Leaving Rome for Tuscany

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23 March - Tuesday Will dragged in about 5 am from the party with his friends, and we continued to sleep until about 9:30 am. After a cappuchino and cornetto we walked along the Via Corso to finish off souvenir shopping. My son and I had an appointment with the president of JCU at noon so took a taxi there about 11:30 am. Upon arrival we learned that we had to reschedule to 2 pm, so ate lunch nearby. The meeting went well and we returned to the hotel to pick up Tamara who was near to tears wondering why we were so late...she didn't have a phone so that we could call her about the delay. We then took a taxi to the airport to pick up a rental car. We left Fiumicino about 3:45 pm and headed north on the autostrada, stopping at a service area for a late lunch for Tamara, and arriving at our agriturismo farm near Cortona about 7 pm. Our accommodations were very nice, with a living room, kitchen, two bathrooms, and a bedroom with a king size bed and a single. We initially went down the wrong lane and had to reverse, but we didn't know how to do that with this manual transmission. I got out and pushed the car backwards while Will steered. At the farm we asked the proprietress how to put the car in reverse. She tried, but couldn't do it either. Soon her father came by to see what the problem was, and he showed us something on the shift that you had to pull up when putting the car in reverse. Will was too tired from the activities of the evening before to go out to eat, so Tamara and I went to a nearby restaurant recommended by the farmer. Then we called an early night.

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