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Published: October 13th 2009
Thursday 8th October
A day of administration and relaxation
After the long day on the road yesterday and almost not finding our farmhouse apartment out in the countryside of Tuscany we thought we should take a day to relax and not travel.Or at least no further than the town of Poggibonsi which is only 3 or so kilometres away.
And although the town is not that far away it is distant enough with a small hill in the way to not hear any traffic noise from the town or motorway that passes close by.In fact as we expected we might we slept until nearly 8am as the bed and pillows are among the most comfortable we have experienced on the European section of the BBA.
With full kitchen facilities it is the grand breakfast of eggs minus the bacon(as we just can’t find any and the speck is a bit too salty to substitute)after our cereals, of course.
For some reason we have accumulated a pile of washing even though we did a full machine load in Venice which doesn’t seem that long ago.So we got that all up to date and then headed off downtown to try and either steal
some internet for the laptop by parking somewhere downtown or finding an internet cafe.We need to get accommodation jacked up for Rome on our way back north the weekend after this one coming up and we also need to get our Google instructions for our stay just outside Rome on the way south to the Amalfi Coast.And we want to check the website that we booked our farmstay here through for the deal on the cleaning etc that suddenly gotn thrown at us last night when we were too buggered to care.
The town is as chaotic as any we have passed through and so we didn’t try too hard to find a parking space close to where we thought the centro was but opted for a free car park on the edge of town near the soccer ground.At least this way we should come across something as we walk through the streets and perhaps we won’t have to go too far.
We started out following a local who came out of some flats near the parking spot but had to give the idea that she was heading for centro away when she went into another block of flats where
there clearly were no shops.We then came to crossroads and the decision was made to turn left and cross the bridge.It was the right decision because 10 minutes further walking and Gretchen’s keen eyes spied an internet cafe.The deal was an hour for €2 which was a bargain compared to some of the others we have seen in Italy and the rest of Europe for that matter.
After checking the emails we book our accommodation at a camping ground outside the Rome ring road run by the same company running the one in Venice.They have a shuttle to the city which we will use as there is no way we want to drive in Rome.Plus the seasonal cost for a mobile home is only €20 per night,an absolute score for the BBA!!We also checked out Expedia,the website we booked for here through,and it looks like we might have read the small print incorrectly and will be up for the final cleaning cost of €30 which pushes the total cost out a bit.However its location and amenities that we have make it all worthwhile.
We then headed back to RR and drove to the Co-Op supermercati(thats Italian for supermarket)for restocking and
also to buy something with a Tuscany flavour for dinner tonight.So tonight we will have a strip of pork with spinach and cheese rolled into it.It has a Tuscan name so it must be local!!
The race is on now to find the cheapest one litre cask of wine that is drinkable.We must say the couple we have had so far in Italy have been better than our cask wine at home and we haven’t paid more than about €1.40 or thereabouts.Today however we did find one at the Co-Op for under a Euro at €0.69 but we decided against it as that it just too cheap for drinking wine!!We ended up with more at €1.40 in the shopping trolley.
This Co-Op is huge with about 20 checkouts although they are not all working.The queue down the far end looked too long so we joined a much shorter queue only to be told(or at least we think we were told)that the checkouts at this end of the store were for Co-Op cardholders only and of course we didn’t fit the bill.
Up until now the checkout operators have been very tolerant with our limited Italian and we have had some
smiles and laughs with some of them.But not this time.The guy on the checkout gave us the ‘dirty’ look as he gestulated that we didn’t fit his checkout.We felt like just leaving our 15 or so articles on the conveyer belt and walking off shrugging our shoulders showing we didn’t understand Italian.However that would meant going through the shopping process again at another store so we slowly put them all back in the basket and walked off to the far end where we should have been in the first place.
From now on the Co-Op are off limits and we shall shop at Pam’s next(another supermercati chain).
All of this had taken time and we arrived home for a very late lunch at after 2.30pm.
Gretchen felt she needed a walk and headed off up the gravel road to see what was there while I stretched out to watch an old American war movie with Robert Mitchum dubbed in Italian.It was a movie I seemed to remember seeing years ago and I think I remembered the storyline despite not understanding a word of the dubbing.
During her walk Gretchen discovered a lovely spot below the house for a pre dinner
cocktail made from the vodka,cinzano and orange juice we had brought earlier at the supermercati.
So with the sun in its last rays of the day we took up position looking out over the horse paddocks,vineyard and some olive trees enjoying the cocktail with local cheese and crackers.Ah,this is what Tuscany is all about!!
Once the sun had gone it was time to cook dinner which turned out to be delicious with delicate flavours from the spinach and cheese.
It has not been a particulary busy day but we achieved all we wanted to and got in some relaxation along the way.
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Rin
non-member comment
Bee-yoo-tiful :-) I would've thought you'd be into those Peroni beers, but I hear ya about that cheap box-o-vino ;-)