A Week In Tuscany

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Now that we had wheels, and the shops re-opened (Monday), we decided to head into Foiano Della Chiana to buy some supplies for the rest of the week. I am certain that driving on the opposite side of the road to what you are used to is quite stressful but I can almost guarantee that being a passenger in such a situation is even MORE stressful!! I was so tense and tight by the time we got there I resembled something out of a Frankenstein movie!! Suffice it to say, we made it there in one piece. However, (yes, there is always a however!) we had no idea that everything shuts between 12 and 4 (some places 1 - 4.30 p.m.) so we arrived just as the supermarket was closing! The place was literally like a ghost town and after wandering the streets we finally came upon the one place that was open - a small yet lovely Restorante. We ordered a few courses to drag the lunch out, as it was raining outside and we had a read a sign to say that the supermarket re-opened at 3pm. Finishing our food and wine just before then, we set off to the supermarket, only to find that we had read the wrong sign and it didn’t open until 4!!!! Having also been turned away from an internet point (which clearly had a computer and access to the internet but the owner said ‘no internet’) we decided to brave some additional travel and head to the next town, rather than wait in the car for another hour. We finally found a supermarket in Sinalunga, but like our previous experience of shopping in Tuscany, everything was labled in Italian so it was a bit of a hit and miss job to find what we were looking for. We came away with some fruit and veg, and pretty much pasta and bread, which formed the staple diet for the following week.

Andrew had faxed off his drivers licence to the car rental people (yes, amazing, we managed to pull that off!), so he drove back to the Villa, to get in some practice for when him and Jen hire a camper van later in their trip. He did a good job but we were all happy to be back at the Villa safe and unscathed! The stress of the day called for some serious unwinding, and 4 bottles of red and half a bottle of lemonchello later I can safely say that we were ‘unwound’! Andy cranked out a few tunes from his portable hard drive through my laptop, and we sang like a bunch of Japanese tourists at a Karaoke night! I even pulled out the old air guitar for a few of the awesome riffs…it was messy! (please don’t put it on You-Tube Jen!!)

The following day we enjoyed a great day at the Villa, in and by the pool, as well as getting some tit bits for our dinner party that we had that night, to celebrate our upcoming birthdays, and the safe arrival of baby Oliver (yay!!!). It was a great night, and Jen had the long table looking fit for royalty. I got totally spoiled by Jen and Andy for my birthday (which isn’t until October but we decided to celebrate all at once while we were together…besides, one can never have too many parties!!).

Jen and Andy left for Rome and their whirlwind 2 month backpacking adventure on the Thursday and it was very quiet and different without them. After taking them into the train station at Camucia, we headed into Montepulciano to get a few things and amazingly found an internet point, at last!!! There was no time however to be planning the rest of our trip so we just checked our emails and headed back to the Villa, with some more vino, of course!. Our last night at the Villa. Boy has the time flown. It will be sad to leave but it will also be so wonderful to be in Venice by tomorrow night (assuming we can work out how to get there that is!!)

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