Tuscany - Day 4

Toscano... Day 4

Notice how I am now switching to the Italian way of spelling places... this is what happens, I immerse myself in a culture and start copying that culture. So today was a day of a lot of highs and unfortunately some lows which turned out OK.

We started on our journey to Tuscany early in the morning. We rented a Fiat Panda... a small but unexpectedly fun and comfortable car. It took us a bit to figure out all the gadgets but we did and we were off. The rental car guy didn't speak any English so we signed and he pointed and off we went! We left Roma and drove towards Moltepulciano. About 20 miles outside of Roma, the landscape started changing drastically and it became rolling hills and vineyards instead of city streets and buildings. Our first stop was the gas station, which proved to be interesting when we couldn't figure out how to pay and receive gas for the car. The funny thing was that neither could the french people using the pump next to us. After the very polite Italian gas station attendant came outside to rescue us all did I realize how expensive the gas is! It equates to about $8/gallon... $50 to fill a tank half way in a Fiat Panda. Oh well, such is life!

Next we came into the town of Montepulciano... what a beautiful place!! If I ever become missing, send all mail to me in Montepulciano, Toscano... this is where I will be! We fell in love with this place. Small narrow roadways laced with wine and leather shops amongst others all leading up to a nice Piazza where we had lunch, wine of course and listened to music in the piazza. We walked through more of the town and then headed out to Volterra.

Upon arriving in Volterra, we parked outside the walls of the town and then went to check into the hotel. It was at this time that Dave discovered that he did not have his passport. So thinking that of course it has to be in the car we walked back down out of the city to the car. The passport was no where to be found. We took all of our bags to the room and Dave looked through everything one last time. So now he is freaking out. We get on the Internet and he searches for information about what to do with a lost passport. We discover that he would need to go to the Embassy in Rome to inquire about getting a new one. In the meantime we discuss where he could have lost it and we come up with the only place possible is that he left it at the rental car place. We originally rented a car from the airport but then we found out that the train from the airport is $14 euros per person per trip and were told by Gavy and Chris about a rental place near their house so I canceled the rental car from the airport and rented a car from the place by their house. This ended up being perfect because after calling the rental car company and never getting a reply, we then called Gavy (with Skype) and asked her if she could go by there after work and check to see if Dave's passport was found. She said no problem and she would Facebook us with any news. So then we go to dinner and we are still upset and frustrated about the situation but we decide to just relax and have fun tonight and then get up early in the morning to head back to Rome to deal with the American Embassy and the passport issue. We walked the town a bit, ate appetizers, and drank wine galore.

Volterra is a very beautiful town, much like Montepulciano, but bigger. There are some archaeological sites below that were neat. It seems as if they were having some kind of festival but we never did confirm what it was. Dave fell in love with the Canoli's.

We finally get back to the hotel after much food, wine and dolce's (sweets) and with fingers crossed we log into Facebook. To our surprise Gavy informs us that she has Dave's passport. He indeed left it at the car rental place. PRAISE GOD!!! So crisis averted and our trip is back on track! Yipeeeeee!!!

Now here we are in the morning planning the rest of our Italy trip before we head to Greece. We decided to forgo Florence as many people we talked to said it's just another big city and neither of us are interested in seeing any more art or sculptures. Instead, we are going to just head north from here because Dave wants to see the leaning tower of Pisa and then we are going to slowly head back to Roma on the coast. We don't have accommodations for tonight, since we were planning to stay in Florence, so we are just going to wing it and find a place where ever we land tonight, maybe in Grosseto.

Another fun-filled day in Roma. It's amazing that we still have 2 full days here. Time is going not too fast and not too slow which is perfect!

Stay tuned for what today brings!

The Fiat Panda