A Villa in Tuscany

The Tuscan Villa, or at least one of the two...
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We finally packed up all our things and set off in the car for the Foligno station after a lovely farewell coffee in the bar at Montefalco, where we said goodbye to our new friends.

We handed back the rental car and after mooching about in the station café for a while, witnessing an Italian verbal protest at poor customer service (an experience in itself) we went to the platform. It was SOOO hot in the carriage I decided to get in at the last moment only. The windows were all shut with signs on them saying it was an air conditioned carriage, but other Italians were not at all sure that it would be working. So, when we finally set off, a group of Italian youths had worked out a way to get the windows open and there was some breeze coming in, but it was very hot breeze and did not give us any relief. We stuck this out for about 2 hours of the journey, before I ventured into the adjacent carriage to find it beautifully air-conditioned with all the windows shut!! So, we enjoyed the last half hour in relative luxury, but our lovely chocolate gifts from Perugia had suffered somewhat I fear.

The second villa, if you run out of the 7 bedrooms in the main one, plus places for 3 cars, and the wine and cheese cellars of course
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We were met in Florence by an old friend of Kathy’s – Silvana. She was just lovely and her welcome was so warm. Her husband Fabio, also was very warm. He is taller than me and ushered us to his lovely Citroen, where we loaded in our bags and set off for their Tuscan Villa. The drive on the autostrada was an experience. I was sitting in the front and witnessed Fabio almost rear ending anyone in the fast lane not doing more than 150km/hr!! Blinker on, lights flashing, get out of my way!! We sped past everyone and finally arrived at their Villa.

Kathy catches up with her dear friend Sylvana and her mother.
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Wow, this was not the country bach – it has at least 7 bedrooms, with about 5 bathrooms, multiple kitchens and lounges, set on about 2 acres of land. They had just completed a new "garage" for 3 cars, with an added bedroom, bathroom, cool room for cheeses and wines and multiple other room s for the heating, water filtration, pumping, bomb shelter, you name it..

They were so hospitable to us and Fabio’s mother, who was a chef in a restaurant for most of her life in Milan, cooked us an amazing meal which we enjoyed outside. It was lovely. Kathy was able to catch up also with Silvana’s mother, who has Alzheimers. It was very sad to see her this way, but she seemed to remember her after 32 years. We had a great meal with them and my only major botch was to ask them in Italian how many years they were going to spend on vacation in New Zealand!! It was getting late – well after midnight before we sank into bed in this lovely place.