This never got posted...sorry.
By now all you followers of our Italy adventure must have realized we are home. I'm sitting on my front porch with my coffee, weather is 68° and sunny, fan on overhead and Bruce has gone to the flea market . So, you know we are home, but how did that happen? I know you are dying to find out.
We left Il Mulinetto early the last Monday morning, Maggi driving, me navigating and honking our way one last time down the hill. We succeeded in getting around Lucca with my wonderful directions, but then the SHTF. As we were trying to avoid the Autostrada, it was inevitable that's where I put us. As we realized there was nowhere else to go, we saw another side road marked Autostrada PM. Thinking it was another way around (you know, night time avoidance, etc.) we drove down. Once there, we realized there were parking carports along one side and ultimately were faced with the choice of a CLOSED gate into a maintenance type area or getting on the Autostrada...without a ticket. Uhoh -we are both smart enough to know we didn't want to be on it without a legal way off, so we turned around, intending to retrace our route and yes, just go through the ticket booth legally. Low and behold, some invisible and mysterious gate had closed behind us. We were now stuck big time. (Why that gate was even open we never could figure out...just our luck I guess) Turning around again, we parked, got out and went in search of someone to get us out. We hoofed it towards the other CLOSED gate and just as it came in sight it we saw it open and a knight in shining armor came through, heading towards the Autostrada. Maggi ran towards him, arms waving and when he stopped and rolled down the window, asked if he spoke English. We received the world-wide side to side hand movement indicating "some" and she then pantomimed our predicament. I have to say, she is good and probably always wins in charades. The young man, sensing two damsels in distress, drove towards the other gate with us hot footing it behind him, waited while we got to the car, got the car started and in reverse and then opened the original invisible but now CLOSED gate so we could escape. And escape we did, onto the Autostrada, thanking the Travel Gods again, and that nice young Italian Autostrada employee. Later, as we reminisced, we agreed this had probably happened before because he exhibited no surprise at our predicament.
Our next opportunity for a challenge came as we were trying to get off the Autostrada to drive the the more scenic roads to Chianti. We correctly pulled into one of the exit booths that took credit cards (yea, one hurdle down)... right behind a delivery truck of some sort. It didn't take us long to realize this guy was having issues. He kept putting his ticket in but could not get the gate to lift. He started looking backwards and yes readers, he decided he wanted to back up. Now let's recap where we are...1) Exiting the Autostrada in a toll gate and 2) BEHIND THAT TRUCK! Again, being the bright young women we are, we knew we had to get out of the way (especially as we saw back-up lights come on) so we began BACKING DOWN THE EXIT. I don't know about you, but I've always wondered what would ever make someone back down, up or out of an exit on the Interstate, a one way road, etc., especially when there is continual traffic. Well, now I know! Thank goodness we were at what appeared to be an exit less traveled. We backed up, squeezed across to the adjoining lane and ended up behind a car paying cash. In the mean time, sirens were blaring, the ticket attendant came out, locked his door and proceeded to the stuck truck, and I am pretty sure gates locked everywhere until he reset everything. The guy in front of us had his own issues, dropped some change, wanted to stop and pick it up but apparently realized the stupidity of that decision. Maybe he could actually sense two frustrated women were in the car, not patiently waiting, directly behind him and we're getting ready to push him through the gate. Anyway, we successfully made it off the Autostrada...legally too. Whew...and it had only been 2 hours or so since we had gotten on the road. What was waiting for us next?
The roads and directions were as well defined as usual. There was no direct route from where we were, Lucca, to where we wanted to go, Radda in Chianti, so we were exploring our way southeast. Just in case you decide to drive on the regular roads in Italy, I offer this bit of advice. You need to know the location of every burg on a road, because that's how their signs work. Interestingly enough, the largest town or city you are traveling towards and yes, even using for directions on the road signs, will mysteriously disappear at a crucial intersection, only to be replaced by the name of someplace on no map we owned. It was amazing to me that we really only had to retrace our route once on that journey, when we turned right instead of left, although we did have a circuitous driving experience in Poggibonsi actually trying to get through the town on to an east bound road into Chianti. There must have been some type of religious celebration because we turned down one road(or should I say up, because that's where we ended, very up) and found it crowded with parked cars, police, walking people, food carts and other portable entertainment vehicles and no way to turn around so just kept moving. It wasn't the best situation for 2 women who actually liked to know where they were and where they were going, but hey, we were in Italy, we rolled with it (or should I say drove.) We never really figured out the roads or what was actually going on in that particular town, but we finally ran across a sign to some place we could find on the map, took the turn and left the maze of Poggibonsi behind. And it wasn't even 11 am yet. Seems we were destined for exploration that day. We both agreed we were smart to have left a day earlier than planned if driving back towards Orvieto not on the Autostrada was going to be so confusing.
Once on our road out of Poggibonsi, we left most confusion behind. We noticed immediately this road was better marked and of course, the vineyards became more noticeable. We were definitely on a very scenic road towards our destination, we hoped, one we surmised was regularly used by tourists. I'm not saying it wasn't narrow, steep and winding, but road signs were better. We decided we had hit the real tourist area of Chianti and we were right. We stopped for lunch and the very necessary rest break on top of a mountain around noon. Food was ok but what was more interesting was the delivery of that food, a pass through in the dining room to the tabacchi/bar next door. Apparently quite a bit of food was served there too and after whispered conversations, plates, silverware and glasses would go and come through this cloth covered niche behind our table. Even part of our dessert showed up through that niche.
The remaining day trip to Radda was uneventful and we arrived in the little village, again perched on top of a mountain, in time to sit in front of a lovely warm fire and have several glasses of their excellent Chianti Classico with hors d'overes. We stayed at a very old, very popular hotel called Relais Vignale. Although our single rooms were rather monastic, the building and common rooms were like being in someone's grand old estate. I could see why so many people returned time after time to just relax and get out of their own poor weather. The place was regal, with beautiful views of the grape growing countryside. If the weather had been more conducive, we would have enjoyed our wine on their lovely veranda overlooking the valley, but it wasn't, so we had to make do with the very large fireplace. We were not the only ones availing ourselves of that warm area either. We met a lovely couple from Washington State touring the area with a local guide. The husband seemed to be failing, maybe the beginning of Alzheimer's, but both were in good shape and fun to talk with. We found out she had climbed Kilimanjaro on her 60th birthday and was a Pilates teacher and he was retired from his own construction endeavors. They traveled for fun. Later that evening, after a lackluster but expensive dinner in the hotel's cave-like restaurant (wine was still excellent), Maggi turned in and I returned to the sitting room for awhile longer. I met another couple from Birmingham, Great Britan that had been coming to this same hotel and village for years. Of course the damp cold we were experiencing then in Italy was warm compared to what they left, so they said they came to enjoy the weather and relax. My kinda travel for sure.
We drove to Orvieto the next day, and will it surprise you if I said it was not exactly in the original direction we envisioned. But, we made it, reaching Orvieto in plenty of time to catch an early train on what was our original journey in reverse. We spent the night at the Courtyard at Leonardo Da Vinci airport (or at least it was still a Courtyard when we checked in) and were back on a big plane winging our way home early the next morning. After an uneventful flight home (yea, yea, yea!) we arrived on time in Jacksonville (via Atlanta) and Bruce collected us at the airport about 6:30pm. All in all a good trip! Arrivedercci my friends.....until my next adventure.
