Moira and the Almost Famous Painter

We met Moira outside of the lobby of our hotel after a nice lazy morning in our condo. Moira introduced herself and said that the painter was already waiting for us at the winery where we would be having our lesson. We hopped in our little, white Fiat and followed Moira to the Winery. The funny thing was that we realized that we had already been  to that winery the day before. We had seen an open sign and had gone in for a tasting and a tour. We showed up and the painter came and introduced himself and Moira translated for him as he talked to us. He wanted us to pick a spot and then we would paint any view that we wanted to. I have been obsessed with the beauty of the Tuscan Hills, so I chose a spot where we had a great view of the Tuscan hills and Chris decided to paint the winery area which was called Castle Vecchio. I am not a painter and I had Moira tell the artist Leopoldo that, so that he wasn't expecting anything great. Leopoldo spoke through Moira and gave us some pointers as we went. First we started to sketch, and I started by sketching in the hills and then added in some random trees, roads, and wind mills in the background. I though I might be putting in too much details for a beginner painter, but I figured I'd try. I was told that the trees that were far away were too big, so I kept had to make them smaller and smaller. Then he taught us how to make it look like there are rocks in the hills, which I picked up pretty well. Chris of course became an expert painter on his first try, He is so smart he is good at EVERYTHING!! After we finished our paintings and got very sunburned, Moira led us to a table that was set up right outside of the winery that had meat and cheese and wine on it. We drank wine and ate cheese and meat and chatted with Moira for quite a while. It was really nice and we were very surprised as to how long Moira stayed and chatted with us. We gave her a tip and we ended up buying the Rose wine from the winery since I was really enjoying it while we were talking. The winery reopened while we were there and we all went inside and I decided I needed to try a shot of grappa, without knowing what it was. It is apparently hard liquor made from grapes and it was very strong and since Chris was the driver, I couldn't pass it off on him. I finally finished it and then Chris and I decided to head off after we said goodbye to Moira.

After our painting extravaganza we decided to head straight to Monteregionni which is an old medeval village surrounded by a wall. We still hadn't learned our lesson about the Italians eating lunch at 12 and dinner at 7, so we decided we would grab a snack at the walled village. Once we got there at about 4pm or so, There were no restaurants open for food. We ended up getting some chips and some meat and water even though what we really wanted was something more substantial.

Monteregionni is a very cool place, the roads are all cobblestone and when up on the wall you can see an amazing view of the Tuscan hills. The walled city was attached many times and was only every taken over once. They still use the city for visitors and for a medeval festival where people come dressed in medeval garb. It was very cool! After we explored, we decided to head back to our condo to make dinner since we knew we could make something gluten free and weren't sure about the restaurants there.

A Pool, A Ghost Town, and a Private Chef

You may be wondering what a pool, a ghost town, and a private chef have in common. Well it's really all that happened on a lovely Friday in Italy. I really wanted to relax a little since our days were filling up with things very quickly and I felt like we hadn't really had much of a chance to sit back and relax yet. We grabbed our sunscreen, books, and some water and went down to the pool to relax a bit. It was pretty hot out and the pool was unheated, so I sat on the edge of the pool with my feet in the water to cool off. Chris felt that it was then his job to get my into the freezing cold water. I had to ask him a few times before he backed off, but it was all in good fun. Then, as I sat there staring off into the distance, I realized that I was kind of bored, so we decided to run off to another small village called Chianni which was suggested as a quick trip and a place close by that we could make it to and back in time for our Chef to arrive. We hopped in the car and took off down and up all of the hills and roads and wind all around and up and down. I have been having to carry nauzene tablets with me wherever I go, because if its not the Italian food filling me up, it's the roller coaster rides we go on every time we get into the car. We were able to find Chianni, but parking was very limited, so we ended up finding a spot that was right by the road out of town and then decided to walk through Chianni. The weird thing about this small little village is that there seemed to be no one around at all. It was about 3pm when we got there and Chris and I figured we would see if we could find a place to have a snack. We quickly started to realize that the Italians take a fiesta between lunch and dinner and dinner doesn't start until 7pm. So no restaurant in Tuscany is open for dinner before 7pm unless it is in a touristy area.

