Dope Of Domane

Wednesday. Trying to dispel the rumor that he was first to breakfast in Lucca, Jim skidded into the breakfast room 10 minutes before it closed. He then politely asks the serving woman if he is too late...in Italian. She smilingly corrects his choice of words and gestured him to a table and then shushes him for whistling. The give and take teasing continues and he asks if she will be bothering him everyday. She responds "non domaine, dopo domane".... Not tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, but for the rest of the day Jim was The Dope of Domane (is that like a Doge?) After Jim finished harassing the staff we set out to find the store where we have bought masks in the past...we were commissioned to procure one for Jim's sister and I wanted one to match the Christmas mask I had made two years ago. The tiny woman who, along with her daughter, makes all the amazing masks in her shop, was there painting away. We looked around and then began to talk with her I tried to tell her we have bought masks from her before and she tells me, she remembers and begins to describe the masks we have purchased in the past. She asks about my parents and how they are doing...I am amazed since I can barely remember what masks we have or what we did two years ago! We make our selections and as she kisses us farewell she says she remembers us because we smile...she always remembers the ones that smile. We walk through to the Cannaregio sestiere and do some window shopping. In one campo we stop to watch the Venetian version of Mayflower Moving Company, moving furniture and belongs first by boat, then by hand truck and finally up three floors by an automatic ladder system. Suddenly there is a lot of barking and growling and we are witness to a dog, running lose, attacking another dog on a leash who is walking with its owner. The owners finally separate the dogs and then they begin yelling at each other, then a woman runs out of a restaurant and begins yelling at both of them....they are really frightened of her....finally they are all just standing around obviously waiting for something....and then the police arrive ( just like home, yeah right) to take a report ( woman is still yelling at everyone) and then leave with dogs and owners in tow. Then the fruit vendor asks the woman what business of hers was the dog disagree, and more yelling begins....we decide now is a good time to move on. We have dinner at a tiny restaurant that we ate at last time we were here. The meal is delicious and afterwards she also treats us to a limoncello. Jim thinks we are getting the limoncello because we eat everything .....and proclaims them "the we eat like pigs limoncello"! Another nighttime tour through the Grand Canal.

Thursday. We have a quiet breakfast ...Jim's friend is off today. After covering ourselves with zanzare (mosquito) repellent, we just wander the twisting alleyways...map in hand. Looking in shops, checking out menus and people watching. We stop at a small cicchetti bar (a Venetian version of a tapas restaurant) to check out the menu and the owner runs out telling Jim to come in and look at his food ...maybe our "we eat like pigs" reputation precedes us! They are so kind and friendly that we decide to return for dinner. Now any of you that know Jim prepare yourselves. The cicchetti are a mixture of seafood and vegetables...some identifiable and some not....Jim just dove right in veggie or not...it was fun and wonderful. We followed the cicchetti with spaghetti and clams and of course...the we ate like pigs limoncello. We walked around, enjoyed the Venice night and then purchased some Grom gelato. Its kind of like an Italian baskin-robins. The couple behind us was reading the menu...he had been told she only wanted a bite of his and so he could pick what ever he wanted...well except vanilla, that's boring......or pistachios and you know I don't like chocolate.....and what's that pesca ....who would eat fish ice cream?! Jim explained that pesce was fish, pesca was peach, and delicious. The gentleman ended up with vanilla and blueberry. Jim ordered the "guisto del mese" (the flavor of the month), menta e coiccolato (mint chocolate chip) but when she hands him his cone it's white with pieces of chocolate...he's muttering, it's stracciatella (italian version of chocolate chip) only Pam eats that crap...I wanted mint...but then he tastes it, and it is delicious mint! It's home again down the Grand Canal, under the Rialto Bridge and off to bed...well after more zanzare repellant!

