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

COUNTDOWN TO ECSTASY (May into June 2010)

     Words can not begin to describe what the last week of school was like, to hear people talk about their Italian experiences, and just plan hold on to emotions, and make it through the week.  Every reference to anything remotely Italian, made my pulse pound and my head light and giddy.  I could not even fathom concepts like, Saturday we will be sight-seeing in Roma.  I mean really--in Rome, Italy!  It struck me square over the head during the final awards assembly for the year. 

     Our Librarian creates a slide show each year as part of a motivational strategy for the Accelerated Reader program; it is part of our schools “Read

Around the World” thing we do, encouraging students to read, make points and guess where in the world we will go next.  She cleverly, using Photoshop, takes pictures of the students and faculty and inserts them into existing photos from around the world.  This year: Africa, Sweden, Italy and Hawaii.  She knew about of impending trip and stuck me into shots of the Forum or Coliseum.  Here’s ‘doofy’ Dave in Rome.  How silly.  I laughed, as did the whole assembled school.  Then it hit me.  That same “in the gut’, ‘wake-up this is a really real life” thing that said I will be there on Friday.  In four days I will be somewhere totally different, doing things that we had planned for months.  It was really going to happen. 

     We had to purchase a new take on bag, because the one we had used in the past was to big now.  We were hoping everything that we had tried to get into the other one, now discarded along with many things that weren’t going to make it on the trip, would fit into it.  Monday night—work late to make up for the time I wouldn’t be at work.  Marianne got the dog a hair cut.  She had come home Friday bitterly complaining about her hair cut on Friday.  

     The weather finally broke like it was summer and the end of school.  The teachers were finding it hard to tell me when their kids would show up or as in the case of one, go to the awards assembly in her stead so she could have a break.  There were field days scheduled in every possible place.  With the forecast for no rain and higher temperatures, a repeat of the previous June (completely rained out) was not likely.  My second school announced a last minute assembly and my plans for those students fell through.  The year was really winding down.

     Tuesday, Marianne got a manicure and pedicure, a total luxury for her, and then went to a theatre board meeting.  I stayed home and mowed the lawn—I think this is where the story began.  As I mowed the early June wet grass, my mind kept going back to that June day a year ago when we decided to through chance to the wind and go to Italy (for a week).  Although it had stretched into over three weeks, the vision was still clear—Italy.  The adventures that awaited us were so palatable I could hardly contain myself.  “Oh the places we will see and the people we will meet”—Dr. Seuss.

    Now all that was left on the ‘to-do’ list was ‘packing’, ‘paying’ the last of the bills, and closing down the house.  The cell phone had come in the mail and our house sitter was ready to come on board.  Then “whoosh”, it was Wednesday after school and we were putting bags into the car and saying goodbye to the pets.

     Marianne declared that I would not be emptying the hot tube, “If you haven’t done it yet, you aren’t going to be doing it the night before we leave.  Just toss a lot of chlorine into it and it will be there when we get back”. 

     I didn’t argue.  We were going to Italy!

THE END

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

Contacting Francis Mayes (April – May 2010)

     After finding the url for Frances Mayes’ website “Roses and Apples the Official website and blog of …”  I had some questions about some items in here book “Every Day in Tuscany”.  The site claimed she answers all emails.  So I wrote:

April 16, 2010 at 9:56 pm

Please let Ms. Mayes know that both my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed her latest book, “Everyday in Tuscany”. We never get tired of her prose—beautiful and always elegant.
Because of authors like her, and primarily her, we are planning a visit to Tuscany & Umbria in June. My wife and I were so amazed by the uncanny inclusion of specific places and sights that Ms. Mayes writes about, that we are going to visit. We loved her accounts of her grandson, and his enrichment through Italian daily life. Plus, I was very interested in her Signorelli trail—an artist who also fascinates me.
I had a question about Fonterutoli (one of our hoped for side visits), which she said was Montalcino, but we find in Chianti—?
We will be in Cortona (June 18) and are especially anxious to find the shops, etc. mentioned. If we walk the Localita Torreone, we will be sure to stop and say wonderful, truthful things about the Mayes’s under their windows. Wish we could be there in August for the Sun Festival—I am a musician. Kudos to the Mayes’s for bringing the festival to life.
Please, thank her for sharing all their adventures with us all. Sorry there was some trouble, over the past 20 years.
David and Marianne Jones

P.S.: I just saw the pr about the cruise Ms. Mayes will be a guest lecturer. It looks incredible. We had looked at the same route two years ago before we decided on our upcoming trip.

I checked the website a couple of times, and sort of half way thought she would respond via email.  But no—we left for Italy without her ‘words’ of wisdom.  She did however, respond:

• francesmayes says:

May 11, 2010 at 10:55 am

Ciao David, Fonterutoli is near Montalcino, still not far from the Chianti area. Check the Festival website for this year’s program. There’s one big surprise:

Sting! Playing Schumann. Best, Frances

     I didn’t find this post until June of  2011.  I was very surprised to even come across it when a decided to re-visit Mayes website.  Allora.  By the way, we passed through Fonterutoli on the way from Siena to Castellina in Chianti—not Montalcino.

YouTube--Climbing Brunellescheli’s Dome (May 2010)

     About a week before we were set to get on the plane, I found a video of someone climbing the Duomo dome in Firenze.  I had been very anxious about it after seeing pictures of the cramped interior steps.  Phil Doran didn’t really say anything about it being a overwhelming challenge, and of course, Amy Roloff never return my email. 

