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We started packing up this morning, as it's moving day. We took a break for breakfast and finished packing by 10.
We had the front desk call a taxi for us. Traffic was heavier than usual on the road to the airport as it was "Family Day" in Italy and many people were headed for the beach, which was the same road as the one for the airport. The driver dropped us off at Departures, even though we asked for Arrivals, as we were picking up a rental car. His English was adequate, but not extensive.
We finally found the rental car desk and signed all the paperwork. Our car is a Ford Fiesta, either very dark blue or black - hard to tell which. Manual transmission, so Carl will be doing all the driving, and diesel! The roads back to the Rome perimeter from the airport were much less crowded than the ones to the airport, so Carl had some breathing room to get reacquainted with manual transmissions...
The road to the Tuscan farmhouse from the Rome airport was pretty easy to navigate. First, get to the perimeter road, then circle Rome until you reach the connector to the main North-South toll road for Italy, then head North. We soon reached our exit and started towards Pienza, the closest town to our farmhouse.
Since it was after 1, we stopped for a bite of lunch. This restaurant didn't have any English translations for the menu and the waitress spoke little English. Welcome to the countryside! We did have a delicious meal, however, and spent some time people watching the locals. There was one boy, about 3 or 4, that kept making a break for the exit. His father would take off at a dead run to catch him and bring him kicking and protesting back to their table.
We found the farmhouse (Il Rigo) on the first try. The turnoff was well marked. I spotted Eddie, our workshop instructor, almost immediately. We're in room 5, which is on the second floor. A wonderfully large room with a canopy bed and decent sized bathroom. No tub, so I don't think I'll slip in this one...
Our floor also has two large "common" rooms for getting together with others, if wanted, and has a door out to the upper patio, which our window also opens onto. It turns out this type of accommodation is quite common in rural Italy. It's called agritourism and provides the farms with supplemental income.
Our hosts, Lorenza and Vittorio, are very nice. And one of the downstairs common rooms has a computer with an internet connection. There's a sign over the computer suggesting a donation to the "Internet gods" of four Euros per hour, but it's voluntary.
We met people as they arrived and sat in the main courtyard talking, until someone noticed how the light was getting better and better and everyone's shutter fingers started itching. Cameras started to appear.... When the light faded, we met for our formal introductions, why we're here, what we hope to accomplish, plans, etc., over hors d'oeuvres and wine before an absolutely delicious dinner.
The photo to the left above was taken down Il Rigo's driveway, showing the wonderful line of cypress trees that line their driveway. The center photo shows a single cypress tree with the town of San Quirico in the background. The photo to the right above shows some of the fields near Il Rigo. It's also the view we had out of the window of our room.
This photo shows the town of Pienza and the second house that makes up the complex here. Some of the people at the workshop stayed at this house instead of the main house.
Then off to bed. Shucks, another Weyerhaeuser bed with brick pillows!!!