Leaving France and Arriving in Italy

Well, we made it to Tuscany! It's so beautiful here. We left France on Monday morning and it was surprisingly hard to say good bye to Jean-Claude and Aunt Louisa. Tears were shed. We had dinner the night before at Jean-Claude's sister's house. Salad with duck pate, champagne with blackberry liquer, duck confit and french green beans for dinner, Cheese platter for after dinner, then chocolate tort on a bed of creme anglais for dessert. Finally some fermented cherries in their own liquer. Our clothes no longer fit, but it was a wonderful time.

We drove to Genoa with a few stops along the coast. There were way too many cars, not enough parking places, and no bathrooms. By the time we were finally able to stop, we could barely walk to the restaurant. All three of were in pain!! Genoa is nice - we had dinner by the pier on Monday night and then took a one-hour city tour Tuesday morning.

The drive to Tuscany on Tuesday seemed uneventful, until we hit stopped traffic due to an accident. Stopped for about 30 minutes. People were getting out of their cars and just walking around. Not a fun time. But we finally started going again only to head into a tremendous thunder, lightening and hail storm. Finally made it to the "apartment" we were staying in around 6pm. This place is amazing. 195 acres with 10 apartments on it. We have a living room with fireplace, two bedrooms with private bathrooms, and a kitchen. Plus a private garden in the front which is where I'm typing this right now!

Today we went to see Montepulciano, Pienza, and drove around looking at the houses and the cypress trees. It was good to walk as much as we did today to wear down some of the food we've eaten (and will continue to eat, I am sure).

We have three more days here and many more hill towns and abbeys to visit.