Buses & Trains & Planes & Carts & Waiting

Our One-week tour of Tuscany ended with a lovely afternoon visit and dinner in Siena. We got back to our villas in Contignano at 8:00 PM, completed our packing by stuffing our final purchases in our luggage and went to sleep both dreading and looking forward to our return to the US. The trip home after a fun vacation is always a relief as well as a source of anxiety. This return trip turned out to be more anxiety than relief.
We got an early start, leaving La Montalla at 7:00 AM. The 2-hour bus ride to Florence was uneventful and so we were all feeling pretty comfortable and secure in the notion that all would go according to plan. Not so much.
We made it thru long security lines at Amerigo Vespucci Airport and finally arrived at gate 7 for our 50-minute flight to Rome with about 1.5 hours to spare. So we made ourselves comfortable and enjoyed some reminiscing about the highlights of our week. Before we knew it, it was 11:00 and we were beginning to wonder when they would announce the boarding time for our 11:30 flight to Rome. They didn"t. We waited some more. Finally at 11:40 an airline representative told us that due to high winds the plane that was to take us to Rome could not land in Florence and was deverted to Pisa.
So we wait for them to load our luggage onto 2 buses for a "quick" one hour and 15 minute bus ride to Pisa to catch our 11:30 flight to Rome.
We arrived in Pisa and had to wait in even longer security lines so we could be loaded onto a bus that would take us to the plane that would take us to Rome for our 2:30 flight to JFK. The bus got us to the plane at about 2:10, we waited on the plane till about 2:55 and began our 50 minute flight from Pisa to Rome for our 2:30 flight to JFK. We arrived in Rome at about 3:40 and were met by 2 attendants who were to walk us through endless terminals to catch our 2:30 flight which was waiting for us.
Most of the group followed one attendant but Peter and I brought up the rear with Peggy and her mom, Mary who with the help of her cane, was struggling to keep up. We walked through more endless terminals at Mary's pace until our escort got the four of us a golf cart for 3 which we piled into like so many college kids in a telephone booth challenge.
We rode the golf cart through still more endless terminals to the tram stop to board the tram at 4:00 to take us to our 2:30 flight from Rome to JFK. We thanked our escort and offered him a gratuity which he graciously refused stating that..."it's not over yet!"
We boarded the tram which wizzed us between endless terminals finally to arrive at gate 9 at 4:15 to board our 2:30 flight to JFK.
We took off promptly at 4:30.

Arrivederci Roma!

Wednesday-Thursday...Pizza Night/Cooking Demo...Relaxing and Not So Much!

These 2 days were designed to be relaxing in the morning with two fun and delicious activities planned for the afternoon and evening. The guests at each villa would do each activity on alternating days. Our group is occupying 2 villas and we had scheduled a "Pizza Night and Tour" of Contignano's ancient wine making/olive oil production facility located in the basement of Giuseppe's home which is the castle of this small village. The "pizza night" part of the event was back at LaMontalla where Giuseppe and his wife Paola had presented all the ingredients for the making of individual pie--all we needed to do was choose the items we wanted on our individual pie and they then cooked them in the wood-burning oven in the main dining area.
The Cooking Demo took place at Fattoria La Palezzina in Radicofani under the direction of Silvano and his wife Eliana, she being the Italian-speaking chef and teacher, he being the interpreter. After we learned to make various pastas and tiramisu we sat down to a scrumptous dinner consisting of the things Eliana demonstrated, as well as a main course of pork fillets and fresh spinach cooked in olive oil and garlic. YUM
So on Wednesday of this 2-day event we had he morning to take a group of guests to the supermarket to get supplies, (no alarms sounded when I entered the store but I did sense many security eyes on me as I shopped).
When we came back with that group we spent the rest of the morning shutteling people to and from the town and to and from the 2nd villa (San Antonio) until it was time to deposit each of the groups at their planned event. Not so much relaxing but both events were a great success for each of the groups on Wednesday.
Now surely Thursday promised to be a relaxing morning because no pick/ups or drop/offs or supermarket trips were scheduled . Everyone was happy to stay at their respective villas until it was time to go to "Pizza Night" or "Cooking Demo Night".
So Peter and I left in the van to take care of some things we needed to do and returned to La Montalla to finally relax until the afternoon shuttle pick/ups and drop/offs were to begin---to get each of the groups at 2 villas to either the pizza night and tour or the cooking demo and dinner that they were scheduled for.
Everything was going nicely and everyone was relaxing nicely and looking forward to the evening's activities when someone came in and said..."Do you know that ther is a flat tire on the van?"
So much for relaxing on Thursday---I had to recruit 3 men in the LaMontalla group to help us figure out how to get the spare tire out from under its compartment of the 9 passenger van we had and then change the tire before we could move on to the pick/ups and drop/offs to either the pizza night and tour or the cooking demo and dinner.
Well the tire got changed and we got everyone where they needed to be....but not everyone had a relaxing morning...whatever.
I guess we'll relax on the flight home!