Everything's Huge But The Shower

Monday. We did some last minute wandering. We visited the Church of San Frediano. Jim was interested in seeing the inside of the church because the pope who had it built included 40 Roman columns inside to remind the pilgrims that this was just a quick stop on the way to Rome. Inside we found the beautiful columns and also we found the body ( yes! The actual body...) of Saint Zita...the saint of lost keys! We procure some meat and cheese and spent 5 minutes describing crackers in Italian to learn they are called ...crackers! We thought about climbing the Guinigi tower to see the trees that grow on top, but then thought better of the 227 steps needed to reach the top. We opted instead to rent the tandem bici...double the fun, double the terror and less than a euro more! Lucky for me the wall is way less congested on Monday afternoon and the tandem bici did not offer Jim the same maneuverability of his own. Since I was in the back all I could do was pedal, like the roman rowers of old, with no idea where we were heading or what was ahead of us. I could only see the frightened faces of the people as they flashed by on the side. This bici came with a working bell, and Jim worked it! In the end, we made two and a half laps around the wall. It's a good thing we are leaving tomorrow Jim had started recruiting for a three seat bici! We returned to Leo's for dinner. I took a picture of Leo but forgot to also take one with my phone so sadly there isn't one to post!

Tuesday. We are packed and ready to head out of Lucca. During our wandering, Jim has discovered an underground exit from the city center and we use it to head to the train station. We have our salami, cheese and crackers salata in hand along with water from the Lucca fountains. We are ready for the train ride. We ate our lunch on the second train and arrived in Venice without much fan fair. When we got to our hotel the young man at the desk begins with..." I know you requested the room 30 but there is the problem with the room"...I'm thinking, oh no, here we go, we'll be in the closet under the stairs, if there even is a room for us..."so we have you the 24, our most beautiful room, you must be the good friends of Giuliano (the owner)...we smile and nod our heads and go up the stairs and he opens what appears to be a hall way (like I said the closet). In actuality it's the entrance hall to our three room suite! On the desk there is a bottle of prosecco with two glasses and a Venetian hankie to decorate them. We feel like royalty, although after a day traveling we look more like vagabonds. We unpack and begin to settle into our suite ( did I mention it has three rooms?). Jim, ever the organizer, takes our toothbrushes to the proper toothbrushing area and comes back to report....this huge room and still the shower is small! We put our feet up, pour some prosecco and contemplate how Jim will fit in the shower...Dinner is wonderful, the waiter jokes with us in Italian and English, we drink way too much wine and then he treated us to limoncello. We finish our first night in Venice with a ride down the Grand Canal and drift off to sleep the comfort of our (3 room!) suite.

Mr. Jim's Wild Ride or You Need Me On That Wall!

Sunday. Today we are the last to arrive at breakfast...now that's the Jim we all know and love! We head off to see Viareggio an upscale seaside resort. It's really hot and humid today but we do a bit of wandering and then head back to Lucca. There is a band performing in the streets. It looks medieval, with flag throwers, LOTS of drums, really loud drums, and really long horns. It was fun to watch. We check out the house where Puccini was born. We have walked right by this whole piazza totally dedicated to Puccini many times and not recognized it ...we really need to concentrate less on food and more on what we are passing.

After our afternoon rest we join the massive Lucca passeggiata (see picture) and make our way to the bici rental shop. According to the books a person can make two leisurely laps along the 2 .5 mile wall that surrounds the city during the one hour, €3 rental. Jim mounts his white bici, muttering that the goal of this ride is just to not get run over; just to stay alive. After the first timid 3 meters, Jim begins to take on a whole new persona. He is swerving and weaving, dodging and bobbing like a true Lucchesi. The top of the wall is about as wide as a normal residential street, but in the evenings it is packed with literally hundreds of Lucca citizens. They are walking and riding bikes; pushing strollers and chasing children; there are groups of grey-haired women and bands of teenagers; they are young and old; there are runners and tourists pulling suit-cases; there are couples holding hands and there are people walking dogs....and there this Jim. Jim is possessed; he is swerving around small children and shooting the gap between a stroller and a group of elderly men. He deftly avoided a small dog and maneuvered around the inadvertently dropped water bottle. He rode down the middle, on each side, off the road, across the grass, over the curb what ever was necessary not to stop the forward motion of his bici, there is no braking allowed.....this wall was his and there was nothing in heaven or on earth to stop him...well except the one hour time limit on his bici rental. A man and his bici ; veni vidi, bici! (for those of you whose mothers did not teach Latin: I came, I saw, I bicycled!) Jim made two laps with time to spare for pictures...I'm not certain how leisurely they were.