Chianni is not one of the biggest or most visited areas, so it was literally like we had entered a ghost town and it truly didn't feel right. I was worried and felt like we should leave. Chris doesn't worry like me though, so we continued walking through. We found a really cool little cobblestone alley way and at the top was an old Italian woman sitting in a rocking chair smiling at us. We told her BonJorno, which in Italian means "Good Day". She responded with the same as we passed her. We kept walking through the village and we found these steps so we went up them and at the top was this tiny little grassy area. It had a great view, but that was about it. We took some pictures and then started heading down a road that we quickly realized was a highway, so we turned back.

On our way back to our car, we passed by a bar where several Italian men were hanging out. We walked right through the area in between their chairs and one of the Italians smiled and said Bonjorno, we responded with the same, but again I had this weird feeling that we should move on, so we headed back to the car and back to the hotel to get things cleaned up and ready for the Chef to arrive.

Around the time the Chef was meant to arrive, we went down to the lobby/reception area and hung out down there until the Chef arrived. She only spoke Italian, so we silently lead her up to our hotel room. She was an older woman, probably in the 60s or so. She had an older gentleman with her that helped he carry her things to the room who also only spoke Italian. Chris and I tried to communicate with her,but it was very difficult as she did not really want to try to understand us. She didn't try until after the dinner when Chris gave her a tip.

The dinner was good, but not the greatest and Chris and I decided it wasn't worth the money, especially after experiencing the local restaurants with way better food and great service.

The private chef provided us with an appetizer of meats and cheeses which is very much the norm her in Italy. They were really good though, and more fancy then the usual meats and cheeses that they serve everywhere. After that we had a Risoto dish with leeks and sausage that was flavored with a chicken broth. It was very tasty. Lastly she made baked fish with vegetables and potatoes which was the part of the meal that I wasn't too thrilled about, but it was okay.

Chris and I decided to eat the first part of our meal outside, but it gets so chilly at night at this time of year her that I needed a lot of layers to be comfortable. Well, then the bugs started at us. Black flies were making it into the kitchen and they were flying around our heads. I couldn't handle it, so we moved inside and finished our meal inside the condo, but by that point it was too late. 20 flies or more had made their home in our kitchen and since their buzz is so similar to a bee, I can't handle them being around. My wonderful new husband helped me kill every last one of them, he even said it would be a fun game and something to do. Once we thought we had them all. Chris said he was ansy and needed to move, so we walked down the road a few condos and saw some of our new friends sitting outside, so we joined them and had a nice time chatting until about midnight or so and then we headed to bed as our friends were doing as well since they were leaving the next day. Christy was one of our new friends and she knows of a person who self-published on amazon and is doing well, so I told her I would get into contact with her friend so I can get some ideas about self publishing my book. Christy also invited Chris and I to her friend's winery that is about 30 minutes from Florence and if we have time, we plan on taking her up on that. Charlie was part of their group as well, he seems like a good 'ol chap, not that he's old or anything, he is a sales person for Hilton Grand Vacations, so he is a great resource and he's also a fun and nice guy. Gay was traveling with them as well, she was a lovely woman, and so sweet. I really liked her. She offered to look over/read/edit my book. It's always nice meeting good people on you travels!

The Healing Waters of Casciana Terme

Chris and I decided that on Thursday we would head out to a market in the morning and then go to the Spa in Casciana Terme. We were told that for many years people believed that the hot springs at Casciana Terme will heal you. People use to come from far and wide to experience these healing effects. So, since I've never experienced a hot spring, I wanted to go. So we got into our little white Fiat and typed Casciana Terme into the Hertz Never Lost. When we typed it in, it came up as Casciana Terme with Lari in parentheses. Since we couldn't find a Casciana Terme in the device that did not have this, We assumed it was correct.

We followed the directions and arrived at our destination and found a place to park. We started to wander through a very quiet little village and we came upon a castle. So Chris decided that even though we were pretty sure we were in the wrong place, that going up to the top of the castle was a good idea. At the time I was crabby, maybe from jet lag or maybe from sleeping too much the night before, but even though I complained, it actually was a good idea to go up to the top of the castle. It gave us perspective and there were some great views up there. We found a girl who was up at the top cleaning, and Chris asked her if she spoke any English and she said a little, he asked her if we were in Casciana Terme and she said "No, no Casciana Terme, (she pointed down to the ground) This, LARI" We looked at each other and said "Oooh, I guess we are in the wrong place" We thanked her and walked back down to our car where we hopped back in and tried typing in Casciana Terme again. This time the Never Lost pulled up the correct one without issue.

