Tactful delights

...Sorry for the delay in the rest of the Italy trip ... My laptop charger died and I'm still waiting on its replacement....

In the meantime while I can't sleep.... Let's talk about tact. Life pretty much requires it. It's a politeness that keeps us from apologizing our way through life. Those who have it are capable of connecting with people in a genuine way --- while the tactless are either completely blind to their lack of sensitivity or their selfishness outweighs everything else.

People aren't simple. Complex thoughts, emotions, decisions, impulses.

"We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out."  Churchhill

Tuscany and Florence

Tuscany & Florence


.... the adventure continues ... Super sweet Panda. Check. Mediocre GPS. Check. Awesome company. Check. Okay, so we're headed from Venice to our place in Tuscany area. It's the boyfriends birthday and he really wants to stop and check out Bologna. So we do. Well, we basically drove around the outside of the city center pretending that we (and the GPS) knew where we were going. We totally missed the major monuments of the city and the rain that we left on the autostrada (highway) was heading our way -- and I was hungry -- so we headed onward.

We drive through a gazillion roundabout, which boyfriend finally got the hang of, then we showed up at our villa, Villa il Poggiale. It should have been pretty simple to find because there are signs everywhere with the name of the place, but the GPS swore that the address was really like .8 miles south of where it actually was. Anyhow -- we arrive, we hand over our passports for check-in, the receptionist gives us a dinner recommendation and a tour of the villa.

The villa was huge -- the main floor there was a drawing room with an honor bar, the upstairs was our room and a few others with 3 or 4 studies in between them, the downstairs was the breakfast room and what I'm assuming are more rooms, and the basement was the spa. The spa offered massage services, but the jacuzzi and the sauna were open to all guests.

So we decide to drive into San Casciano to grab a snack. We ended up finding this little deli/pizza place called Pizzera Rosticceria "da Cesare". We split a large pizza for 7 euro and it was amazing. The best pizza of the trip, hands down.

Made it back to the Villa and the receptionist stops us to inform us that since it's the boyfriends birthday he called the restaurant that we have reservations at for dinner and they have a special surprise for us. Fast forward to dinner --- HOLY GEEZ IT WAS GREAT --- We dined at Cinque di Vino also in the small town of San Casciano. We arrive and it is a 8 table restaurant. We were greeted by the owner and he immediately seats us and pops open a bottle of nice champagne for boyfriends birthday. We start perusing the menu and the owner started suggesting things left and right. We basically said yes to everything and ended up eating the most amazing meal. I would recommend this place to anyone ... it's worth the drive from just about anywhere in Italy.

The next day we got up, headed to breakfast --which we then realized we were the only people staying at the villa -- then we ventured into Florence and Chianti wine country. Florence was beautiful. It had some pretty grand structures and famous works of art. We spent the morning walking around the rather busy city and then grabbed lunch then drove into wine country.
















Because we went in the off season, the wineries were not yet open, but we did stop and buy a bottle of local wine to head back to the villa to drink while we watched the sun set. The sunset was great -- and boyfriend even helped me fashion a sun dial out of rocks! For dinner we headed to La Cantinetta Del Nonno. Who knew that pork and potatoes could be so simple and yummy!!

Next up: Cinque Terre

Venice

I survived Italy! And by survived I mean loved every second of it. It was a great way to turn 26, celebrate the boyfriends 26^th, and experience another new country!

I swear that I’m going to try to update you all (the like 2 of you) on the trip details … but maybe a day at a time or city by city … So here goes!

Venice

Worked Friday from 7:30 – 12:30 then hopped a flight to Paris for a layover. Upside I upgrade to comfort ecomony and had like 15 empty seats surrounding me. Downside, I found out that the boyfriends flight was delayed and that he’d be meeting me in Venice 6 hrs later unless I wanted to pay 250 bucks to change flights. It was a close call, but I decided to save the money and hang out in the really small and awful Venice airport solo waiting.  So I sat at Venice airport from 8:50-:240 pretending that I sleep while I travel … at this point I hadn’t slept in over 30 hrs. 

When Josh got to Venice we caught a waterbus into the city center. Or so we thought since we got off on the wrong island (Lido). Wandered around on the wrong island for like 10 minutes then re-caught the waterbus to find our bed and breakfast, the C’Due Leoni. The B&B was nice. It was a little off the beaten path in a part of the Cannaregio section of Venice, but it was quiet and not overpriced. The room itself was nice. It was 2 stories. The bottom floor with the entry, bathroom, and small sitting area for breakfast and then the upstairs was just a desk, nightstands & a bed – or two smaller than twin beds pushed together to make a queen.

Put down our stuff and went to dinner. Josh ordered something that looked like it came from the oilfield (Codfish & Tar?) and I ordered pasta.  We split a bottle of wine – the first of many on this trip – and wandered around the streets of the ‘Jewish Ghetto’ according to the map in our pocket that we never could have survived without. ((At least not with any real sanity left)). Went back to our hotel and finally got some sleep.

In the morning we called downstairs and they sent breakfast up to our room. It was pretty delicious, but then again, I could eat nutella and croissants every morning for breakfast!

Got cleaned up then headed out to check out some of Venice. Took some great shots on top of the Rialto Bridge, the first bridge to ever connect to the two sides of Venice, then it started raining pretty good so we headed out to pack up and go pick up our rental car (which is a Panda … literally).

Next up …. Tuscany & Florence!