One Pesky Pigeon

Saturday. We are up early because the weekly market is in town. We dress and head to the sala for our breakfast and....OMG! We are the first to arrive! Well, any of you that know Jim know we are never the first to arrive at anything in the morning. This trip has been full of first! The poor woman didn't know why we were so please with ourselves! We walked to the Porta Elisa. Lucca has a huge weekly market. It is mostly clothes, shoes, household supplies, lots of underwear-both men's and women's (seems an odd thing, but there are lots of venders selling underwear...), toys, fruits and vegetables, and plants, flowers, sewing supplies and food. We purchased two porchetta sandwiches and pick up a local bottle of wine and have a beautiful picnic on the wall looking out on to the grass expanse surrounding the walled portion of the city. Except for one pesky pigeon it was peaceful and serene. We come back to the room for a short rest before our planned bike ride along the wall...however, plans change and we end up resting for the whole afternoon. We were a bit early for our dinner reservations so we wandered around to try and find the anfiteatro...one should not be able to miss it and yet for two days of exploring the city and we still had not seen it. Well it turns out one of the four, yes four, huge, yes huge, arched entrances was right outside the restaurant where we were going to eat! One of the others we walked by every time we go to our hotel....hmmm maybe we have been having a little too much wine! Dinner is amazing, again, and we finish the evening with window shopping and a gelato. Tonight mine was fig!

Victory Over D'feet

Thursday. It's our last day in town.. We catch a train to Monterrosa for a little wandering and lunch at Carlo's restaurant. The weather is beautiful, the crowds are not too bad and we succeed in doing a little shopping and a lot of eating. We watch the sunset and have a quick drink at the hotel bar. A repeat of out first night's dinner and its home to pack. It will be hard to say goodbye to Levanto. Valeria and her family have made us feel so welcome and so special. We saw so made different things we would have never seen or tasted or even known to look for. Thank you Valeria! Baci!

Friday. We are up, showered and Jim has watched his morning dose of Starsky and Hutch so its down for our final breakfast. Once again I point out that Jim is organizing this tour so we are done, packed up and down in the lobby....about two hours ahead of when the train leaves. We lounge round the lobby (Jim is "reading" an Italian version of Entertainment weekly...there was some type of cinghiale incident and something to do with Brad Pitt's mom....) until it's time to leave and then head for the train station. We have several very tight connections and that makes my sweet tour guide very nervous. We make it to Lucca with flying colors, however armed with less than stellar directions to the hotel we take a walking tour of Lucca with bags in hand. It was a bit nerve racking. The street is packed with people, dogs, the occasional car and bicycles by the gross. We finally do arrive at our hotel, climb up two flights of stairs and are greeted by the owner and his wife, who proudly announces that we are staying in "camera gialla" ( the yellow room). It is lovely and even better...the bathroom is huge (well huge by Italian standards!). Looks like Jimmy will be washing his feet again! We eat dinner at an Italian version of Mel's Dinner. It is run by tattooed, cigarette smoking biker/surfer looking Italian and packed to the gills with loud, laughing, singing locals....good thing we made a reservations. The food was wonderful and the atmosphere entertaining. After dinner we walked along the then deserted streets, window shopped and hunted for an open gelato shop. Travel day is done!