It was not far from where we were. After parking we walked up a cobblestone road and came upon a little square. There was a little restaurant, a church, and what looked like a spa. We spent a bit of time searching for the market that was supposed to be going on that morning in that area, but we decided we didn't want to wander too far from the square, so we gave up on it and wandered into the spa. We used Chris's handy google translate app to figure out what the signs right inside said. We decided it would be nice to do a couples massage and so we walked inside and got in line. There was one Italian woman in front of us that was asking lots of questions. We waited patiently and when it was our turn, we greeted the front desk woman in Italian. "Bonjorno" we both said to her. She politely smiled and then Chris asked her if she spoke English, "Parle  Inglese?" She said "A little" and then proceeded to speak English very well, Explained that if we wanted access to the magical, healing hot springs, or a massage that we needed to continue along the path and find a white gate where we would see another person who could set up the massages and get us tickets for the pool. We thanked her and headed back to the car to grab our swim suits. Once we found the white gate, we traveled down some stone steps with pretty trees growing around them and wandered into a lovely park with a water fountain. We found a booth where a woman was helping another customer. When we got to the front, we greeted her and started to point to the couples massage that we wanted in the brochure. She seemed confused and so we tried to communicate with her in Italian. We were able to find out that we were unable to get a couples massage and that we would have to go separately. I decided I didn't want to do that, since Chris knows all the Italian, I didn't feel comfortable going for a massage in a foreign country without knowing the language enough. We just purchased 2 tickets and 2 caps for what they call, the pool.

We had to change in these small wooden changing booths that were broken in some places making it difficult to move and balance. Once changed we put our things into lockers, put on the silly swimming caps and rinsed off in the shower before entering the water. It was warm in the water, but not hot, and there were different areas of the pool where you could push a button have have water shoot out at you, or sit on  really strong jets. We tried a few of those and swam around for a while, I'm not sure how long we were in there, but we tried to stay in as long as we could. Chris thought it was strange that this pool that was said to be a fountain of youth, was filled with all older people. I suggested that it made them feel younger on the inside. All in all, it was a nice dip in the pool, but I didn't really feel any healing effects after the experience.

We ate lunch at the little restaurant in the square and our waiter was mesmerized by Chris's Google Translate app that magically changes the words from Italian to English when he waves his camera over it. We ordered a meat and cheese plate, coffee, and Risoto. It was all very good! We then headed back to the hotel for a nap before our wine tour at the Winery Fibbiani which is about 5 minutes from our hotel. Chris slept for a while and I played on my phone and messaged a few people. When the time came to run off to the Winery tour, I wished I had taken a nap. Italy makes you tired! We rushed out the door and jumped in the Fiat, it was a very quick drive and we walked into a lovely little area outdoors where chairs were set up and there was already a group of people from our hotel gathered and waiting for the tour to start.



The winemaker greeted us and asked us to take a seat and said that he would wait for a few more minutes in case the few missing people were still showing up. We sat down next to a couple that we had talked to in passing the day before, and we started chatting with them a bit without knowing either of their names. Chris started talking to a couple on the other side of him as well. When the tour started it was hard to continue chatting as the winemaker was talking about the process of making wine. This vineyard had some beautiful views that I kept snapping pictures of. After the tour, he brought us back to the little seating area and we started to taste wine. We started with the whites and I was not a fan and found out later that Italians don't make sweet white wines. I loved all of the reds. As we all started drinking, we started making friends with those next to us. I found out that the woman next to me was named Liz and that her soon to be husband's name was Mr. Waldorf and Chris found out that the couple next to him just got married on September 5th, 2015, a week before us and their names were Heidi and Randy. The winemaker was talking about the wine throughout and I think alot of us stopped paying attention because he started clapping and saying "See, now that your drinking wine, you are all friends. The more glasses of wine you drink the more friendly you are with your neighbors." We all laughed and continued chatting. We got pictures with the winemaker and our new friends and then decided to go to dinner with them after we got back to the hotel. We were on our way to meet up with them when we ran into another group that had just gotten in. It was a group of 3, a girl named Christy, a guy named Charlie, and a woman named Gay. We invited them to come along. We all had a very nice dinner together at a family owned restaurant. The owner understood the gluten allergy thing and they even had gluten free bread. We enjoyed a nice dinner with our new found friends and then we all headed back  to the hotel and hung out with them one of the patios. It had been a wonderful day and it was finally time for bed.

