GlenWright

The day starts at 3:30 AM. Elinor doesn't think that we need to get up that early, but somehow she's not aware of how long it takes her to get ready in the morning. Any morning. She's just ready in time for the taxi (now called Riide which has in identical signup screen to Uber, but its still the local taxi companies). Oh yes, and Elinor had insisted on making a fruit salad to take with us and eat at the airport before going through security. That means that we're rushing to eat it (and not finish it) before getting in the long line for security. Turns out the long line moves along quickly, and we do have a few minutes to sit before they start boarding. Not rushed, but not sitting waiting, either. And quite ... read more

Friday, Sept 18th Glen's Notes: getting packed, Polenta Festival Not much to say about the day itself. A lot of the day was planning the route back to Florence, and where and when. Elinor did the packing, working to make sure that we weren't going to be over the weight limit with the big suitcase (we weren't). Wey and Mireille had originally thought they would overnight in Florence, but had decided instead to catch the train in Florence and make their way to Milan a day early. So the plan was, Elinor and I would take Wey and Mireille to the train station in Florence, and then drop off the rental car. Wayne and Wendy would take our luggage to the hotel that we'd booked, drop off the luggage, return the car, and then we'd see ... read more

Another relatively quiet day. It's the weekend, so we can sleep in. No alarm! I wake up, and check the time. 6:30. Must Go Back To Sleep. Eventually, I do, and then get up a 9. Much better. Wendy decided to make crepes this morning. She had made some grape syrup earlier, and we had the crepes with yogurt instead of cream, the syrup, and .... something else. They were good, and I didn't have time to look and see what I'd put on them. Sunday morning is market time in Monterchi. We went and picked up fresh fruit and vegetables. Elinor refrained from buying a jacket from a street vendor. Elinor had decided we were going to cook a chicken for Sunday dinner. And bake a cake. And see if we could get enough lemons ... read more

Another day! So today Elinor and I decided to go exploring one of the farm trails behind the property. That plan didn't last, the trail ended about 50 feet past where we could see from the top of the trail. We did get to see the olive groves in the area, and we could see the fields through the valley south of us. So we adjusted our plan: we were going to walk from the province of Tuscany to the province of Umbria! This isn't a big trek. The dividing line between the two areas is in the bottom of the valley. The bigger challenge is that the roads are fairly steep and gravel can be slippery. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to drive anything but a tractor up and down a road like this. ... read more

Not anywhere near a daily email. Using Elinor's email because my Shaw account doesn't know how to report meaningful error messages. OK, a five-day report. I'll try not to ramble too much, but one of the reasons I haven't been writing is I've been touristy busy. Who knew Italy had so much history! The flight here was OK. We went Saskatoon to Calgary to Frankfurt, Germany to Florence, Italy. We also left extra time for our transfer in Calgary to make sure we would get out of the country. We didn't leave too much time in Frankfurt. Our flight loaded in Calgary, moved out on the tarmac, and then .... stopped. And stopped some more. Or stayed stopped. Or both. And as we sat in suspense, they didn't tell us why right away. It turned out ... read more