The Last Days

Farewell Capitignano!

Friday, July 22 was the last day at Capitignano and the last night with the monks. Everyone seemed a bit melancholy as the summer classes drew to a close. Some of the students were doing further travel, some heading straight home and we were going to spend a day doing a bit more sightseeing and stay overnight with Beth and Andrea in Ponsacco before leaving for Rome on Sunday. Most goodbyes were said Friday night as many had to leave at six am for flights from Bologna. Florence is the closest airport to Borgo and Bologna not that far behind.

Georgio, Maria and Rider

 Saturday morning dawned beautiful as always and we packed up our numerous bags, leftover food and wine and bid a sad farewell to Maria, Georgio and their dog Stella              

Stella...dog extraordinaire

  at Capitignano and set out once more for a last tour of the Tuscan countryside. An aside would be that Capitignano is a great jumping off point for touring Tuscany and even as far as Venice. Florence, Pisa, Siena, Cinque Terre, the hill towns, Bologna are all a reasonable day trip. The casitas on the property are for rent and are reasonable especially in the off season ( I think I'd like to return in the fall at harvest time!).

Rider waiting for our afternoon excursion

A familiar drive past Florence and toward Pisa brought us to Ponsacco again. After checking in with Andrea at the house and dumping our bags, we chose to once again visit  the Disney-like walled town of San Gimignano.

 The less than an hour trip through the gorgeous countryside revealed the much painted sunflower fields, glimpses of medieval fortresses, walled hill towns and stunning vistas marred only by the occasional signs in English of the Tuscan get-aways available for purchase.

San Gimignano in the distance

 On our first visit to San Gimignano, we remarked that it was a tourist's paradise....picturesque sights abounding, numerous venues for shopping, world class gelato, and cinghiale sandwiches. I think we may have been hasty in thinking it a "tourist trap". Yes, it was filled that Saturday with many tourists from all over the world ( and tons of Italians ) but the beauty was inescapable and the prices for souvenirs were less than Florence and Rome!  Rider was mellow and cooperative as we strolled the city, shopped and topped the afternoon with yet more gelato.

Thoroughly Tuscana

Beth was finishing work at five so we made sure we arrived at about the same time. She joined us and we drove into the nearby town of Pontedera where Andrea has his glass shop and studio (www.invitrea.it). He has small pieces like trays and bowls for sale but works mostly by commission on windows, doors and incredible, intricate glass tabletops. Some of his work is stained glass and some a fused glass. I bought a lovely piece that I tried ( unsuccessfully) to hand carry home.

After he closed the shop, we enjoyed a walk through Pontedera which is certainly off the tourist maps and talked of a return visit. This would be , like Borgo San Lorenzo, where one could truly experience "real" Italy. Dinner was at a local restaurant,  Il Gambretto (The Shrimp). It's easy to forget that this part of Tuscany ( near Pisa) is actually very close to the sea. We had a memorable seafood and pasta ( Rider needed his pasta fix) meal and managed to get him home to his make-shift two chairs put together bed before he totally fell apart. I quickly fell asleep as well but Betsy and Beth played catch-up a bit longer. There just no friends like "old" friends and Betsy and Beth go back to high school.

Next morning was a quick breakfast and hit-the-road as we had an appointment to turn in the car in Roma at 12:30 and wanted to get to the Hilton before the appointment to check-in. By now, Betsy and I were feeling a little cocky about navigating the Italian roads so we thought ( as long as the GPS was working) we could do the route where we could glimpse the sea as we wound down our sojourn. The ride was about three uneventful hours with Rider sleeping " like a baby".  We had many views of the sea and saw a large island that might have been Sardinia. My Italian geography is a little rusty!

Bella Italia

Our luck was holding as we pulled into the airport Hilton ( our only concession for the trip was using AMEX points for the Hilton next to the airport on the last night) and our room was ready. Admittedly it was nice to have an American bathroom, airconditioning and television  but they still didn't provide washcloths ( travelers: remember to take your own if you want one ).

I settled in with the baby and Betsy took the car for turn-in. The Eurodrive  company made it very easy to lease the Renault Megane. It was brand new, drove like a dream and got excellent gas (diesel) mileage. We had lost a back reflector somewhere and generally put the car through its' paces including over 4000 kilometers but the return was painless after Betsy forged my name. She had practice in high school, I think.

Note: The person to whom the car is leased is supposed to return it though anyone can drive it as it is officially owned by you during the time you are in-country. This was a great deal if you are staying more than 21 days AND don't mind driving in Europe.

Now we had a final afternoon and evening in Italy...how about a plan?