Buon Giurno, Tuscany!

Tuesday Events: Today started somewhere over the North Atlantic with Laura and I on a Delta Airlines flight heading for Paris. We watched the Kevin Costner movie 'Swing Vote' in the first part of the flight. Laura managed to sleep quite soundly and I managed some light sleep during the flight. We landed without incident at Charles De Gaulle International and disembarked.

We understood that getting through the Paris Airport could be task, especially since we were having to change terminals to a regional jet concourse separate from the 'heavies AND didn't have any boarding passes for our flight from Paris to Florence. We DID have a map from the website telling us how to manage this feat of navigation. As it turned out, we found an electronic kiosk soon after leaving the plane that gave us our boarding passes and the map turned out to be perfectly clear. We got to the other terminal without any difficulty.

While we were waiting, I navigated the cafe line and managed to order a piece of quiche lorraine, quiche Provincal, two bottles of Perrier and a chocolate macaroon entirely in French. If they had any eclaires I would have ordered one -- but I was rather proud of myself for getting my in my horrible French.

We arrived in Florence around 1:30 pm local time in the middle of a downpour -- and were early at that. Gratefully, there was Anna and Nicola with a pair of drivers to pick us up. (Laura and I were much surprised that there was no 'border passport' check. No one asked for a passport when we entered Italy ... they just had us get into a line of either 'Nothing to Declare' of 'Declaration.' We walked through the line expecting to meet a wall of passport inspectors ... instead we found ourselves in the terminal.) Anna speak English very well (although sometimes I think she had a hard time with our accent) and is actually born and raised in Lucca. An hour's drive later, and we were approaching the ancient Vaughban fortress walls of that beautiful city.

We were driven through the narrow, rain-slick cobblestone streets to the Hotel Universo across the square from the Opera House. Puchini was born here and so their Opera tradition is very strong and deep. Our hotel also borders the Piazza Napolione -- which I knew from my research on Google Earth. It is a charming old hotel fitted with the most modern conveniences ... including the wireless internet that I am writing the entry on right now.

Laura always wants to get out as soon as we find ourselves in a new and exciting place, so on with the shoes and out the door ... into a deluge. The rain had become a near waterfall. Undaunted, we sallied forth to find a power adapter. With the guidance of our helpful front desk woman we were able to find a hardware shop that had exactly what we needed. I managed to complete THAT transaction in my lousy Italian ... again, much to my relief. By then the rain had nearly stopped. It was time to buy Laura a gelato and go for some serious walking. We explored a number of the streets in the town, coming to the west end and then mounting the walls and walking along them as the street lights came on. The wide walls of the ancient fortress are now a park and what a wonderful walk that was.

We came back to the hotel and are now awaiting dinner at 8:30 pm with Larry Elmore and our hosts. We are looking forward to it ... and to some serious exploration tomorrow!

Musings: How marvelous that we can come half way around the world and still be (almost) understood.