Today was mostly a travel day, but ended in a party at the wedding site. A party without the two for whom the party was being thrown. More on that further down the page.
We got up this morning about 6:45 am with the aim of being on the road by about 8:00 am. Even though we had managed to strew our stuff all over this apartment, we were breakfasted, packed and out the door by 8:05 am. Our first goal was the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
We had passed through Pisa three times on this trip and not stopped to see this iconic landmark to engineering ineptitude. Somehow, it just seemed like a tourist trap. But, we felt the call to visit. It was right on our way, and who knows, maybe it is more interesting than we thought.
It was an hour drive to the parking lot, then a 15 minute walk to get inside the walled enclosure. We entered from the north. Admittedly, it was very cool to see it. With its exterior columns, it is a very dainty looking structure. Yes, it is tilted. But really makes you realize the tilt is when you see the base of the building. The south side is indented into the ground about 6 feet. Somehow the tilt of the base into the ground is as dramatic as tilt of the whole building.
This does bring up a philosophical point. Why is it that a building that was poorly engineered, a mistake, a screw up gets all the attention? There are three other ornate, wonderful buildings right next to the tower, yet the misfit gets all the attention. Is this reflection on the human race? We give attention to the one who makes the most noise, the squeaky wheel, even of the wheel is substandard, while the stalwart get ignored? hmmmm . . . .
We walked back to the car, found a free toilet before we climbed in, then started our southward journey again. We had wanted to drive along the coast, but we found the coast road was a limited access highway, a freeway and a toll road. Finding no alternative, we stayed on it. The toll part of the road ended but the highway continued south, so we paid our toll and continued on. We stopped in a small beach side town and had sandwiches and fruit for lunch, seated on a picnic bench with the car parked with two wheels up on the sidewalk, mimicking the other cars seeking a resting spot. The temperature is the shade was perfect. Sunny, warm, slight breeze. We walked to use a bathroom in the park across the street, then on our way again, heading east an inland, aiming for the wedding venue.
I am glad that I had used Google Earth’s street view to cruise the area around the wedding venue. The roads are small and curvy, and the turnoff to the site is a small gravel road that heads downhill steeply. We found it with no problem and were driving down this road very reminiscent of our or the Caldwell’s driveway when who should we spot walking up the drive but Bill and Pat. Talk about feeling like we were home. All that was missing was mud and rain. Bill and Pat were marking the driveway with blue ribbons to help others find their way.
At the venue there are two houses, each with a swimming pool. The first one is occupied by Hailey’s family. The second one is where the Caldwell family is staying. We continued on to the second house and park in front. We could only stay about 45 minutes. We had to get to our B&B and meet the owners, get the keys and be shown the place. We found Ross and Crystal in the house. They were in the middle of a FaceTime call to Joel and Hailey. We had a few minutes to say hi to those two. Joel looked good, tired but good. He still has double vision and was wearing an eye patch to help. Other than the obvious pain he was working hard to manage, he looked good. We joked a bit with him, then Hailey thought it best to let him rest. We signed off. Bill and Pat soon returned and we got to chat with them for a few minutes, getting the update on Joel. His foot has had some return of feeling, but its prognosis is still not good. The talk of partial amputation is still in the air. It is a matter of time, waiting to see how much regeneration occurs. The decision of what to do is still quite a few days away.
We left the wedding site and headed 20 minutes south to our B&B. But, as has happened before on this trip, we had a problem with Internet Service. If you remember reading from last Wednesday, I had visited yet another Vodefone store and got my service working again. Well, it is not working again. This is a major problem. To use Air B&B, you need to be able to contact the host when you arrive so they can meet with you to get you into the place. When with Bill and Pat I had connected via the wifi at the house and let our host know we would be there in 30 minutes. He answered back to contact him when I had reach the contact point, a large cypress tree at the top of the hill above the hot springs. We got to the cypress tree, but without service I had no way to contact him.
We parked, hoping the half hour warning would bring the host to the tree. Nope. Our location was akin to the turn off to Salmon Creek Road from 505 in Toledo, a country spot with occasional traffic. The one thing we had going for us was the nearby hot springs and that it was Sunday afternoon. There was quite a few people on foot going to or coming from the hot pools. We exited the car and began asking people if they could make a phone call for us. The first, through broken Italian and English let us know they had no signal. The second, a man on a tractor who had driven up to dump some recycling in a nearby dumpster had signal and happily dialed the number. I spoke to Mauro. He said his wife was on her way. While we waited we chatted with the man on the tractor. He lived nearby and worked indoors at a computer all day, but cherished his weekends when he tended his new olive orchard and worked outdoors. A woman drove up in a Mercedes. I said I wondered if that was Mauro’s wife. He immediately said, “I know Mauro. Yes, that’s his wife. And that horse across the street is Mauro’s horse. The horse was excited to see the wife, prancing and neighing in the enclosure. It was apparent she must feed and care for the horse at times.
This woman in her early 70s drove us down the hill and through a remote controlled gate to a large apartment house on the side of the hill. She led us to the top floor where we found a spacious 3 bedroom, two bath fully functioning apartment. It is exquisite. She showed us how to operate everything, all in Italian with me doing my best to interpret, then left. We were stunned. At about 1200 square feet, this tiled and tastefully decorated home was way beyond our expectations. And for $77 a night? Wow. The views out the windows and from the three decks was of the rolling Tuscan landscape. It was beautiful.
We took a break for a few minutes, showered and ate a bit, then drove back to the wedding site for an evening get together. We drove to the Caldwell’s house and met Mary and Bob, friends of Joel and Hailey from Colorado along with members of Hailey’s family. After a while, about 8:00 pm, we walked to the other villa and joined in a dinner party, a meet and greet.
Andy and Tabitha were driving up from Rome, delayed by a few hours when the place they were to rent their car from closed before they arrived. They made for the airport via train to rent a car there instead. I was keeping in touch with them as they approached and was happy to see them rolling down the dusty gravel drive about 9:00 pm. Brian and Emily Bakotich were also there. Beth and Jay, along with Anna and Harp were also there, but they had flown in that morning and the jet lag had drug them to bed a few hours earlier.
We stayed at the party until 10 or 11, then drove back to the B&B with Andy it tow to show him where we were staying. We all jumped on the web. After a few minutes we found we could not access any sites, but were presented with a page, in Italian, that stated our data limit had been reached and if we wanted more, we would have to buy it. Huh? I vowed to send an email to Mauro in the morning asking about this and to get a second set of keys.
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