A Lovely Little Medieval Village

 Volterra

I had mentioned to lots of people before we left the states that I planned on spending one full day doing nothing but sleeping, however, after 12 hours of sleep Chris and I felt refreshed enough to ask the front desk for some advice on where to go for our first day. A very nice woman with a pleasant british accent and a kind demeanor gave us the suggestion of visiting Volterra. Now, neither Chris or I know anything about all of these places, but we trusted her judgement and decided to head out to Volterra.

I was nervous to be back in the car again, so before we left we had some eggs, ham, and coffee and Chris watched a video about how to use a stick shift. Once back in the car again, the vehicle revved up and so did my anxiety, but once Chris started the car and started driving he stated "This is easy now" So we started off again on curving, hilly roads that often felt like you were on a roller coaster as you cruise along. We mostly stayed at a slow pace allowing all of the Italian drivers to pass us. I probably chewed 4 of my nausene tablets on our driving excursions so far. Partially because of the hills and partially because of my newly found fear of stalling or losing control of the car.

We had the Never Lost Device lead us to the Hospital in Volterra because Chris had seen a tip online that it wasn't easy to find parking so many people would park at the hospital and walk up to the village. We parked on a street close to the hospital and walked up a winding road into the village. The buildings were mostly made of brick and stone and the streets were uneven and occasionally caused me to trip a little with the sandals I was wearing. We wandered along taking pictures as we went. We found lots of little tourist shops that we stopped into. They had Italian leather shops and Alabastor shops where they sold everything made out of alabastor. My favorite thing that we found was a colored Alabastor light and Chris considered buying a mortar and pestol. We made it to the end of the little town and took pictures of the view of the Tuscan hill. After that we decided it was time to find some food. We found a restaurant that was listed as the best Restaurante in the area and we got a table. Now, keep in mind, this was at about 2pm in the afternoon and from what we have found, Italians eat their lunch at lunchtime and dinner at dinner time, so for us to come in at such a late hour of the afternoon, we were keeping one of the servers late. Chris ordered us a meat and cheese plate and then Chris ordered the duck and I ordered gluten free pasta with pesto and fresh celery. They also had delicious Gluten Free bread there.

When our meals came I as very hungry and took a big bite at what I thought would be delicious pasta, but the celery taste was so strong, it made it taste bitter. I ate about a quarter of it before I could no stand any more. Once we realized we were keeping our waiter past the time he was supposed leave, we quickly paid, tipped him well, and took the remainder of our bottle of wine to go.

On our way back to the car we stopped at a gelato shop and asked if anything was Sans Glutini. The girl behind the counter pointed at 2 flavors on the side that had signs on them saying
no milk and no gluten. So we ordered some, but it was disgusting. It was soy based and was pretty gross. Chris ate the majority of it and then we headed back towards the hotel. Near the hotel there is  market in a small area called La Rosa. We decided to stop there to pick up the rest of the groceries that we needed. When we found it the shop said it was a pets market, so I was a bit confused, but apparently it is several things in one small area. So we stopped  in and started grabbing vegetables, fruit and a few other misc things, like meat, cheese and wine. They had a small gluten free section there as well.  I decided last minute that we needed to try some real gelato, so I grabbed some, well the first package I grabbed was also made of soy, so I grabbed a different package and made sure the first ingredient was Latte (Milk). IT was a chocolate/vanilla swirl. We took our things up to the counter and the woman behind the register grabbed all of our vegetables and started walking them back to where they belong without saying anything to us. Chris and I looked at eachother like, "Did we miss something?" After about 5 minutes she came back and had put tags on all the vegetables, and Chris and I were like "OOOOH" and Chris apologized to her in Italian. At least now we know.

