Off to the Railway Station we went to find out what time the train was to Siena which is where we were to pick up our hire car for Tuscany. The line was an hour long and we weren't even sure it was the right line! Luckily for the the guys behind the counter it was and we were given the time of our departure.
Little did we know the journey to our destination was going to take pretty much the whole day. Jumped on the train and found a little closed off cabin with a guy stretched out sleeping across one side. We weren't exactly quiet as we were trying to figure out how the heck we were supposed to get our very heavy bags up onto the baggage rack 6 feet above us. Wasn't gonig to happen obviously with both of us at 5.4! The bags got seats to themselves. While I went off to see if I could find better seating arrangements our sleepy head companion had arisen and starting chatting to Bobbie. He was only young, maybe mid 20s and his name was Francesco. Now Francesco had a smattering of English and started out with asking us where to go in Australia. Figured out he wanted to see aborigines and he asked if we had seen them ... um, yeah. He wants to go to on an Australian holiday for 2 years and was curious to see where the best place to go was. Whipped out my notepad and wrote down the usual things in the Northern Territory .... and drew a map of what part of Australia it was. It was an interesting map :)
Talked to Francesco for quite a while but trying to find words that both of us understood to overcome the language barrier was exhausting ... despite the fact that we were communicating fairly well. Turned out Francesco was getting off at the same stop as us. At least we weren't going to miss it! As we chugged along on the train we passed fields of sunflowers with their heads all turned toward the sun and fields upon fields of sugarcane. It was so reminiscent of places in North Queensland, like Innisfail and Ingham, I could almost imagine for a time that that's where we were. 1.5 hours later *sigh* we were at Chuisi (pronounced Choosy). Francesco had told us our next train would leave from platform 2 and then he checked the timetable to make sure what time it came. Very sweet. Showed me the timings and then he said his farewells with a traditional Ciao and double cheeked kiss. Italian kiss count is up to two.
Boarded our next train to Siena and finally about another 1.5 hours we arrived at a very confusing train station. We thought the hire car would be picked up at the station but no such luck. Asked a guy if he spoke English "No" (oh crap) ... so I had to try ask in Italian how to get to the right street for the car hire. Oh, Bus 17 ... ok, bought some tickets ... and waited 10 minutes. Instant gratification was not forthcoming (and it was getting late in the day .. and secretly I was starting to panic that the office would be closing) so we caught a taxi.
It was exhausting organising the hire car and getting directions to where our Villa was ... not as close as to be convenient. One guy hadn't even heard of the place (uh oh). Were starting to feel very worried about the whole driving in Italy with no idea where we were going and without a GPS ... so we hired one. Named it Guiseppe and away we went. I drove first and within the first 5 minutes we were both loving Guiseppe to death. LOVE LOVE LOVE GUISEPPE!! Bobbie baptised Guiseppe with a kiss (well, we are in Italy). Nobody should complain about the roundabouts in Canberra every again ... they have some whacked out roundabouts here ... and going round them in the opposite direction is certainly an experience. Decided we would be the Nonnas of the Italian Road and took it easy on the highway and let everyone pass us, besides I still had to correct the whole drifting to the right issue. Also named our Nissan Micra Nello. There were a few times where Bobbie was enthusiastically encouraging me (!) to get back to the left. Beware of Deers jumping out onto the road was a regular road sign *what the?* Had our first taste of the Autostrade .. where you can legally drive at 150 kph ... we didn't, being newbies and all. Finally reached our Villa about an hour later.
Gorgeous scenery around the Villa and met the local inhabitants ... the man eating mosquitoes of Tuscany. Damn those beasties are vicious! Did not think we would need the bug spray so guess what our next purchase at the supermarket will include?
It had been a long day of travelling and we were hungry, Bobbie more so than me because I had grabbed a plate of salad in Rome at the train station, she hadn't eaten since Breakfast ... and it wasn't pretty! ;) Couldn't find the restaurant recommended to us by the Villa Manager so kept driving and then asked Guiseppe to find us something. Bobbie picked some random 'restaurant' ... and we ended up in what looked like the sleezy side of town. NUP ... tried a couple more with no luck. Guiseppe was letting us down. OK, so Guiseppe take us into Reggello (nearest biggish size town) ... and lo and behold we found something on our way. Parked Nello and sat down to eat. Ordered in staccato Italian which was obviously amusing to the waitress Bobbie said. Oh well, she understood. Filled our bellies and instructed Guiseppe to take us home again.
There's no air-con in our Villa .... it was pretty hot yesterday and with mosquitoes and other assorted bugs vying for a taste of our blood, we had to leave the doors shut. Not the best sleep we've had but it's lovely and cool in the morning. Even opened the curtains to see a little brown squirrel staring at me. Does he want a piece of me as well I ask?
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