Leave The Fiori, Take The Fici

Wednesday we woke to discover it had rained...only a problem for the laundry left out to dry. We had planned to go to the local weekly market but totally forgot about it. We did a little local shopping, some sea glass collection, some fig procurement and then searched out a tiny market to purchase supplies for a picnic on our balcony. It is Valeria's birthday, so fici (figs) in hand, we head out to try and find flowers (these could have easily been purchased at the local weekly market had we made it to the market this morning). We finally locate the Levanto "Pianti & Fiori" shop and proceed to try and communicate what we need. Jim points to some lovely purple flowers and the shop owner begins to assemble the bouquet. Ok, I'm envisioning a small, petite bouquet....this is just a token gift, just a we remembered its your birthday kind of thing....a few of those purple flowers..."do you want some green?"...sure, I guess....hmmm more purple flowers....did I have a €20 in my pocket....more flowers, more greens, out comes the ribbon...do I have another €20?!...Jim whispers "isn't that kinda big" ...well yah, but can you stop her?....finally she pulls out the cellophane and the final ribbon....that will be €5 please...phew! Thought we might have to go to the bank to pay for it! Wait, don't leave the fici! We walk back to the hotel carrying this gigantic bouquet. People on the street were stopping their bikes to look, parents were pointing it out to their children, police are halting traffic, ok that's an exaggeration, but Jim practically had to help me carry it! Valeria, the birthday girl and crew picked us up at 7, we presented her with the giant birthday bouquet and they drove us for what seemed like hours on a winding, twisting road that rivals Highway 1 near San Simeon. We finally arrived at Ristorante Claudia in Ricco del Golfo. They serve panigacci, a round flat bread, something between a tortilla and a pita. The bread is cooked on flat, terracotta plates which are heated over a open fire and then stacked once the dough is placed on them. The heat cooks the bread and it arrives at the table hot, sans terracotta plates. You fold it in half, taco like, and fill it with straccino, prosciutto, lardo, coppa, salami, and Gorgonzola. Unbelievably amazing! Add good wine, wonderful company and it is so worth the motion sickness incurred to get there. The final panigacco is eaten with...wait for it...nutella! Yum!

I'll Have Mine On The Rocks

Tuesday, and Jim's mentally prepared for the shower and has us on a tight schedule. We are catching the 10 o'clock boat to the Cinque Terre. The helicopters are still flying this morning. It was a beautiful ride down to Riomaggiore. There was a dog on the boat, enjoying the ride; made us miss Stella. We got off the boat in Riomaggiore. Wander around a bit...I am searching for figs...and then decided the walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola, the Via del'amore is just too crowded so we catch the boat north instead. We squeeze into a wonderful seafood restaurant and enjoy a tasty if not relaxing lunch. We head back to the harbor to catch the boat to the next town and observe some topless sunbathers on the rocks below the harbor, above the boat dock. Jim suddenly develops an interest in learning to use the new camera, especially 1:12 zoom feature, and being sure that we had plenty of photos of the sea...as did several other guys...this were good naked! Our next stop on the boat tour was Vernazza. As some of you know the town was literally destroyed by a flood on October 25th, 2011. I was anxious to see how the many people we had come to know had faired how and how the town had rebuilt. All and all the town looks good. It is kind of sad to see new doors and floors and know the reason for the new paint job, but is heartwarming to see the strength of these people to rebuild and carry on. The tourists are out in force and it was nice to see everything. Valeria's shop is located there, so we stopped in to see her and see how her shop looked. She had a whole bag of fun gifts for me and we had a great visit. We made arrangements for pizza later (Jim hoped that Valeria leaves her iPhone home...enough with the monopoly!). We ended our all day Cinque tour in Monterrosa, catching the final boat of the day, at 6:05, back to Levanto....first boat of the day and the last boat of the day! Cinque (5) boat rides to the Cinque Terre! As a John Lennon once said.... Jim feels like he's "the son of a sailor's son"....in actuality he's the son of a bowler's son ! The pizza later that night is perhaps the best we have ever had and the company is amazing. We talk and laugh.. Valeria loves knitting and shoes..so there is plenty to talk about! Another beautiful day.

