Vinci una settimana in Toscana!
Chiuso
Our First Time Doing It in Italy
We went to Italy for a photography class with Monte Zucker and had a wonderful time meeting about 20 new friends from 8 different countries of which we have had some great adventures with since. We stayed in Villa Gropina, near Loro Ciuffenna, a fabulous villa for your vacation. But, this story is about our FIRST TIME navigating the streets in the dark from Siena to Loro Ciuffenna without a map or a GPS. Yes, this is before GPS were affordable. To get this started, I want to tell you about one of the greatest cities I have ever visited, Siena, Italy. So here goes...
So we are photographing a wedding in Gaiole in Chianti with Monte and we decide that since we are this close to Siena, it would be a shame not to go see such a wonderful place. So we invite the only person from Italy in the group to go with us so that he could help us get back to our villa. Thinking, surely he would be able to read the road signs and get us back safely. So off we go, Ms. Linda (my wife), Paulo (the Italian), Christine and Mary (two wonderful ladies that rode everywhere with us on the trip).
Off we go, following signs to get to Siena and wow what a wonderful place it is. Inside the city reminds me of a old castle of 500 years ago. Narrow cobblestones streets that are shared with vehicles and people alike. Amazing sights and buildings and best of all, the city center (Not really in the center) that is an enormous gathering area for everyone to meet and greet each night. The social area of the town with restaurants on 3 sides and a beautiful tower and church on the 4th wall. Being there is like a dream. Street to street and shop to shop it was awesome and fun to be with new friends and my best friend (Linda) for such an experience. This beats the leaning tower of Pisa and then some.
Ok, for the good story of our return home. It is about Midnight and time to go home(villa). Paulo, how do we get back to the villa? I asked, well the answer was unnerving to say the least. "I have no idea. I don't know my way around here." OK, so now it is time to put my Boy Scout skills to good use. I know which road we came in on so lets just try to backtrack. No moon, total blackness at midnight. Class starts at 7:00 AM in the morning and I have no idea where we are. I continue to drive and drive and drive. As long as we are traveling East I know I am at least going in the right direction. And we continued about an hour and turning at signs of towns I remember being close to our villa. Someone said I don't think we are going East and I say I know we are but to prove it I pulled out my BSA COMPASS and had to show them that I was at least moving in the correct direction. Even in the dark. the countryside and little towns are beautiful. About 2 hours later, we started seeing signs of places we had been and feeling better about maybe arriving at home soon. 3:00 AM home at last. A wonderfully harrowing experience for me and now I am known as the one who stayed lost the entire trip in Italy. Honestly, I think that everyone else was lost. I FOUND MY WAY BACK, ALL BY MYSELF.
Much Love and Happiness on your next trip. I hope you have the adventure of a lifetime as we did.
Johnny
