There is a little bit of content tonight that might be classified MA. Nothing to worry about, but just letting you know
The day started cool and gloomy.
We were leaving La Gruccia to head to Florence (or Firenze in the local lingo) this morning, so I checked the weather forecast, hoping for something better than gloomy.
Rain. 98% chance of it.
I’d be happy with those odds if I was buying a ticket in a $100m Powerball draw, but I’m not impressed for rain.
So we had a problem today, other than just the weather.
We had told Cinzia we planned to leave around 10.00am because the trip to Florence on the SR222 is about 50km (1.5 hours), and we can’t check in to Laura’s apartment until 1.00pm … and the maths doesn’t work.
So we were going to have to drive slowly and make plenty of stops.
Unfortunately we were bathed, fed, packed, done the daily “Connections” puzzle, and Claude loaded by 9.00am, which makes the maths even worse.
We noticed that Claude is very dirty, so the rain might help.
We said goodbye to Cinzia and handed back the keys, and listened to her babble in Italian for a while. Once again, we have no idea what she said.
MBW – the little researcher that she is – said that Greve in Chianti is a nice place to visit, so we aimed for that.
I stuck to the speed limit, much to the chagrin of the cars stuck behind me, although I did pull off the road regularly to let them pass.
Before we got to Greve in Chianti, we went through Panzano in Chianti and MBW spotted some markets.
Parking was problematic, so I drove through the township to turn around, but that wasn’t possible to achieve safely for some time.
But we turned around and headed back, and found a free parking station. Locked Claude and went off walking.
Not a great deal to see, but it killed some time. As we were walking back we passed a food truck selling all kinds of interesting stuff, so we paid €5.50 and bought some hot, deep-fried and salty potato things, onion rings, deep-fried vegetables, fried polenta, and chicken wings.
It was hardly 10.00am and it probably wasn’t the wisest choice for one of us with borderline high blood pressure, but we all have to die of something.
And I’ve survived French and Italian drivers so far, so deep-fried food at 10.00 o’clock in the morning should be a walk in the park.
I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you, but the food was great and filled a space.
A space which – BTW – I didn’t even know I had.
We got back into Claude and continued on to Greve in Chianti only to find a very busy little township with lots of people and cars moving around, and nowhere to park. We drove around for a while and decided it was too much effort, so kept going towards Florence.
By this time it was about 11.00 and we only had about 19km remaining before Florence, and the maths were getting worse.
So MBW checked on the Intergoogle again and found a coffee and pastry shop up ahead that got good reviews, so we asked Josephine to take us there.
That was in Strada in Chianti. I don’t know what the “in Chianti” in every township name means, but I’ll look it up later.
The coffee and croissants were indeed very good and quite cheap – about €7.50 total. We’ve paid more than that just for two cups of bad coffee.
And the place was hopping, which always gives me confidence.
And they had a toilet, so it was a trifecta.
We’ve noticed a strange thing about pharmacies in France, and now in Italy. They nearly always have a condom vending machine installed outside.
I don’t know if condoms are the most important item they sell, or if they are trying to discourage population growth.
If you don’t know what a condom is, I’m not explaining it here. Ask your parents.
Anyhow, from Strada in Chianti it was a straight run to Florence, and we got into our AirBNB just on 1.00pm.
We have a pasta making course tonight and we’ll be getting home late, so that will be tomorrow’s news.
Ciao
#Europe2025