Bonassola, Baby

Monday morning we are up and excited to see the area.. Jim heads to the shower...there's a problem ...Jimmy can't fit in the shower, Jimmy can't wash his feet, Jimmy's gunna stink! Top that off with the fact we can't find the right channel for Starsky and Hutch and Jimmy's not happy! We finish breakfast and head off for the footpath to Bonassola. Bonassola is a small beach town and the walk is beautiful. There is also the hike to Bonnassola, but we chose the flat, level walk along the Ligurian sea. We scouted out the town and possible houses for sale and then had an amazing lunch right on the beach; fresh anchovies, gnocchi with pesto and green beans and of course an Aperol spritz for me! We had a lovely walk back to the hotel. On our way back we noticed smoke in the distance; all afternoon the helicopters flew (very low!) over the hotel to scoop water out of the sea and dump it on the fire. Later we met with Valeria, her husband, Angelo (who looks remarkably like an actor whose name I can't quite place yet) and her son Andrea, who is eight. We had drinks in the hotel with Carlo ( Valeria's brother and the hotel owner) and Daniela, Carlo's wife. More spritz, more laughing and lots of Italian. We go to dinner at Le 3 Cantare...amazing is the only word. We each had a different dish and all shared...we had gattafin, a local antipasti; pansotti con salsa di noci, a sort of ravioli with walnut sauce; acciughe ripieno, stuffed fresh anchovy; and grilled calamari which arrived at the table on a huge hook. Andrea decided that Jim should play Monopoly in Italian on the iPhone (it's an app!) with him and chattered away in Italian as if Jim were born here....maybe he heard about the dual citizenship! Jimmy really wanted to buy Park Place but there wasn't one.....there was a lot of pagare, pagare, pagare for Jimmy and now Jimmy is broke!! It was a wonderful evening, but way too much food....we stumble off to bed.

I Only Pee For Free

Sunday morning we came down for breakfast and Annie's was there. She had popped in before her tour to say goodbye and bring us a jar of homemade apricot jam and a can of olive oil from their own trees. Can anyone say more shipping (see previous post) Two cappuccinos, more goodbyes and we are on our way to catch the bus. Of course this is Jim organizing this tour, so we are early. However there is a really cute, young girl who tries to board the bus and she is having some issues, so the bus driver feels obligated to help her. He sends her all the way back to the tabacchi for her bus ticket "because it is less for you (wink, smile....). Jim starts muttering "we are going to be late, I've researched this, it's only 50 cents, why is he helping this idiot?" Ten minutes later when she returns and boards the bus Jim sees her and comments " how nice that he helped that poor, sweet (insert hot here) turista!...the results are that we leave a little late....that's ok we still make our connection. We change buses in Volterra-Saline and head for Cecina and from there catch the train to Pisa. Up to this point this trip is running like a well oiled machine. We arrive in Pisa Centrale station and our first stop is the restrooms...well first stop after we walk all the way to the end of the platform only to discover the toilets at the opposite end of the station...that will be 1 euro please....Jim announces that "I don't pay to pee, I only pee for free!" I pay and I pee (albeit in the men's bathroom, but we won't go into that!). Now that we have that chore out of the way, I have another mission....a little background. While in Rome we purchase all of our train tickets. Some of these train tickets had to coordinate with bus connections which I got off of the Internet because we all know that everything on the Internet is correct! When we arrived in Volterra we went to purchase the necessary bus tickets for our departure from Volterra only to discover a flaw in our well laid plan...the only bus out of Volterra left about two hours after our scheduled train left the station in Pontedera...that's a problem! Oh, but she can sell us all new tickets and we can get a refund on the original ticket at any station, any time....sounds like a plan! So, now that we have an hour lay-over here in Pisa I'll take care of our easily refundable ticket. I wait in line at the information desk where the very helpful gentleman say well, you can not do the refund for this ticket, it must be for €20 and this one is only €19.40...you can just use for another trip....well as noted above we have all of our ticket....what happened to anytime, any station! Here's an idea...we'll just refund the ticket we got in Volterra (€22) and use this ticket to purchase the refunded ticket again! Back in line....yes, this you can do, but not here over there in the ticket line...into the ticket line....listening, listening are any of the ticket staff speaking English? No, and in fact that heavy set woman is yelling at the people in her line...better just go for it in Italian! The first attempt yields me a second ticket, but no refund...however with my second explanation, we got both a refund and a new ticket! I am proud! We board the train ( ok, I was successful but not quick!) find carrozza 4, find our assigned seats and Jim searches out the (free) bathroom....but karma strikes! The out of order bandit has been at work and the is no working toilet for Jim, in carrozza 4...."I only pee in my own carrazza!".....he'll have to wait! Should have paid! We arrive safely in Levanto. My friend Valeria had wine, peanuts and chocolate waiting in our room...baci Valeria! Three hours later Jim is able to use the (free) toilet in the room, we do laundry, and go out to get the "lay of the land". There are a million bici (bikes) everywhere and a cute little festival. We buy some food, open some wine and sit on our terrazzo...life is really good.

