Yesterday was a lot of time on the road. It was a beautiful, sunny day
again in Italia! We left Poggibonsi and drove to San Galgano, where the
"real" sword in the stone is! Look up the story, kids. It's kind of
interesting. We saw the arm bones of a man who tried to pull San
Galgano's sword out of the stone. He was unsuccessful but a wolf friend
of San Galgano saw him try to do it and chewed off his arms. Carbon
dating shows that they are from that time period.
Then we traveled on to Bomarzo where we saw the Orsini Monster Garden.
If anyone sees Mac, tell him that we think he should design either a
Collodi Garden, or a Bomarzo Monster Garden. (and I have trouble just
planting and growing a couple of flowers! Maybe I should go for the
Monster Garden.) It was great seeing it, but a lot of walking. I
hadn't eaten much all day, so my sugar began plummeting. Fortunately
there was a snack bar nearby.
Then it was on to our hotel. We thought we were going to get there by
around 7 or 8PM. We called ahead and reserved a room (aren't cell
phones great!). We were doing great until we came to our exit, where
we had to pay our toll. There we met with 30 lanes of bumper-to-bumper,
shoulder-to-shoulder cars all vying for 15 toll booths! Unbelievable!
And, once you made it through the toll booths, those 15 lanes of cars
had to funnel into two lanes of highway!! Then, the GPS lady couldn't
decide which way we should go, so that took even more time! (I am still
not getting along with her very well! She can't make up her mind about
anything! And, by the time we got to the hotel, Lonnie was ready to
throw her out of the car also!!) Needless to say, we did not make it
to the hotel until around 10PM. By that time, I was absolutely
starving!! I scarfed down my veal scallopina while Lonnie was trying
to eat his salad (with the vinegar and oil on it - he is more of a Ranch
Dressing man). Then, when he didn't eat all of his pasta, the poor
waiter was upset that he didn't like it. Didn't have to worry about
that with my meal. I loved it! (Side note - apparently Trippa
Fionentina doesn't kill you because it has been over 24 hours and no
food poisoning - but that doesn't mean that I would eat it again!!
because I would not intentionally do that!!)
I have been telling Lonnie how much I admire his driving skills! I
would have been a nervous wreck trying to drive in some of the places we
have been! Especially the mountain roads. But even the small and
large towns pose a challenge. There are motorbikes everywhere (they
drive on the white lines between cars) as well as people walking in
front of you (pedestrians always have the right of way), car doors
opening in front of you (people pretty much park where they want to -
even on one lane roads), and 5 vehicles trying to drive in two lanes.
And forget about lane markers. People just drive wherever they want.
It would take us forever to get anywhere if I was trying to drive!
However, Lonnie does not do as well backing (in Gatlinburg he backed
into a tree - on the Grossglockener a few years back, he backed into a
boulder - this time it was a chain fence at the hotel.) Yes, the car
company will definitely notice the damage, even though a small scratch
on the bumper! They pointed something out to us that we couldn't see
when we rented the car, so I know they will see this! Oh well, maybe
that will be our only incident this trip!
Now it is off to the train station to ride into Rome (neither of us want
to drive here!) Catch ya later!
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