     The man, 64, who had filmed his ascent, seemed very winded in the video, but it looked do-able for 54 year old me.  He replied:

Thank you for your interest. I was 63 when I climbed the dome. I'm in reasonably good health, but was not terribly fit at the time. I got short of breath towards the top because I was under time constraints and had to get back to the hotel for an appointment. Don't worry about it being too confined. If you are deathly afraid of heights and exposure, that might be another thing.
     There is a wealth of things to do in Florence. We have been a few times and still find new things to do. In fact we will also be in Florence later this month. Buy the book by Rick Steves and do what catches your fancy. One important recommendation: If you want to go to the Uffizi Gallery (the major art gallery in the city) buy your tickets before you leave online at the gallery website. That way you take the voucher they send you to a little office across the square from one of the longest lines you will ever see. You will then walk into the museum pretty much right away and save hours. (This is especially true at high season such as you will be going.) The same is true of the Academia where the original David is. The Bargello Museum is also excellent. Similarly, the Museum of the Duomo contains some wonderful things. The Duomo itself is rather plain inside. Do not miss however the church of Santa Croce and the church of Santa Maria Novella.
     The Masaccio Frescos in the Brancacci Chapel of the Santa Maria Carmine church (on the other side of the river) are magnificent. I recall that a reservation is required.
     Let me recommend my favorite restaurant: Quatro Leoni. It is on the other side of the river but an easy walk. The food is superb and the price is reasonable. It's a place where Anthony Hopkins ate every night when he was filming Hannibal. You might try the combination of deep fried rabbit, chicken, and vegetables. I forget what they called it. There is also a pasta dish containing pear and pecorino cheese. Do not miss that. In Italy, the house wine is always excellent and sometimes costs less than water.
It was not until our second or third visit that we went inside the old city hall (on the Plaza) or the Pitti Palace. One can over-program oneself. Take some time to sit outdoors with a glass of wine and some cheese and watch the crowd go by.
Enjoy Italy. Peter

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

Juliet in Tuscany

     From the second we saw the trailers advertising the movie “Letters to Juliet”, Marianne and I started to get the Tuscany ‘bug’ bad.  Another Tuscany movie—holy cow!

The critics absolutely hated it, especially sweet Amanda Syfried.  They did, however, like Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero.  Syfried is the cute little actress from “Mamma Mia” who, in my book, can do anything—along with her co-star Meryl Streep; need I say more?  As far as this movie, we didn’t care.  We wanted to see Italy on the big screen and it did not disappoint.  Okay, the writing was very trite, and the plot—predictable and contrived, but, come on, it’s Tuscany for God’s sake.  Here are the places we will be in a month. 

     Although we had no plans to visit Verona, where the film takes you first, Marianne now added it to our ‘second trip’ list.  When the film started to come alive, the trio is in Tuscany looking for Franco Nero.  One of their first stops they make is under a huge spreading oak tree at the top of a hill overlooking an ancient village, which I immediately recognized and Vagliagli—Dario Castagno’s home.  The pictures of Siena, and the Val D’Orcia were spectacular.   We watched through the credits and tried to find out locations, etc. 

     When the movie was over, I told her Marianne about the picnic table over-looking Vagliagli and she leaned over to me and said “Get me up there and we’ll have a picnic”.  I could completely envision the meal with a loaf of Italian bread, cheeses and a bottle of very expensive Brunello di Montalcino.  Pinch me; I am dreaming again.

The Final Countdown

     Real time, fantasy and reality began to blur the fine, distinct edges of our life.  I could have been the new contact lenses I got, but I began to think that our monthly count downs dissolved into the month, the three weeks, the two weeks, and then the 12 days before we were to leave.  So much was happening.  I was finishing up my tenure as Music Director at church, Bill Maule passed (thank the Lord for the end of his suffering), I was getting monies right and left at school to up date and improve instruments, their were only seven student days left, and then the Governor announced he had made a mistake and that every school, police department, social services, etc. would have to trim about $24 million from their already meager budgets.  I could possibly lose my job while we were gone in Italy.  After 24 years, the district would cut mime and my colleague’s jobs because the state couldn’t do the math that they should have done three months ago.  Needless to say anyone in education or the PERS system became outraged beyond reason.  Even though we knew times were tough, the audacity to ‘screw-up’ so badly was reprehensible.

     Memorial weekend began rather dismally.  The sun finally started its come-back and my yard was looking great.  The soggy side yard, created by the new neighbors ‘drainage’ problems, only kept me from mowing, not trying to enjoy the down time.  That Saturday we slept in late, and went to the Farmers Market to find a dessert for our evening with my former elementary music teaching colleague, Wanda.  A long-divorced mother of two grown kids, that I followed as music teacher for Winston elementary school twenty 23 years ago, and followed to the big burg of Rose, where I have been ever since. 

     The market is always a great place to visit.  You will see your friends and people you haven’t seen for a while.  You can find great produce, excellent plants, both vegetables and garden, as well as almost anything hand made.  There is always a musician or small group playing that all adds to the carnival-like atmosphere of the place.  We always head for the folks who own a bakery in Tyhee who have the best muffins and peasant bread.  Mmm, wonderful.  We found a great looking blackberry pie, talked to an acquaintance that hasn’t seen Marianne in years and headed for the Bagel Tree for a breakfast bagel and coffee.