Please Mr. Postman

After breakfast and laundry we mentally steeled ourselves for the inevitable visit to the post office. No visit to Italy is really complete without experiencing the Posteialia. Once Jim finishes watching his morning episode of Starscono and Hutchirini we take a breath and in we go. First, you take a number and wait until the screen lights up telling you which window to approach and then purchase the ominous yellow box..this time, size grande. We come back to the room and begin packing the box and filling out the paperwork and believe me there is a lot of it! Back to the post office, take a ticket, wait for the number and approach the window....lift the (grande) box over the plexiglass divider and ...what you can't ship clothes?... Only "new clothes"...but can we write new on the tag?.... No, retrieve the box and Jim's passport, get a new form and borrow some "scotch" so it will appear as though we have removed all the offending clothes, the redo all of the,paperwork and head back to the post office. This time everything passes muster and our mission is complete! Had some tasty Volterran soup as a reward. We had dinner at a local favorite. The Volterra EMTs were having some kind of get-together...boy can they eat! We had gelato to finish the night... Jim didn't get a cookie, he blames me.

We started the morning at the weekly market. I bought figs from a farmer who weighed them on an antique hand held scale...Jim had doubts it would pass the weights and measures certification. I had some copies printed at the internet point (can't miss out on Stitches registration!) We had tripe at the Da Bado for lunch, ok I had tripe, Jim had pasta...he's not that adventurous yet! We spent the afternoon exploring the city and actually found a neighborhood where we had never been; hard to believe in this tiny town! The ladies here at the hotel gave us a wonderful bottle of wine, so we took it up to the garden, behind the hotel and drank to the sunset. At dinner tonight a guy at the next table had some kind of frozen desert that they doused in grappa and lite on fire...very spectacular! They also brought out a bottle of grappa that was about 4 feet tall and 6 inches diameter ....it was huge! It was so big there was actually a spigot on the bottle. They also had the elusive Tartufo Nero. It was listed with the requisite asterisk. Here in Italy any food that is frozen must be listed on the menu with an asterisk...very informative when you are discussing the difference between frozen fish or veggies and the fresh counterparts...however a little redundant when you are contemplating an ice cream desert! Tomorrow we hit the trains for Levanto...

Guess Who Came To Dinner

It's our anniversary! And per tradition it rained! We did some wandering, bought some tooth paste and had the most amazing picnic (albeit in our room ...see above) with wine we purchased on yesterday's wine tour and cheese and prosciutto from the local farmers. I have such a romantic husband. We spend the afternoon wandering in our town. We were browsing in a tiny ceramic shop and found a Christmas ornament with our town hall painted on it. We explained why we were so excited to the owner who wished us "Auguri per un' altro anno!" Everyone here is pleased that we love the town as much as they do.

At 8 we met the women from the hotel, Lisa and Giuseppina; Annie, Francesco, Sophia, little Diego and Annie's father, Bill and step mother Kate for dinner at Del Duca. We sat at the same table where we had sat for our wedding dinner. In the center of the table was...a tall naked man( see picture)....as Jim always says, nothing whets your appetite like a tall naked man! We had an amazing dinner full of friends and talking and laughter. We got to see Claudia again. She is the daughter of Genuino, the owner of Del Duca and was one of the witness' for our wedding. After we finished eating the lights in the restaurant went out and Jim and I naturally assumed some type of electrical malfunction. But instead the waiter came out of the kitchen and presented us with beautiful cake complete with a Roman candle blazing from the middle of it and a chocolate "auguri!" message. The ladies had ordered it specially for the occasion from the renowned pastry master Giancarlo (his name is spoken with reverence throughout Volterra) It was beautiful and tasty too! We ended the evening sitting with Genuino and his wife/chef drinking his homemade limocello and grappa. It was the perfect night, the perfect celebration.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

The Long And Winey Road

It feels good to back in Volterra. We checked out the town,saw some new faces and some familiar places, bought some hair conditioner for me and met Annie before her tour and arranged to see her after her tour to off-load gifts for Sophia and Diego. Had a great visit and some wine. After Annie head home, we went for pizza. We finished our evening with a visit to our favorite gelato spot; the one with the editable bowls! Yum! After our bus/train/bus/bus trip we were ready for bed.

