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When I wake up and the sun is shining, I’m so appreciative of warm, sunny weather. At home the weather doesn’t matter that much, but we are traveling it has a huge impact on how we spend our time and enjoy the place we are visiting. Today is an especially good morning to appreciate the sun because we are going on a 4-hour Vespa tour in the hills surrounding Florence.
OK, we were going on a 4-hour Vespa tour until we got on the Vespa and Jack decided he wasn’t comfortable with me on the back. So we traded our Vespa for a teeny, tiny 1970’s Fiat 500. You can see how little it is in the picture. There were 3 other couples on the tour. Two were sort of our age and they both used Vespas and the other couple was on their honeymoon and they opted for the Fiat as well. The countryside around Florence really looks like a series of picture postcards. It’s gorgeous. We stopped at church built in honor of a saint who was thrown into the coliseum with a starved panther that wouldn’t attack him so the Emperor cut his head off and he
carried it for 3 or 4 miles to the location of the church were he died peacefully. Call me a cynic, but that’s less credible than the tooth fairy. After that we stopped and an olive orchard and vineyard. There were ity, bity olives on the trees and tiny grapes on the vines. Again, it was picture postcard perfect. After move twisty roads with stonewalls on each side that were not much wider than our car, we ended up at the tour company’s cooking school, again more gorgeous views and a passable lunch. We sat with the newlyweds from Florida, but I was careful to get the contact information for the woman who is on the faculty of the UNC Dental School. I’m the likeliest person I know to need dental work and she’s someone I’d call to simply meet other people once I’m in Chapel Hill.
Mid-way through the tour while getting out of the car, Jack pushed the back of the seat so hard that if broke. The back of the driver’s seat fell back and from that point on it Jack had to pull himself forward holding onto the steering wheel to drive. It was tough
for him and tiring. Getting back to the apartment, I went off to get a super cute onesie I had purchased for TBD for the grandkids of a couple of friends. Then we walked over to the market and I got scarves for gifts from a very nice young woman. Who knows where they were actually made, but they are pretty.
We had a fantastic dinner with a wine tasting at Enoteca Pitti Gola e Cantina. The food was good, the wine was good and it was completely unpretentious and reasonably priced. What more can you ask for? After dinner we went back to the best gelato place in the world. I got coconut and dark chocolate and Jack go pistachio. The pistachio was lightly salted and was the best we’ve ever had. Jack was kind enough to share. It was a wonderful day and I’m sad to leave Florence.
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