     To our surprise almost everybody else in town had had the same idea and was packed in the tiny café.  They have the best and freshest variety of bagels you can find anywhere.  The only tables were outside.  Marianne and the dog laid claim to one of the tables that flank the door and I went in to order.  It looked like the Presbyterian table, a standing Saturday ritual for the senior members of the church, had expanded to about four with at least twenty folks.  The line took forever, but the wait was worth it; the sandwiches: mine, egg, Swiss and ham on a Swiss mushroom, and Marianne’s, egg, cheddar and sausage on onion.  I had to maneuver and avoid people standing everywhere, making two trips out to bring the food and the Viennese roast.  It was a good thing I did, because Marianne was suddenly entertaining a person, female I presumed who had just plopped down in the extra chair and started talking about her childhood in L.A.  Marianne had quickly deduced that she was only a few years older than herself, but looked like she was in her mid-seventies.  Luckily, I scared her away and we had a most enjoyable late breakfast, very continental, at a sidewalk café in Roseburg, Oregon. 

     After we finished one of the ‘Presbys’, Maury, someone we have know for over twenty years, stopped to talk with us.  Maury lost his wife eight to ten years ago now, and is still chugging along quite well—and not looking for another wife, thank you.  He introduced us to his son and his family who were down for a visit to mark his 80^th Birthday, Monday—Memorial Day.  As was usual, Marianne let him know all about our impending trip, and as usual, he was very envious—although he had been to Italy before.  “You’re going to love it,” which is the standard response we had been getting for months now.  And of course our standard response is “Yes, we know we will.”

     The sun kept bright all day, amazingly, and we read outside under the umbrella.  I even took the opportunity to get some sun on my pale white skin.  Not that I got a tan, but it was nice to be warm.

   I had been doing a final email check to make sure the places we had booked to stay were really out there.  From Montalcino:

HELLO 

ROOM CARMEN IS RESERVE FOR YOU 

PLEASE LEAVE PHONE NUMBER. 

WHEN ARRIVAL IN MONTALCINO MUST CALL MY PHONE 3403959158 

I DO NOT LIVE TO B&B 

BEST REGARDS 

MSR GIGLIOLA 

The car rental place:

Dear Sir/Madam, we have seen in our system that you have yet not 

received/read  your voucher for your car rental.  Please go to the 

Customer zone on  economycarrentals.com and log  in with e-mail address: 

sicum@charter.net and order number: 620462 to see and print out your 

voucher. 

Please note that we can not refund any payments because of not read 

vouchers! Important information is written on the voucher. It can also be 

a problem to get the car if you can not provide  the voucher. 

Please note that this is an automatically generated message. It will be 

sent until you have read the voucher. We apologize for any inconvenience 

caused. 

Best regards 

Reservation Team 

EconomyCarRentals.com

Garden Hilton Fiumicino:

Dear Mrs Jones,

thank you for your kind message. 

Just a quick note to re-confirm that you have a booking at the HGI Rome Airport on the night of July 2nd for one night and that is already prepaid.

On the arrival day: Our shuttle runs with a frequency of 30 minutes circa, leaving the front door of the Hotel at the hour and the Half Hour of every hour and go to the pick-up point at the airport as displayed on our web-site, please see picture of pick-up point location.

On the day of departure: you can book a ride to the airport directly at the front desk whilst checking-in. In fact we have a smaller 8 seats van available so we are able to take you to the airport even before 6, this service is absolutely complimentary.(I would suggest 04:30)

Also I see your room rate is inclusive of breakfast, be advised that you can ask for a box breakfast whilst checking-in and collect it in the morning before leaving at front desk.

Coffee won't be available at that time but you do have tea and coffee making facility in your room, complimentary for you to use.

I hope this information will help you planning better your stay in Rome but if you need further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Kind regards,

Cristian Tupone

Front Desk Supervisor

Earlier, I had ‘freaked’ that I made the wrong choice in Rome accommodation, after reading their website:

Anna: 

I believe that I have made a mistake in reserving a double room with 

Hotel Sileo for Friday night June 11 and Saturday June 12.  I was under the impression that 

we would be getting a room that we could occupy for the entire two days.  However, in 

reading the details of your web site I have found: 

"It has a contract to house train conductor who work the night shift, so its simple, pleasant 

rooms are rented from 19:00 to 9:00 only. If you can handle this, it's a wonderful value. During 

the day, they store your luggage, and though you won't have access to a room, you're welcome 

to shower or hang out in the lobby or bar." 

It was my understanding that we would have a room for two days and nights, air-conditioned 

€75 each night, that we wouldn't have to vacate during the day.  Please let me know if this is 

or is not the case so we can try and make other arrangements for accommodations at this late date. 

Thank you, 

David and Marianne Jones 

hello david the room that you have reserved is the ones free for the 

whole time 24 hours without moving for euro 75,00 in case all is ok 

please just for to be sure that all is ok send us another message where 

you confirm and time of arrive by hotel sileo anna 

Lucca’s Albergo Diana:

Best regards 

Ivan Bellucci 

Reservation Desk Hotel Diana 

Fernando and Rosetta:

Dear David and Marianne,

you can call any time at (from Italy) 075.8473088 (this is the B&B telephon number)

or to my cellphone 338.7911652.

We don't know the trattoria Al Palazzaccio as we have many of this locals.

We generally use trattoria owned and managed from a local family and the day that we will visit Spoleto we will have a wine tasting in Montefalco a nice village not far from Spoleto and the most important area for Umbrian Red wine.

Saluti

Fernando

WWW.ITALYESCORTEDTOUR.INFO

Volterra’s La Primavera:

Dear Marianne and Jons, 

your arrive in the first evening is perfect for me. 

If you can when you are in trip if you have some problems or change your 

plans please phone me to this number 0039 0588 87295. 