After we returned from the market, we put away our groceries and Chris made us pasta with red sauce and chicken and vegetables. It was okay, but I wasn't a huge fan of he sauce. After dinner we had some real gelato which was delicious and played some cards as well as read some of our post cards from the post card guestbook. I was a little disappointed that no one wrote us a drunken poem. After that we went to bed and slept well to move on to another day in Italy.

A Hop, Skip and a Jump to Paris

I felt that our honeymoon started as soon as we entered the plane to leave Minneapolis. MN and head to Paris, France. We had spent the day preparing for the trip. Chris had to pick up a last minute international license and I had to pick up a digital camera as mine had gone missing at some point during our wedding. We also both picked up some reading materials. Chris chose the newest Star Wars novel, and I chose 2 romance novels. Both slightly different in hopes of using them for research for my own novel. Besides, who doesn't love a romance novel.

As we started to read on the plane, I started to get concerned about blood clots as I had read about long flights causing blood clots or hemorrhages and killing people. I tried to keep my legs moving and to continually change positions. Chris was trying to encourage me to take part in the free alcoholic beverages on the Delta International flight, however, I don't enjoy using the rest rooms on planes,so I try to avoid drinking things that make me have to pee alot. Like Coffee and Alcohol. I ended up sticking with water. However, I did end up having to use the on plane bathroom once, but it was fine, no lines or anything and no one had done anything gross in it just before me. 

After we landed, we went through customs pretty quickly and were able to get to the tourism stand where a french woman told us where we needed to go to catch the train to the Eiffel tower. We were told that we wouldn't have enough time, but we did the math and had just enough time to get there, take a few pictures and then head back. 

It was a bit of a struggle to find the train, but we just kept trying to follow the signs for RER which we found out to be what they call the ir underground subway system. The train ride was about an hour and 15 minutes with one train switch. We rushed our way to the Eiffel tower, taking pictures on the way. Once there we couldn't stay long and headed off to find a near by cafe to grab a quick bite to eat before jumping on another plane. We were able to find a small cafe a few blocks from the Eiffel tower and Chris ordered a cheese and meat plate and I ordered a ham, onion, cheese, potato omelette. The funny think about my omelette is that even though there were potatoes inside of it, there were also french fries served on the site which I ate with mayonnaise and ketchup a European favorite. We also ordered coffee or Cafe as they call it and I ordered a latte. Chris got what looked like a double espresso and mine came as espresso with steamed milk. We both enjoyed our coffee beverages and food and then had to run back to he train station.

Once we found it again, we hopped back on the train towards the airport. Even though we ran into some delayed trains we ended up arriving at the airport in more then enough time. We waited about 2 hours before the plane boarded. Since neither of us slept on the train from Minneapolis to Paris,we decided it was time to catch some shut eye. After boarding the plan for Florence, I fell asleep for a while, only to find when I awoke that our flight had taken off 45 minutes late. . Chris and I slept on and off throughout the flight and when we landed, we hopped on a bus to pick up our rental car which ended up being  a little white fiat. Chris was nervous about his ability to drive the little car since he hadn't driven a stick shift in years, which of course made me nervous as well. Chris and I hopped into the car and I suggested he practice a little in the parking lot. After one lap around, Chris said "Well, this will be interesting" and he followed the neverlost directions on to a main road. I was pretty sure this was going to be the death of us. Chris stalled a few times on our drive to the hotel, but that wasn't the scariest part. We had Italian drivers driving very close to us on all sides and we were often unsure where the lanes were because what we have noticed is that the Italians don't really stay in the lanes. 

The never lost device led us to the road the hotel was on and from there we kind of had to guess, but we found it. This was as the sun was just about to go down. We were greeted by a man named Nidar at the front desk, he checked us in and showed us our room. I was a bit upset at first, but now that I have seen some of the other rooms I think our room is just fine. We got our luggage into the room and unpacked into the very small amount of clothing storage space they have here. (a very small closet and two drawers) Then we walked down to the pool to see what it was like. We were both very tired from our travels so we pretty much went to bed right after that. I took 2 sleeping pills so that I could sleep in my new surroundings and according to Chris we slept for about 12 hours. It was wonderful!