HELP! I’VE FALLEN IN (love with) TUSCANY AND I CAN’T GET UP

Return of the Reluctant Tuscan

     Around this time I received a reply from Phil Doran (The Reluctant Tuscan).  He was like a friend who wanted to share all of his first-hand experience with us. 

Hi David and Marianne,
    Sorry I've been slow to get back to you but I was on a deadline for this pilot and it was all I could think about. Let me see if I can deal with some of your questions: Leather good are sold all through Firenze and although there's no actual discount outlets the tourist season has been so bad you can really bargain them down. I'd start at the Strawmarket. It's this big open air place right off the Piazza Republica that has many vendors so you could play one against the other.
    Petrol stations are a bit bewildering. Even after years there I'm still perplexed by the intricacies of their self-serve pumps. One good tip is to gas up on the autostrada because there are always attendants on duty. Gas credit cards from the US will not work, so use Visa or Amex. I don't know much about bus service but the two lines that serve the area are Lazzi and CLAP... you could try their websites. And tickets are traditionally sold at Tabaks and newspaper kiosks.
     I've never climbed the campagnolo in Pisa but I did climb to the top of the Duomo in Firenze and I heartily recommend reading Ross King's "Bruneleschi's Dome," which explains how it was built, then climbing it.
    We love Lucca. Eat at the trattorias Da Leo and/or La Baralla. Weather permitting ride rent bikes and ride the road that is on the top of the wall. Then drive the road that leads to Camaiore and explore the turns-off to see amazing vistas and villas.
     Hope this helps, Phil

This helped very much.  In fact, the one person that helped us with Firenze and Lucca tips the most was Phil—hands down.

Three Months and Counting…

     As we got closer to the blessed event, the trip, we started a count-down.  It was three months out and from the 9^th of March we started reciting what we would be doing this day in tres months time—the 9^th we drive to Portland and hold up in a motel overnight before, the 10^th, flying out at 11:30 AM.  March 12^th I realized that I hadn’t made the reservations for the Roma Hop-on Hop-off bus tour, so back to the internet I went to book that tour.  On the 19^th we realized that we will be leaving Magione and Fernando and Rosetta, and getting into Firenze.  I now remembered that I had to book the night of dinner and the opera so I got on line and sent an email to the company that does the tours:

Hello:

My wife and I will be in Firenze the week of giugno 19-25, 2010 and we are very interested in the Dinner and Opera.  We have some questions that we hope you can answer. Grazie.

My wife has mobility issues, and walking a great deal or many steps is very hard for her.  We are staying 4 blocks south of the duomo and three north of Piazza della Signoria (Pz. Cimatori). Can we be picked up there and taken to the event (and back)?

We would like to know which church the performance will be in, and if you know, at this time, what the opera will be.  Accompanied by piano, yes? 

Grazie, David and Marianne Jones

Dear David,

Thank you for contacting Italiatours.com

Unfortunately the pick up is not included on this excursion.

Once you have booked and received your travel voucher, the contact details for the travel service operator will be on this voucher under the heading 'Important Information'. Where applicable, you are required to call the travel service operator directly to advice of additional information.

The performances change frequently so we don't know which opera will be at this time.

Feel free to contact us at anytime if you have any question.

Best Regards,

So…give us your money first, and then we’ll tell you what you get.  Maybe it was to be no ‘night at the opera’ for us’? 

     Spring break this year was really spring.  It hadn’t been spring at Spring break in the Pacific Northwest for many years.  I worked in the yard and did the things I normally do in mid-April to get the flowerbeds ready for planting.  My lazy days were to be ‘dolce far niente’ “sweetness of nothing” according to Marianne who wanted me resting and trying to recuperate from the ‘traumas’ of church events.  My early mornings were spent lounging in bed, taking coffee and doing a little reading before doing yard work.  The garden beds were especially choked with maple seed pods that had mostly sprouted, both in the beds and on the lawn.  Along with the moss, nubile trees starts added delightful chartreuse to the grass green of the spongy lawn.  The gnarly plum sprouts (this from an ornamental that never use to bear fruit) and their abandoned shell casings along with a thick layer of the lace-like corpses of the fall leaves, made the task of cleaning beds a challenge.

     I ran to Big-K early for a ‘smoking’ deal on a digital camcorder, and then to Macy’s for a great ‘trip’ shirt (thank you P.K. for the gift certificate).  I stopped at Bi-Mart for a regular size box of bulb food, which Home Depot did not have, and of course I had to buy a cinnamon fern and six bags of potting mix for the beds; it was Tuesday (Lucky Member Tuesday—and no, I’ve never been one) and I didn’t want to be there and fight the crowds, but it was on the way home and I always has something for the garden.

     Once I mowed the lawn and cleared the beds, I decided to take reposo.  I made a panino and retired to the patio and the table, chairs and umbrella which I had set up a few days before, after spring officially started—so as not to disturb some ‘cosmic’ Waugh.  Marianne joined me and we based in the balmy sun of midday and read.  I, sad to admit, di Blasi’s “1,000 Days in Tuscany” and her, Mayes’ “Everyday in Tuscany”.  What a delightful bliss, talking to each other about wonderful parts of what we were reading about Italy, and reminiscing in the three-month countdown—the 23^rd, Firenze, Oltrarno, Pitti, Boboli, and maybe Dinner and Opera.

     Marianne and I started talking about the clothes we were going to take.  She said she wanted to take a weeks’ worth of clothes.  I had been thinking that too.  I had also been thinking about what things I would wear around the pool in Magione, and had been fixating on footwear.  I came to the conclusion that I would buy a pair of flip flops from the Dollar Store.  She thought that was a good idea.  She said that if I loose them you would be out a dollar; I was thinking I could just leave them in Magione, so I wouldn’t have to hall them all over Tuscany and back to the USA.  Marianne related a story to me about an old friend in Bend who traveled once to the Grand Canyon with her husband.  She specifically took her oldest underwear—throwing a pair away a day so she wouldn’t have to return with them.  She also ended up being able to buy a whole new sell upon their return. 

     I never got that afternoon nap I had been hoping for, but I did do a little more yard work, helped Marianne plant some pansies and primrose--the royal purple and the pagan orange, and go to yoga.  The instructor didn’t show so someone from the group, maybe neatly planned, led us through a 50 minutes routine. 

     After dinner I slipped into the hot tub and watched the stars come out—always the best show around.  Since it was the week before the full moon after the vernal equinox, the half moon was high at twelve o’clock.  In my half hour soak it developed an incredible ring, promising either precipitation or frost.  Tomorrow was my brother Tom’s 56^th Birthday.  The world was turning so fast from night to day.  I thanked God again for the infinite blessing He had showered down upon us and rested so peacefully.  Tomorrow (in 3 months)—Santa Croce, Palazzo Vecchio, Calcio Storico, and fireworks.

     The last day of spring break March 26, 27 & 28 (Palm Sunday) in three months, we say, we will be renting our car in Empoli after taking the first treno ride.  We drove through San Miniato, the countryside to San Gimignano, had lunch at the trattoria Annie suggested, drove to Volterra stayed two nights in La Primavera, had a wonderful half-day tour with Annie, got up and drove to Montalcino, via Abbazia San Galgano and Monte Oliveto, and met Ferenc, Candace and Buster Mate.  Wow, what a weekend.  Plus I go all the bark mulch in and the back garden cleared and edged; no dump run—oh well, maybe next weekend.  Time for the last push of school until summer.  Tomorrow—Val D’Orcia!