See you soon, 

Silvia Pineschi

Railroad Tickets

    Rail Euro looks like a great site to find a train, but because European Italian specifically, hadn’t posted their summer schedules, I got as far as reserving, but when I went to pay, the only option was to mail them.  Knowing full well we would never see those tickets until July 5^th, I cast my fortunes to the winds and hoped that Fernando could actually secure tickets for us.  We had the exact times and train numbers, so hopefully, it would be easy to pay for them in Magione.  We would only be taking to trains, one to Lucca from SMN in Firenze, after dropping off the rental car, and one back to Rome Termini from Lucca.  Because the train to Lucca is a regionale, I could not get first class tickets.  We have been cautioned to get first class tickets any time it was possible.  So I had to think quickly.  I divided the return trip (Lucca to Rome) into to parts.  The first leg Lucca to Firenze was the regionale, 2^nd class, but I could get a first class set of tickets from Firenze to Rome.  The length of the trip from Lucca to Frenze was 1:23 at $28 for the two tickets; from Firenze to Rome was 1:35.  It looked like the bullet train, and for $158 for the two of us, it looked like a great way to return to Rome Termini.

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

Firenze Tours—The Right Way, The Paolo Way (Late April 2010)

     Marianne located Paola’s name from Rick Steves Florence and Tuscany 

2010 book.   Paola Migliorini does personalized tours, a little spendy, but 

since we felt we needed a guide to take us around the Oltrarno on our last

full day in Firenze, I agreed 

with Marianne. 

Hi: My wife and I my need a half day tour of the south part of Firenze: Pitti, Oltrarno, 

San Miniato, etc. Marianne has mobility issues and can not do a great deal of walking. 

Possibly Friday June 25. 

Any information would be helpful.

Thank you, David and Marianne Jones 

David & Marianne buongiorno from Florence! 

25 June 

Yes we can customize the tour for you with our van 

9 am or 2 pm meeting at your hotel 4 hours driving guided tour with private van driver & guide, 

same person- Piazzale Michelangelo, San Miniato abbey inside, Santo Spirito area and Pitti 

Palace and visit the Palatina gallery inside 

65 euros x 4 hours total 260 euros total for both of you 

Due to the dollars/euros I offer same tour to you at 240 euros 

Entrance fees Not included 10 euros per person for Pitti Palace to book we need all infos 

requested in the attachment grazie Paola 

Paola: 

Thank you for responding.  We are very interested in a 4 hour tour at 2 PM on Friday, June 25th..   

Our problem is that Marianne is experiencing walking issues.  She can not climb many stairs and 

she can not walk for more than three or four blocks.  She is using a cane. 

The Oltrarno and points south of the Arno are what we would like to see. We would like to do 

the Pitti and Boboli Garden on our own.  We are thinking of these specific places for an afternoon 

tour 2 PM:  San Spirito, Brancacci Chapel, Piazzale Michelangelo, and finally San Miniato, 

where we were hoping to stay for Mass (5:30 PM). However, we are concerned that, one, 

there is a way to drop Marianne off at the door of the church, and two, if we are left at San Miniato, 

can we get a taxi back to our apartment?  Would the guide be able to return us at 6 PM? Sorry 

if we sound helpless, but we do hope we can work this out without it being a "mal di testa" for the 

guide.  We will be at the Pitti at 2 PM and our apartment is on piazza Cimatori. 

Please let us know. 

Thank you, 

David and Marianne Jones 

Paola Migliorini <info@florencetour.com> wrote: 

Your itinerary if ok for us 

- Santo Spirito - Brancacci Chapel (I will make reservation for it) 

- Michelangelo square 

- San Miniato 

I will wait for you at San Miniato untill 6 pm and drive back at your apartment in Via Cimatori in 

the center You wish to be picked up at 2 pm at the Pitti Palace at my right? I promise there are 

not many stairs and not much walking on this tour as with our license van we can park close to 

your sights 250 euros for both of you (as there is extra time)plus entrance fees for Brancacci 

Chapel to book I still need all infos requested in the attachment grazie 

Paola 

Paola: 

This looks great.  Thank you! 

Yes, we will meet you at the Pitt at 2 PM.  We will be having lunch somewhere close.   

Where exactly do you want us to wait? 

- Our tours don’t include: entrance fees, meals and gratuities 

EUROS CASH PAYMENT AT THE END OF THE TOUR  €258? 

How much do you need for the entrance fees?  €8 (€4 each)  You will make the reservation, 

correct? 

Grazie, David and Marianne Jones 

Grazie for your booking! 

25 June 

2 pm meeting at the main entrance of the Pitti Palace with our van 

I make reservation for Brancacci chapel hours tour 250 euros cash payment at the end of 

the tour + 4 euros per person for Brancacci Chapel When you have your Italian phone 

number grazie to give it to me I would like to have the street number of your apartment in 

Via de Cimatori too if possible (just in case I need to reach you and your phone for some 

reason don't work) 

Paola: 

This is embarrassing.  The rental company, Tuscany Accommodations has not given us 

an actual street number.   I will email and get it. I do have a picture of the building the 

apt. is in... Grazie, David Jones 

I have recognize the building, I don't even need the number anymore, this 

is right next to Birreria Centrale and nice local trattoria 

I do need your Italian mobile phone when you will have it ciao Paola

From Fiona we contacted Todd Bolton about a wine tour because Donatella 

had never bothered contacted us again since Christmas, after promising the 

tour of “our dreams”.

