Day 5 - Tuscany

I did not preview this.....sorry!!!

We left Venice today. We got up early around 6:30 in the morning. We were planning to go down to breakfast and pack up some food for our trip to Florence. We had stopped at a deli and gotten some cheese, salami and crackers but wanted a few more things.

Funny, as I was leaving the dinning area and heading up stairs to our room, the elevator opened and out walks a man in his robe….with his dress shoes on and black socks!!! He walks through the lobby and out to the patio for a smoke. You would think that if you were going to take the time to put on your dress shoes and socks, you could put on some clothes. Especially in the city!! Yikes!!! The guy was English.

Anyway, we ordered a water taxi and headed for the train station. My job was keeping mom calm. The traveling really makes her anxious, especially when she doesn’t know what to expect. We didn’t know how the train station worked. We got out of the boat and had to carry our luggage up the stairs to the train station. We already had our tickets and were over an hour early. We had time to get the all the information we needed and made it on the train…..with a little problem getting our luggage on!! A really nice man helped us get the luggage up on the train and into the overhead compartments. The train was really nice and spacious and was a very smooth ride. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the scenery go by. It changed so much along the way. Gorgeous!!

We got to Florence, off the train and found Paulo waiting for us and the end of the platform. He already had 4 of the other people that would be at the cooking school with us. Four ladies, all friends, traveling through Italy for 3+ weeks. Two are sisters. They are a hoot and will be a lot of fun. We drove about 45 minutes to the farm we are going to stay at. As we got farther from the city the terrain became more like the Tuscany you see on TV. We took a very precarious, curvy road up to the farm…..wow!!! The view is unbelieveable!!!! This is a 300+ year old home and is so quaint and homey.

We got settled in and then the chef had a snack waiting for us out on the patio…cheese, bread with garlic and olive oil, procuitto and grapes. This is also an olive farm and as we drove up, they were hand picking the olives to take to the mill tomorrow. We will get to go and see the process of making olive oil. So we enjoyed the snacks and wine and watched the sun set. It doesn’t get any better than that.

We will be having dinner around 8:00 (they eat late in Italy). Tomorrow we go to the olive mill and a small walled midevil town. Then we will be coming back and having a first cooking class.

I am so relaxed right now. I was telling mom that this is the first time I really feel totally relaxed. Venice was so fast paced and it seems like we were going all the time. Right now I am sitting in front of a roaring fire in a lovely family room…in Tuscany…...just relaxing….nice!!!!