My Vacation

Full day excursion to Siena and San Gimignano. Return to the villa for evening wine tasting and a Tuscan dinner.

I am actually writing this entry ahead of the end of the day and it will be my last "live" written entry. I will write about our day in Florence (tomorrow) after I get home.

In yesterday's entry I said that Casafrassi is a 4 star hotel. As you can see from the itinerary, today was scheduled to be a visit to another hilltop town and then wandering around Siena. I was so wiped out when I got back to the bus last night that I decided -- dammit -- Walt and I are not 4 star hotel people and when am I going to be able to enjoy a 4 star hotel again? So I have opted out of the trip today and am sticking around the hotel.

There was some problem with the internet connection at first, so the kind lady at the desk has given me TWO hours for the price of one. And when I finish here I am going to go upstairs (we are on the top floor...it is 30 steps up and down. There is an elevator but it never seems to be turned on), get a towel, and head for the pool. I enjoyed the pool in Margherita Ligure so much but had so little time to stay in it. This one is much larger and I might actually learn how to keep my body afloat again...it was all coming back to me when they shut down th last pool for the night!

This place is so far from everywhere that you can't pop down to the local market to get a gelato, but the dining room is open for lunch, so I will be able to eat something and will be nicely rested when the others get back from their travels. Jeri will take pictures! I'm always sure that Ian is delighted when I decide to skip something, though he has been nothing but supportive. But I'm sure I cramp his style.

Tomorrow we have the whole day free. We are going to wander around Florence. We have tickets for the Academia (where David is...though there are several versions of the statue around town--last night we took pictures of our group's "David" standing under the bronze David overlooking the city. Jeri helped him pose and I'll be glad to see how the pix look on a large screen). Anyway, our Academia tix are for 11 a.m. and my friend Kate McGovern, from the group that helped transcribe Tony Kahn's "Morning Stories" is going to meet us and we'll see where we go from there. There is so much to do and see in Firenze and I know we will barely scratch the surface.

And then it will be all over. We have to leave the hotel at 4:30 a.m. to get to the Florence Airport (named the Amerigo Vespucci airport) to catch our flight to Paris and from there home.

Char's husband is meeting us and will drive Pat and me home to Davis and Sacramento, respectively. "Home" is starting to sound like a nice word...but first there is "pool" to experience and the rare opportunity to be the kind of person who stays at a 4 Star hotel!