Hello:
My wife and I are planning on a week long stay in Firenze, June 19 through 25. We had
planned to take a day long tour of Chianti, but we think that our guide forgot us. We haven't heard from her since Christmas.
We were given your name by a friend's niece, who recommends you highly. Your website looks great,
but we sure would like to know some details about the daily tour with 8 people. Our free day looks like Monday, June 21.
We would appreciate any information you can share with us. We are hoping this works out. We will be looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you,
David and Marianne Jones

Hello David and Marianne,
Thank you for contacting us, and sorry to hear your guide sort of bailed out on you.  I currently have space on the 21st of June on my Daily Chianti tour.  To give you a little background about the trip, our tours run from 10:15 until about 4:30.  We meet at a point on the Arno river which is pretty centrally located to hotels in Florence and we depart from there.  Our tours are small group wine tours so you always have more personal attention with us, and our guides are trained Sommeliers (wine stewards) and have a vast knowledge of the areas you would be traveling to.
Once our tours depart it is usually about 30 minutes or so to the first winery where we explain the history of the winery, the wines produced there, and taste about 3-4 wines plus the olive oil.  From there we head to a small family run restaurant where you are served an excellent multi-course Tuscan lunch, which includes 2 appetizers, 2 pasta dishes, dessert, water wine and coffee. From there we head to the second winery; where you again taste 3-4 wines and oil, see the cantina and fermentation area of the winery, etc...  Then we head back to Florence.  The total cost for the tour is 125 Euro per person and this is all-inclusive.
If you have any other questions feel free to contact me directly, and also let me know if you would like to make the reservation and I will hold the spaces for you.
Thank you and best regards, Todd Bolton

Todd:
This is great.  Unless, and I doubt it, the other guide contacts us we will go with you.
Marianne is having some walking issues (she will be slow and lots of stair are hard on her) so let us know if there will be a problem.  We are staying about three blocks nord of Piazza Signore (Pzz. Cimatori) so we'll probably be able to walk to Ponte Vecchio.
I am curious to find out which two winery's you have planned to visit.  Do you know now?
Thanks so much. 
David and Marianne Jones

Walking is pretty much at a minimum on the tour, and if she wants to sit some or the walking out she easily can throughout the day.  The two wineries we typically visit are the Castello del Trebbio and the Fattoria Selvapiana.  If you would like more information or to make the reservation let me know.
Todd

Todd:
Sing us up.
Just need to know where the pick up is to see if Marianne can walk there.
Can you let us know?
Thank you, David and Marianne Jones

Hi David and Marianne,

I have blocked the two spaces for you on June 21st. All you will need to do is show up at the meeting point (time and place written below).  You can simply pay on the morning of the tour.  Tour cost is 125 Euro and this is all inclusive (guides will need to be paid in Euro as we do not accept credit cards).  Please email me a confirmation that you have received this email and that you will be joining the tour on June 21st, and we'll look forward to seeing you then. Thank you

Directions to meeting point: 

We meet at 10:15 at the north east corner of a bridge on the Arno river called the Ponte Alle Grazie.  To arrive at this bridge, what you need to do is go to the Ponte Vecchio (the bridge with all of the gold shops on it), stay on the train Station side (also the same side of the river as the Duomo), facing the Ponte Vecchio you will want to go to the left on the road which runs along the Arno and walk up to the next bridge. This is the Ponte Alle Grazie.  We will have a silver ford transit 9- pasenger van parked on the corner of this bridge and a street called the Lungarno Delle Grazie.  I have attached a link to a map of the area so that you can see the bridge.   If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me any time via email or on my cell at 340-930-1794 (add the prefix +39 if calling from outside of Italy). 

Thank you and best regards,

Todd

     I decided to give the Tuckerberry’s one more “poke”.  I went to their website and found that Jill was currently in a production of the new musical “The Kid” by the same people that brought us twisted bit of childhood TV “Avenue Q”.  I wanted to get their ideas on what we shouldn’t miss in Spoleto and tell him what we thought of his performance as Nelson Lehman in the “Brazil” episode of “Laws and Order”.  Marianne is a die-hard fanatic for the series; that is the only thing on when I come home from school.  He replied:

Go to the Palazzaccio, you may see us.  Jill's show runs to the end of May and we'll be getting there around the time that you do.  We may just miss you, actually.

 Have a great trip,

Mike

One last attempt with Dario…

Thanks for your help with driving through Chianti. 

Sounds like Dievole would be too much for you that morning. 

How can we get a copy of Osteria and Too Much Wine?  Can we get it passing through...?

Great success with the book.

Saluti!

David and Marianne Jones

     The whole process of reserving a time or ‘tour’ as they like to call it at the Pisa was confounding, but not daunting.  I didn’t understand at first what the Pisa website was doing—why at certain times it would be up and running and other times I would get a “problem loading page” message.  By hit and miss I found that the website was up from 11 PM to about 9 AM PDST.  They apparently close down the site outside their business hours, which is day time for us in the US. 

     So on Sunday night, May 16^th, I waited for Pisa to come on line so I could book and 9 AM Torre climb July 1, 2010.  Now I still kept doing the math, counting back 45 days from the tour date and I would get Tuesday May 18^th.  I figured the 17^th because it’s nine hours later in Italy.  But I was a little puzzled by the 16^th.  I visited the site at 11 PM on the previous night, May 15^th and sure enough the calendar on the website said June 30^th.  Great, so now all I had to do was start up until 11 PM our time, 8 AM Italia time, book and buy the ticket (biglietto).  That morning, Sunday after, getting to church at 8 AM to practice the organ, so I would be ready for the 9 AM service, Marianne and I part-took in our first mid-day espresso; a ritual that would be repeated several times over the next month and a half.

