Under the Tuscan rain

We left Vienna Thursday morning around 0:20 and arrived in Porciano,Tuscany, a bit over 8 hours later to have a little colazione (breakfast) at Monica’s. The moment we passed Bologna it started to rain and all the way over the Apennines mountains to Firenze it continued. We arrived at Monica’s with a lot of rain and no sun in view. What a start of our vacation in Italy.

Monica is the owner of a small shop which sells everything from fruits to bread to diapers and toothpaste. There is one table inside and three in front where you can enjoy a cappuccino and a warm cornetto (croissant). On a cold morning nothing warms better than fresh coffee.

We left Monica and drove down to Lia to check in at Il Lampaggio. This small agriturismo, which also has a restaurant, was discovered by my brother in 1995. Since then he comes to Tuscany every year for a couple of days. Lia has 6 rooms for rent and a wonderful restaurant.

Due to the unforeseen enlargement of our group

(welcome Fanny and Fritz, here with Lia) we only ordered 5 rooms the year before. Since I didn’t want to spend the next three nights with my brother and his girlfriend, I got a room 2 minutes from Lia’s place at the Casa Italia. It’s an apartment residence, the rooms are larger and the shower actually has hot water and enough water pressure. Still, it’s double price and all my friends were in the other building.

After a restoring nap and since it stopped raining, we decided to drive to Florence. My friend Ali left her daughter Fanny and her husband Fritz to themselves and we went shopping like in old times.

(Ali’s push present for herself)

We also had to take a look at the Palazzo Vecchio. Florence is so beautiful no matter the weather!

We finished our city tour with a Campari spritz and then went back up the mountain to Il Lampaggio for two rainbows

and a delicious dinner (sorry, no pictures available. Just too good to wait). Yes, the food in Tuscany is that good!
Yours, Pollybert

PS: I finished the ‘Game of Thrones’ series of George R. R. Martin with book no. 5 ‘A Dance with Dragons‘ and started again with Ken Follet ‘Fall of Giants‘. I really, really liked the GoT series, although I have now spent the better part of the last three months reading it. Just starting with the Ken Follet book made me realize what a gifted writer Mr. Martin is. His style is superior and so vivid, the characters are well drawn and coming to life from his descriptions. The Ken Follet book is a bit lacking in this department and falls, all in all, quite flat. Hopefully it will pick up later, because I know that Follet can write wonderfully. Do you remember ‘The pillars of the earth’?