Another group of friends, old and new, arrive today at Chiarentana for Week 3: Brenda & Jerry Foldesi, Palmer Wells & Jim Barden (hereafter referred to as "The Foldesi Group"), Fred & Kathy Baars, Richard & Allyson Marvin ("Richard's Group"), Margie Caughlan & Amy Nuttall ("The Girls")! Little do they know as they arrive all the wonderful sights and sounds, "fragrances and flavors" they'll be experiencing in the coming days in the beautiful Val d'Orcia region of Southern Tuscany.
After enjoying a delicious complimentary breakfast at the Golden Tulip Hotel, I hopped on the 9 am shuttle bus back to the airport. Then made my way to the Leonardo Express and back to Rome's Termini Station. My initial plan had been to hop on the Rome Metro, go to the Colosseum stop and walk to the Foldesi's rental apartment on Capo d'Africa. However, due to Festa Della Repubblica crowds and festivities up above ground, my subway train didn't STOP at the Colosseum! No worries, my Plan B worked great ... I stayed on the Metro train all the way to the Tiburtina Train Station where I met the Foldesi Group & Margie and Amy. They all had had a very fun morning watching the festive holiday parade, seeing the new Italian president's motorcade and photographing the red/white/green airplane flyover!
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| Palmer's amazing photo of the Festa Della Repubblica Flyover in Rome! |
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| Rome's Tiburtina Train Station |
Aside from the fact that Palmer and Jim got separated from us and boarded a totally different train to Chiusi (!), our trip to Southern Tuscany went very smoothly. And, after Jerry picked up his rental car, there were Palmer & Jim standing outside the Chiusi train station with their luggage. (Why there were two different trains leaving Rome and arriving at Chiusi 15 minutes apart I'll never understand!) We all made our way through the "Festa Della Repubblica" Chiusi street fair, to a little bar where we enjoyed sandwiches, chips, sodas WITH ICE CUBES (yippee!) and gelato. (Brenda, like Mary McAndrew Week 1, likes to have gelato every day!)
Margie jumped right into driving our shared rental car (with the great GPS) and Jerry followed us all the way back to Sassaia. Soon after everyone settled into their new rooms (Brenda, Jerry & Palmer in Casa del Bove, & I in the pretty pink room next to the kitchen), the last four members of the Week 3 group arrived Fred & Kathy Baars, (newly married!) Richard & Allyson Marvin. We all headed off to Chiarentana for our Welcome Dinner. Donata Origo, who was in the dining room again this week having dinner with a friend, later described this week's group to me as "very lively and fun!" Since there was little food in the house & we hadn't yet done grocery shopping at the PAM, there was some concern about lack of coffee for Sunday morning's breakfasts. Loredana, our sweet dinner server, kindly solved that problem quickly by supplying us with a double pack of tasty Italian coffee!
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| View from my Week 3 room at Sassaia! |
Time for bed ... in my pretty "new" pink room! After a wonderfully fun and busy two weeks with Mary and Paula, I was determined to "take it easy'" during Week 3, and planned to spend lots of time relaxing, reading and blogging by Sassaia's pretty swimming pool. You'll see how THAT plan turned out in future blog posts. ❤❤❤
1 comment:
I'm with Brenda--Gelato every day!! You are quite the Italian traveler, hopping shuttles, riding subways, and finding your way around Rome! So impressed!
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