     Unfortunately, it ‘wired’ me so much that I was absolutely awake at 11 PM—no problem.  I fact I was so awake, I had to take a Benadryl to ‘wind’ down to sleep, 

because I had school the next day.  This was another ritual that was to be repeated more often than I would have liked, but I didn’t have an allergy attack, and I nearly slept 

through 9 hours of plane travel.  Chemicals —modern miracles.  I realized then that a 

sleep mask, ear plugs, and a sleep aid were going to be my best friends.  Hopes of 

getting a tranquilizer prescription were not to materialize, because I have a doctor that 

just won’t prescribe things like that. 

     At 10:54 PM the Opera Pisa website came on line.  I maneuvered there the calendar and reserved one ticket for 9 AM on July 1, 2010 for E 17.  I had to run to the dining room table where our travel binder and the passports were, because they asked your passport number.  I had a bit of a problem with the phone number field, but after waking Marianne up and going through international prefixes and 00’s and 001’s, it was just a simple matter of not putting any dashes in the number.  When you confirm and pay, a separate pop up has your ticket with and barcode and a button to print.  I printed two copies just in case.  An email confirmation followed not long after. 

     So at 11:11 PM PDST I now was set to climb the leaning fucking tower of Pisa!  Holy crap-ola!  A life long dream now to be realized.  Everything was now set in place for the grand tour.  With the exception of treno biglietti and, oh, now an up date on the rental car from a Ford Fiesta—a no-brainer--to a French sedan, it was all complete.   

We could leave tomorrow.  We had done it.  Booked our dream—spent my retirement money—but book the dream anyway.  Now, I thought, if l could only get to sleep.

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

A Volcano No One Can Even Pronounce! (Mid-April 2010)

     Suddenly there was a ‘global’ concern and a potential road block for the big Italian trip.  One morning in April we tuned into the Today Show and Matt Lauer was talking about a volcano who’s name he couldn’t even get his mouth around that was disrupting air travel in Europe.  In fact it was wreaking havoc with sports teams and travel plans all across the continent.  Teams were taking trains and other transport because airports were closing down.  The ash from Eyjafjallajökull was to blame.

Wikipedia: The 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull were a series of major volcanic events that occurred at Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland. Seismic activity started at the end of 2009, and led to a volcanic eruption on 20 March 2010. A later eruption from 14 April 2010 led to widespread disruption of air travel in Europe from 15 April, affecting the travel plans of millions of passengers.

Now an act of God could keep us from flying to Italy…!?  

Waiting For Pisa

     One of the last things that had to be done before plans and preparations for Tuscany was complete was to reserve a place in line for the infamous leaning Tower of Pisa.  This is thee one and only icon of Italy known throughout the world.  This is Italy!  The trick is to get a booking.  You can only reserve 45 days in advance and I personally wasn’t going to miss getting my place in line and at the time I wanted.  It would be the last thing that I would seriously have to make the effort to do, except catching the train back to Rome and Fiumicino. 

May 18th, that’s Mount St. Helen’s Day for us folks out west, was the date, 45 days before the ascent on July 1st. Although, with the time being 8 or 9 hours ahead, I was having a confounded time trying to figure out if it would really be the 17th or the 18th.  Then would it be the stroke of midnight Italy time or 9 AM the beginning of the work day or 9 hours earlier than their midnight or start of the business day.  Confusing, right?

     I was so confused.  I visited the link to the ticket office, http://www.opapisa.it/en/plan-your-visit/practical-information/tickets.html or biglietteria on-line della Torre pendente di Pisa.  I tracked it almost daily to make sure I would not miss my opportunity to reserve a 9 AM tour.  I know that sounds a little anal, but hey, it’s the leaning tower of Pisa.  I wasn’t going to blow this once in a life-time thing.

Then it happened. On the 5th of May, the Pisa website crashed. I logged on for a week and the page would not load. I was starting to get concerned because I knew I had to book on the 17th or 18th of May to get a reserved torre tour and that was a week away. Through the National tourist board of Italy, I found a link to the Official
Tourism Website for Pisa Proveince: www.pisaunicaterra.it info@pisaunicaterra.it
Meanwhile, I was hard at work trying to get tours arranged in Firenze and seeing if Candace and Ferenc Mate (Mate Winery--Montalcino) would let us visit their estate. I felt that Candace really knew the day to day operation of the business and Ferenc basically wrote books and flew here and there for interviews.

David,  

If I'm there (in NYC now with editor of new novel) or if Candace is there, you 

are more than welcome to stop by for a glass of wine and gossip. Write us a few 

days in advance to remind us and set a time. 

all best 

Ferenc 

On 9 May 2010, at 21:05 

Dear Candace, Ferenc & Peter: 

Plans for our Italia-Tuscano tour are complete and we will be leaving in one 

month.  From Ferenc's e-mails it sound like you are all very busy.  We are 

hoping that there might be some time to visit you.  We completely understand how 

much work is involved with the winery and writing, etc.  We will be staying in 

Montalcino June 28 and 29 and leaving on the 30th. 

We are hoping the ash from Iceland dissipates and no new volcanoes start.  Do 

you have any idea how much wine we can transport back to the USA?  We are 

bringing our wine opener just in case we have to drink it before we fly back 

home... 

Thanks so much,   David and Marianne Jones 

Dear David and Marianne - 

Thanks for your e-mail. Yes, we're all busy, but we set aside a couple of hours 

at the end of each day for tastings and sales. So, just let us know which day 

you'd like to come by and we'll be expecting you.  