Larceny in Tuscany

We arrived at DaVinci Airport at 7:05 AM after a reasonably comfortable flight across the Pond. We met our Rome City Guide, Franco who was entertaining and informative, showing us the drama and history of the Colesseum and the remarkable site that is St Peter's Square at the Vatican. Time constraints did not allow us to go inside St Peter's but just the experience of being in that square stirred emotions so deeply that at least one of our group members was brought to tears by the magnitude of the historical significance and a lifetime of hearing, reading and seeing pictures and movies about it. Someone else was so moved to "walk in the footsteps of Tom Hanks, (i.e. DaVinci Code)!! LOL

So after our quick tour of the Eternal city came to a conclusion and everyone was greatful to sit down finally in the coach for the 2.5 hour journey to Tuscany.

Here's where the day's journey took a "larcenous" turn...when we reached the exit for Contignano we stopped at a supermarket so everyone could get supplies, snacks, food staples, wine, cheese, fruit and anything else they could load in their carts in the 30 minutes time I allotted them for the task.

Peter and I did our shopping too and when we were checking out, the cashier needed a price check on a bottle of milk we were buying. While that was being done and while I was distracted by someone's question the cashier proceeded to bag our entire order (except for the milk) and when I turned back to the counter, Peter had all the bags in the cart. I assumed he paid the bill, he assumed I paid the bill---do you see where I'm going with this? That's right-we left the market with our cartful of un-purchased groceries! We loaded our bags into the coach and everyone waited on the coach for the last 2 people to come out.

They were taking much too long so I went back in to find them (mother and daughter) and they were at the same check-out that we had just left. I walked them out with their cartful of purchases and got them onto the coach.

By now the driver, Marco was outside the bus in a heated discussion with the store manager and about 3 members of the security team--Marco called me out and after much sign language and attempts at translation between me, him, them, and us, I finally understood that we left the store without paying for our groceries. The mother and daughter were held up because the cashier was busy alerting security that Peter and I "escaped" without paying!!

After all the confusion was over I went back in with the manager and paid for my groceries, the cashier actually apologized to me for making the mistake of not having us pay for our purchases!! Talk about "the customer is always right"!

So our first day in Tuscany has given us some unique memories and has caused my passengers to keep a closer eye on me when I shop. They also enjoy lots of "jail" jokes and police references at my "expense".

P.S. We never did get our bottle of milk!

Tuscany-Bound

Tomorrow, March 19th I am leaving for a one-week tour of Tuscany. I'm taking a group for Get Up and Go Tours, we're landing in Roma and taking a guided tour of the Eternal City. Then we will travel north to Tuscany, where we will stay at two villas.
We'll visit Florence, San Gimignano, Siena, Pisa, Montepulciano, Lucca, and Montalcino. I will post here as often as I can providing there is a good internet connection at La Montalla.
Ciao.

Philadelphia Flower Show, March 2010

A large group of amateur gardeners, flower lovers, and happy travelers decided to Get Up and Go with us to the Philadelphia Flower Show at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
The show was packed into 10 acres of indoor display space showcasing beautiful plants and the art of gardening.
We strolled through lush garden displays and explored creative garden designs and flower crafts.
The theme of the show this year was "Passport to the World", international exhibits of flowers, plants, and garden designs from around the world including Brazil's Amazon Jungle, Blooming Dutch Bulbs, Orchids of Singapore, Flowers of South Africa and many more.
There were opportunities to attend demonstrations of state-of-the-art techniques, cooking, organic growing methods and indoor and outdoor design tips. And of course there were plenty of shopping opportunities!