Tuesday morning we hit the town running. We went in search of the jewelry store where Jim bought me a necklace for our second anniversary,; sadly she was closed for "ferie" or summer vacation. Hunted down a bronzed lizard, the two yarn/baby shops (!) and bought matching t-shirts with the town hall on them for Jim and me. Found a deck of Italian cards for this region, although it was much less exciting since we knew they were correct and there was no hill between our hotel and the spot of purchase. We found a little shop where they make prints and decided to buy one for home. While we were in the process of trying to determine the conversion from centimeters to inches without any glasses amongst the three of us, I mentioned the jewelry store's vacation status and how much I had been looking forward to getting another anniversary gift from there and how we had been married here in Volterra...all of a sudden she rushes out of her shop and returns dragging poor Paola, the jeweler, behind her! Jim bought me a beautiful necklace and a print for our living room. All in all a very successful day! After dinner we returned to the gelato shop. We both got edible bowls of the exact same gelato...except Jim got a cookie! That just doesn't seem fair or right! He said it's because he has their face...that and he's very cute! Can't argue there.

Today we spent the entire day on a wine tour with Annie's husband Francesco. We saw three local wineries. The first was very traditional, small and very old. We saw where they hang the grapes (by hand!) to dry for making Vin Santo wine. The second stop included an amazing lunch paired with wonderful wines. Francesco is very knowledgable and shared all kinds of wine information with us...guess now we have no excuses for drinking bad wine. The last winery was thoroughly modern, with a processing facility built into the ground utilizing gravity for moving the grapes so that they won't stress them....the grapes that is! The barrel room, which is 20 meters under ground, is naturally cooled by the underground stream that runs through the rocks. It was the entire spectrum of Italian wine making. We came back and took a nap (or passed out depending how you look at it). Sadly we ate so late that the gelato shop was closed...I guess no cookie for Jim tonight.

We Saw Assisi or We Need Bar Diana

Saturday we took the train to Spello (we now refer to it as Bello Spello) a small town about 8 minutes from Assisi. It is a beautiful, charming town with narrow winding streets. They also participate in a potted plant contest and the winner each year is awarded a plaque commemorating the victory. We had a delicious lunch on a patio over looking the Umbrian country-side. On our way back from Spello we visited the Porziuncola (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/). It is the tiny (and I mean tiny; it is actually now situated inside the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angli) where St. Francis did his thing. We had seen a 1/2 scale replica in San Francisco a while back so it was amazing to see the real thing. We enjoyed another wonderful Assisi dinner and of course, a gelato after.

Sunday we just wander the streets of Assisi, had a small panini made from Torta di Testo which is the local bread and enjoyed a relaxing day. I saw some Italian playing cards in a bookshop and decided (after we climbed the hill back to the hotel) that I wanted a set. So we went back down the hill, got the cards and climbed back up the hill, but wait are these the right ones? I don't think so and the shop might be closing....back down the hill.....oh, so those are the right ones...back up the hill! I guess I had better really enjoy these cards!

Monday morning it's a bus ride to the train station, a train to Florence and then a bus to Colle Val d'Elsa....well that is if we can find the SITA Bus station. Should be no problem, it's a bus station....the book says its on the west side of the train station...which way is west? First we wander a bit, maybe we should ask someone. A nice gentleman tells us, in his version of English, some directions, does a lot of pointing and some leaning and keeps repeating Bar Diana...hmmm, we don't need a bar we are looking for the bus station. We head off in the direction he pointed and trying to lean in the direction he indicated...no bus station. So it's back into the train station and try to find the information booth....that bar is sounding better all the time....failing that, we ask the pharmacist who tells us in Italian to cross the street, go to Bar Diana ( there it is again...how could she tell we need a bar?) turn right and...tahdah! The bus station...who knew the Bar Diana is a bus station landmark! We disembark in Colle Val d'Elsa, spend 10 minutes looking for the newsstand where you have to buy the bus ticket for the final leg of our journey. We finally arrived in Volterra...possible not looking our best, but we are here!