Sorry, but I don't know how much wine you're allowed to take back. We've got 

styrofoam containers for 3 bottles, if you need them. Or, I can ship wine to the 

states. The shipping costs are a lot, but at least the wine costs less (I don't 

have to add our 20% VAT tax to wine that is shipped). 

Shipping for 6 bottles: €99  for 12: €155 

Thanks again, 

Candace 

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

Two Months and “Freaking Out” (April 2010)

   I checked on Fiona’s new ristoranti, Il Cenacolo del Pescatore, http://www.cenacolodelpescatore.it/, and found that as beautiful as it is, we wouldn’t be stopping in for dinner--not unless we decided to forgo any food that week in Firenze—trendy-spendy.  It specializes in seafood, which sounded incredible, but too ‘rich’ for this ‘little old Oregonian’s’ blood.  We contacted Tuscan Trails at Fiona’s urging.  The owner, Todd Bolton (sounds like Michael’s non-singing little brother) was very helpful, and the web site looked great:

Hello David and Marianne,

Thank you for contacting us, and sorry to hear your guide sort of bailed out on you.  I currently have space on the 21st of June on my Daily Chianti tour.  To give you a little background about the trip, our tours run from 10:15 until about 4:30.  We meet at a point on the Arno River which is pretty centrally located to hotels in Florence and we depart from there.  Our tours are small group wine tours so you always have more personal attention with us, and our guides are trained Sommeliers (wine stewards) and have a vast knowledge of the areas you would be travelling to.

Once our tours depart it is usually about 30 minutes or so to the first winery where we explain the history of the winery, the wines produced there, and taste about 3-4 wines plus the olive oil.  From there we head to a small family run restaurant where you are served an excellent multi-course Tuscan lunch, which includes 2 appetizers, 2 pasta dishes, dessert, water wine and coffee. From there we head to the second winery, where you again taste 3-4 wines and oil, see the cantina and fermentation area of the winery, etc...  Then we head back to Florence.  The total cost for the tour is 125 Euro per person and this is all-inclusive.

If you have any other questions feel free to contact me directly, and also let me know if you would like to make the reservation and I will hold the spaces for you.

Thank you and best regards,

Todd Bolton

     After nearly two weeks without word, Economy Rentals returned a reply to my emails:

Ms Dimitra Koutantou:
Thank you for helping us with this situation. We are unsure if we can drive
the car out and back into the city. Sorry. We are not use to big city traffic,
especially Firenze.
Tentatively, we will need the car around 10 AM on June 26. We will either
drive via Montalcino to Lucca and return the car on July 2nd around 1 PM,
depending on the train schedule (to Roma), or we may bring the car back on June
30 (Wed. at about 2:30 PM). Parking in Lucca is the issue.
Please be patient with us until we find out a few things.
Hope your Easter was a good one.. Thank you,  David Beach Jones

Dear Mr and Mrs Jones,
So you will pick the car up in the office of Maggiore on 26th June at 10:00 am and you will drop it off in their office on 30th June at 14:30 pm?
Best Regards
Ms Dimitra Koutantou

Ms Dimitra Koutantou:
Please excuse our concerns. We are nervous about losing the car rental.
We have decided that it would be best if we only have the rental car until Wed.
June 30, as we had previously planned. We will bring it back by 2:30 PM.
Please let us know if this works for you on your end.
Thank you so much,
David and Marianne Jones

Ms Dimitra Koutantou:
Yes. That sounds great. Thank you so very much.
When you know the best routes to drive in and out of the city, let us know.
Thank you again,
David and Marianne Jones

The car rental company responded.  It sounded like it was definitely a “no frills” operation:

Dear Mr and Mrs Jones,

 We asked Maggiore to amend your reservation.

As soon as I receive their confirmation I will inform you.

About your questions they replied...

...client will be provided with a road map at time of pick up and rental desk staff is able to give him all the information concerning how to reach San Miniato or San Gimignano.
The city of Florence anyway is full of traffic restricted areas, and there is no access to the historical centre. It is important to keep an eye on the road sign you can encounter along the way.
Best Regards
Ms Dimitra Koutantou

Okay, we had a car, but we were definitely on our own.  You would think that a company would like to keep an investment safe.  Why would they just spend a customer out into the ‘harsh’ streets of Firenze, just expecting them to fend on their own.   

    Now that the plans had changed, I wanted to get to know as much as we could about Stazione Santa Maria Novella in Firenze.  After all, we would possibly be spending a good deal of our time there, since not only were we being dropped off there by Fernando on Saturday, June 19, but then the following Saturday, when we had to be there at 10 AM to pick up the rental, then the following Wednesday, to return it, and then in two more days, on Friday July 1^st, as we passed back through, changing trains, this time for the high-speed one, going back to Roma Termini.
     If you type in the name of the station into YouTube, you will get a variety of videos.  In case anyone hasn’t tried finding videos, mostly amateur, about their vacation destinations, YouTube is the place to do that.  Everybody has been somewhere and they have captured it on ‘charming’ home video that they are more than willing to share with the world—maybe too much sharing?  Anyway, I now knew what the station looked like now and how it is laid out.

 Wikipedia has great information on the building, and Frommer’s also has good 

information:   

Florence is Tuscany's rail hub, with connections to all the region's major 

cities. To get here from Rome, you can take the Pendolino (four daily; 

1 3/4 hr.; make sure it's going to Santa Maria Novella station, not Rifredi; you must 

reserve tickets ahead), an EC or IC train (24 daily; just under 2 hr.), or an interregionale 

(seven daily, around 3 hr.). There are also about 

16 trains daily from Milan (3 hr.) through Bologna (1 hr.). 

