We drove in the pouring rain to Tuscany. Lisa and Ty hooked us up at the Hilton Grand Vacations Resort in Terriciola. We had a fantastic couple of days.
A local bakery delivers fresh pastries each morning. I told them to say “formaggio!” They laughed and did. I asked them what Italians say when taking photos. Cheese! Haha.
It was pretty easy finding parking at the train station. Whew. Jim and Ty were out parking the car and local police were doing passport checks inside the station. I recently cleaned out my purse and my passport copy did not make it back in. I remembered though that I had sent our last vrbo host pictures of our passports and dug that up. I do not want to carry my passport around because I will definitely lose it. They gave us a thumbs up. Meanwhile, Jim and Ty returned. The officer was not happy with Jim’s photo that he took, lucky that I had his too. Cleared, we headed off to Florence.
The train was a double-decker! It was really hot upstairs, and the windows were obscured, so we headed back downstairs to enjoy the ride.
We took a Rick Steves audio walking tour – we learned a lot! We did all the touristy things. We slaked our thirst nearby and headed back. Drats! Somehow my return ticket is lost. Luckily, there is a tap and go. The instructions say to tap at the beginning and then tap again at the station when you get out. We hop on the train and head back. I think I was charged twice, so hang onto your tickets folks!
We managed to escape the rain during our touring. It started pouring again later that day. And then it just did NOT stop. In the morning we had an enormous thunderstorm and words cannot describe the amount of rain that came down. Oh, yes, I guess they can. They had in six hours, the amount of rain that they get for an entire month!
There was a weather window, we decided to take it. We toured both Pisa and Lucca – the weather window held. We drove around the countryside and headed back. We were astonished at the amount of flooding. Water was shooting up out of a manhole like a fountain. Firetrucks we found out later, were evacuating people. I read in the news that the day that we toured Florence, they closed schools due to the flooding and the day we were in Pisa and Lucca, they were evacuating folks. We had no idea! Meanwhile, the dumb tourists are driving around!
The next morning we packed up, headed to the nearby hilltop town of Perriciola, and we’re off to Mestre. It is the town right outside of Venice.
paleremo presto
Looks awesome sorry we missed this leg of your journeys.
So much fun and weather luck!