Okay – so I can’t use the excuse that I’m catching up on all I missed while we were away. Nor can I use the holidays as an excuse for being to busy to write. What does that leave me, nothing. It’s time to sit down to tell the tale.
I find my notes pretty fuzzy for the first few days, heck as far as I know, maybe for the entire trip so I’m going to wing a bunch of this from memory. I apologize upfront for any SBS (Sieve Brain Syndrome) I may have.
Let me start with the background. Our players include me, Chris (my husband of many years and the bearer of the brunt of all my tantrums), Becky (our eldest, age 10) and Sammi our youngest (age 7). Well, that’s our family anyway. One day into our journey our friends Steph, Rick and their daughter Allison (age 10) join us.
We know Steph and Rick through our daughters who met at age three in nursery school. Steph is actually the only mother to introduce herself to me as we waited for our kids outside the school at afternoon pickup. We soon began carpooling, since we live a bit more than a block a part, and became friends. Rick and Chris became friends by default.
We’ve planned this trip since Chris and I returned from our June 2002 trip. Rick traveled through parts of Italy as a young man, Steph and Al have never been. I promised myself that I wouldn’t do another trip for “virgins” (i.e., the big 3 with all the same sights) but instead plan a trip we want to take and invite any virgins along with us. Steph’s the virgin on this trip and in only this way does she qualify as one ;).
One note on the weather, we expected rain for the first three days but it never was consistent – just spotty showers, which we somehow managed to avoid. Temperatures in Rome were in the 60s, in Tuscany, a bit cooler maybe high 50’s. Tuscany was Sunny every day but Friday – perfect touring weather.
Okay – so that’s enough background. On to the show.