 Most Florence-bound trains roll into the Stazione Santa Maria Novella, Piazza della 

Stazione (tel. 800-888-088 toll-free in Italy, or 055-288-765; 

www.trenitalia.it), which you'll often see abbreviated as S.M.N. The station is on the 

north-western edge of the city's compact historic center, a 10-minute walk from the 

Duomo and a 15-minute walk from Piazza della Signoria and the Uffizi. There are 

loads of budget hotels immediately east of there around Via Faenza and Via Fiume. 

 With your back to the tracks, toward the station's left exit (across from track 16) 

and next to a 24-hour pharmacy you'll find a tiny tourist info office, open daily from

8:30am to 9pm, with a hotel-booking service (charging 2.30€-8€/$3-$10). The train

information office is near the opposite exit to your right, across from Track 5. The 

yellow posters on the wall inside the anteroom list all train times and routes for this 

and other major Italian stations. Another copy of the Florence poster is just inside the 

sliding glass doors of the second, main room. For personalized help, you have to take

a number from the color-coded machine (pink is for train information) and wait your 

turn -- often for more than an hour. 

Back at the head of the tracks, the ticketing room (Salone Biglietti) is located through

the central doors; at sportelli (windows) 9 to 18 you can buy ordinary, unreserved train 

tickets. The automatic ticket machines have taken some pressure off the ticket windows, 

but still attract long lines (when they aren't out of order). Around the corner from this 

bank of ticket windows is a smaller room where you can buy international tickets 

(window 7), make reservations for high-speed and overnight trains (windows 1-4),

or pay for a spot on the Pendolino/ETR express to Milan, Bologna, or Rome 

(window 5).  At the head of Track 16 is a 24-hour luggage depot where you can drop 

your bags (2.60€/$3.40 per piece for 12 hr.) while you search for a hotel. 

Exit out to the left coming off the tracks and you'll find many bus lines as 

well as stairs down to the underground pedestrian underpass which leads directly to 

Piazza dell'Unità Italiana and saves you from the traffic of the station's piazza. 

Validate Your Ticket – Remember!  If you're leaving Florence on the train, stamp 

your ticket in the yellow box at the start of the track before getting on the train. 

  Two very important things come out of reading the information:  One, where you can 

deposit you luggage—up to 24 hours, and, very important, when you get your ticket, 

STAMP YOU TICKET! before you get on the train.  As our friend Gina Melo told us, 

if you don’t validate the tick, you don’t stay on the train—molto brutto. 

     I also emailed everyone I could think of that we had contacted about rooms, 

reservations, tours, and reassured them that we were indeed going to be there.  That 

way, if they really weren’t serious about putting us up or taking us on a tour they could 

tell us now, instead of when we were actually in Italy.

     I had actually been telling a select few people at work, the church, and acquaintances 

around town that we were really going to Italy—in two months.  I couldn’t believe it my-

self.   Wow.  I remember telling the owner of a plant nursery that “we were going to be 

in Rome exactly two months from today” and I got kind of choked up; I recall it vividly.  

 I actually had little electrical ‘pricklies’ shoot up from the nape of my neck, over my 

head, down my forehead in two lines, through my eyes and checks.  So weird.  I remem-

ber it being an authentic ‘real-life’ moment.  The woman asked me for one thing; bring 

them lots of pictures to see.  I told her that should be no problem because I have been

stocking up on memory cards for my camera, especially every time there was a sale.   

I estimated I had about 40 GB of memory for pictures.  Do you think that will be enough?

     I broke my promise to myself not to buy flowers and perennials that year, but spring 

was so promising, and my beds looked so longingly at me to fill them with color.  I tried 

to draw he line at plants for the orto.  I could not trust anyone to water and keep up the 

garden, unless I was to pay a real gardener, but that wasn’t going to happen.  We did 

enlist our neighbor, Nelda, to cat-sit and get someone to mow the lawn once while we 

were gone.       We had tried to depend on Marianne’s sister, Kathy, in the past, but that 

always ended up a disaster for the animals and the dead plants.  There was always

something too important to do, like watch TV or sleep that seemed to distract her from 

feeding or watering.  We also had our friend, Myana set to ‘puppy-sit’ the silky.  It

didn’t hurt that both Myana and Phoebe absolutely loved each other.  We were a little 

concerned that the dog would completely forget us and not want to come home when 

we got home.

     Suddenly I realized that Dario Castagno was the best source for driving in Chianti.   

He would know how to get into Firenze and even to SMN Stazione.  The later part of 

April his fourth book “An Osteria in Chianti” was coming out, so I knew he would be 

very busy.

Dario:

Greatly anticipating "Osteria".  

We will be driving through Chianti (on June 30) from Montalcino to get back to Firenze.  Can you re-

commend a driving route that two very "novice" rural Oregonians (USA) can drive back into the city 

and get to SMN Stazione alive (and the car in one piece)

Grazie,

David and Marianne Jones

P.S.: Hope you are busy with success!

Ciao, from Montalcino Take the ss2. As soon as you arrive in Siena at the first traffic light turn left in direction Firenze, enter the highway and exit Badesse, then follow signs for Castellina in Chianti, then San Donato. Return on highway in direction Firenze. It realli is easy and panoramic Once in town follow the directions for centro stazione (but you have to leave the car...right?) Tell me where
Ciao
Dario