The plan today was to take Kathy and John to Figline in Valdarno, which is only about 25 kilometers from the villa......25 k of winding, twisting, busy road. The trip takes about 45 minutes.
Again, when I looked on a map it was a pretty easy assumption to make that the trip would take about 15 or 20 minutes.....but 45 was not what I expected.
Then the fun began. Kathy and John had a reservation on the high speed train from Florence back to Rome to catch an early flight back to the states.
The Trenitalia website lists an 11:19 from Figline that gets in to Florence at 12:10 or so, leaving them plenty of time to catch the 12:28 express to Rome.
At the station, we are told: No 11:19. 11:48 only. That gets them to Florence after their train to Rome. No good.
Then we hit the good news, bad news: There is an 11:35 train to Rome from Figline. That's good. It's a regional train, which takes over 4 hours. That's bad. The tickets are only 35 Euro. That's good. They had nonrefundable first class tickets for more than that which are now unusable. That is bad. There are plenty of seats on the regional train. That's good. They are all one class, a little cramped, and maybe not as clean. That's bad.
On the website, it lists an 11:19 to Florence, station agents say there is none, but there was an 11 to Florence not listed on the website, which they arrived in time to take but didn't because everyone thought there was an 11:19.
We rode the 11:48, which was 10 minutes late, into Florence. Carl and Ruth headed off to see David and other arty figures while Emily and I grabbed a sandwich and headed for the rental.
The Avis people charged Emily 191 Euro for a front tire. They said the car will be towed to their garage where a mechanic will check to see if there is other damage. The Mercedes they gave us is a little smaller, but has plenty of room for five plus luggage.
Now it is near dusk, the sky is clear, the temp is up, the breeze is gently blowing and in a few minutes I am going to fire up a wood pile and we are going to cook out.
Carl and Ruth are on the way back from Figline, and I bet they have some stories to tell!
So I am relaxing with a glass of Chianti Classico, listening to the dogs barking, the leaves rustling, the sound of shots echoing off the hillside. It is hunting season and locals are out for deer. There are also wild boar in the area, and hunters use dogs to surround he boar until they can shoot him. Boar meet is found on many restaurant menus, and boar sausage is common in butcher shops. Boar are an open season because they root up gardens and truffles.
Just a few pictures to post today.
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| We found an IKEA in Florence and bought 2 pillows and a couple of wine glasses because we are clumsy!! |
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| The road to the villa is not paved |
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| plus it is narrow |
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| Looking out the dining room onto the terrace |
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| We seem to clutter up our dining room table! |
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