An Adventure in Tuscany

Simonetta invited Angela, my mom and I to her country home in Tuscany for the weekend. We were simply to get on the train to Orbatello, where she would pick us up and then drive us to her home. Well...we bought the right tickets, but got on the wrong train! Please note that Orte is not short for Orbatello. After a 2 hour train ride, we got off and realized we were in the wrong place. We called Simonetta and worked out a solution, we would take another train to Vitterbo which was out of her way, but would get us closer than we were. Since the train wasn't for another hour and a half we decided to make the best of it and drink a bottle of wine and laugh about the situation.

Once we made it to Vitterbo, Simonetta picked us up and off we went. We stopped in the town of Toscania, a quaint little medieval village, and had a wonderful dinner at a no-named restaurant run by two old Italian ladies. There was no menu and only 3 options for each course. I had gnocchi al cacio e pepe, and I have to say it was the best cacio e pepe I have had! After indulging in 2 courses, plus bread, we all decided we should walk around the ancient city. Needless to say we got very lost, and ended up walking for about an hour, asking every Italian we saw "Dov'e Via Roma?" With each Italian giving us a different response. Eventually we found the car, and off we went to Simonetta's country home about 3km from the beautiful Tuscan coast.

After a good night's rest, we woke up and got ready to soak up the Tuscan sun. Simonetta

needed to finish up some things around her property, so she got one of her local friends to take us to the beach. Carino, chef/handyman/musician, picked us up and off we went to the beach. It really was like a scene from a movie. Two Americans, a Colombian and a crazy old Italian man speeding along the the winding Tuscan roads in a tiny little blue car listening to the traditional music of Abruzzo. We spent the rest of the morning relaxing in the sun, enjoying life.

It was a humerous weekend which I thoroughly enjoyed!