too big to unfold in our little Panda

Greve in Chianti - cute town

Mom and I were taking pic next to statue when an old-ish man walked by and made a vulgar squeezing gesture, obviously, because of the statue's parts!  It was a little embarrassing seeing the man in a store later.

After getting to Montalcino, we drove into the town and somehow wound up in the limited traffic zone that we were warned not to drive in.  Then I got nervous and stalled out going uphill (twice).  Dad jumped out of the car and said we needed to change drivers....gladly.  We stopped at an auto repair shop to ask if anyone knew how to get to Villa Le Prata, which is where we were staying.  A cute little man that spoke zero English got us there somehow.

We checked into the bed and breakfast.  Marialuce spoke very little English but was so nice.  I lost my voice, so she gave me a pack of cough drops. She also gave us wine from her vineyard and told us about the place while pausing to look up words in her English/Italian dictionary.  Her place was an old hunting lodge.  There was some miscommunication about what was hunted on the property but eventually, figured out it was pheasant and wild boar.

Alfredo Lee's car...just like ours

Marialuce gave us a wonderful recommendation on a restaurant in Montalcino, so we went into town, walked around, tasted some Brunello wines made in the region, and enjoyed a fabulous dinner.  With the exception of the "frog"lady staring at us (Mom thought she disapproved of us sharing our dishes), it was a great meal with a lot of good laughs.  Dad keeps telling Mom that she is going to have to "put it back in the bottle" when she gets back to LP.  All the antics and cutting up here, is not going to fly back in the States he says.

After settling down about the funky shower and Marialuce's son snoring in the next room, we all had a good night and woke up to an Italian breakfast of toast, jam, biscotti, and coffee before heading back to Florence.  Again, we did surprisingly well with directions...not as well with the thousands of roundabouts that they love in this place but made it back Hertz to pay for that handy gps.

-bn