Tuscan Dream

Today was a day of almost pure bliss. I did the adventurous thing and suggested we rent a car and drive the Tuscan countryside a while back. It got such a good response from everyone that we ended up renting two. My car was the old style station wagon a la Fiat car. Nice ride! I had 5 sitting in the seats comfortably and 2 in the back just like when we were in my grandparent's car as kids. The other car was also a Fiat, but smaller and only barely seating 5 more. We went out only with the plan to go to Pisa. Florence was a hopeful excursion, but we mainly wanted to drive along the rolling hills with the beautiful scenery, fresh air, and see the sunflowers. We hoped to stop at a winery or two and maybe grab a nice lunch with some beautiful overlook scenery at a local dive. No plan though and just driving along following a map that only hinted as to where the roads would be. I was told that roads lead into towns and its pretty much an eventful drive no matter what. We had a tech run to start since we had a show tonight and then we were off on our excursion about 11:00 AM. Six of us started out in a cab and it all went smooth getting to the rental office at the other port and picking up the car. I began to get a little nervous about driving in Italy since this was a bit out of my comfort zone. We ran into a snag since no cab driver wanted to take the other 6 just to another port. Cabbies were being snobbish and only taking people planning full day excursions with them. How rude. Well, the other 6 finally got there after about 20 minutes of side tracking and picked up their car. We were on the road to Pisa roughly around 11:45 AM. It was a nice drive on the freeway. You really appreciate American drivers no matter how rude they can be out here because it seems as though people out here follow their own set of driving rules. It was kind of nerve-racking for a bit besides not knowing how to read a single sign. We had a rough knowledge of Italian markings and indications. We got to Pisa and that's where the fun driving started. We found the entrance to the central city and now we had to find the actual tower. We drove through many traffic circles and for many a time I felt like I was in "National Lampoon's European Vacation" every time I approached a traffic circle. You had to make a decision quickly or you would get stuck circling around in one or just making a flat out wrong turn. After some shuffling around, we finally saw what we were scouting for and parked the car. My car was lucky enough to find a spot just down the street of the main sight. The other had to go around the block a bit. We posed in many ways with the leaning tower, had some good Italian pizza and gelato, scoured the grounds and took it all in for a while. There were loads of tourists here so we didn't want to be there long. A little history behind Pisa is that construction began in 1173 by Bonanno Pisano and Giovanni di Simone finished it 99 years later. From what I remember on my last visit in 2000 the whole ground is soft and sandy so everything leans in Pisa including the surrounding buildings and churches. The tower is just so apparent. My last visit in 2000 was also very different since it rained all day AND the tower was tied up. It was under restoration so no one could go inside of it and there were massive cables holding it up so it wouldn't fall over. Today there were no cables. It was totally free standing AND people could go inside. It was so crowded that I didn't have this luxury. It was great just being there again. We left out of Pisa and started on our Tuscan journey. We decided at this point that Florence (another BIG city and tourist attraction) was too far to fathom and probably too populated to enjoy for what we wanted to do so we just decided to go for a drive and see what we could find. There was a lovely town about 30 minutes away that we decided to make a destination and see what we could find. It was called San Miniato. We ran into a little directional snag here and we lost communication with the other car. During this whole trip today we were communicating through walkie-talkies. It was pretty fun up until the second car missed their turn onto the expressway just after leaving Pisa. We got out of range and there was nothing we could do. We continued on the expressway and they continued on the side roads. Later we exited the expressway and took the side roads and we found out later they took the expressway. Miraculously we ended up at the same place and got back into communication. My car ended back on the expressway for the short drive from Castelfranco di Sotto to San Miniato. We found them there exchanged a few annoyances about following direction and left that frustration behind us since we were so overwhelmed by the beauty of this place. It was typical, or what I imagine to be typical, Tuscany. The clay roofs and earthy homes stacked along the hillside. It gave us gorgeous views of vineyards and rolling hills lush with greenery. We wandered through the streets taking photos before we decided we should press on. We wanted to stop at an authentic Tuscan café or restaurant for a nice sit down meal, but decided we should do that later due to the time constraint and the time already lost with the morning mishap and the times we got lost. So we drove south with the destination toward Volterra. We passed through so many beautiful places and vineyards and little towns. One in particular was Castelfiorentino. All these towns are quaint and rich with beautiful acres of green and sometimes sunflower patches. Due to the winding roads and the inclines, we decided to detour to take a shorter loop around Certaldo. We headed west and found a vineyard that was selling wine so we stopped immediately. It turns out they just closed for the day. Here in the Mediterranean everyone has their siesta time. This would be no exception. We kept on and into the city of Gambassi Terme. Here we made a stop because one of our girls said there was a beautiful fountain here we should see and we could catch our dinner here. It was about 3:00pm at this point and I was slightly nervous about a huge sit-down dinner. It turns out it was teatime anyway. All lunches had closed up for the day and dinner didn't start until 6:00pm. The only offerings were sandwiches, pastries, beer, and pizza. We did what we had to do since some only had a snack way back in Pisa around noonish. We hung out here for a while just taking it all in before embarking on our return trip to Livorno. This return trip was THE most beautiful trip of all the driving we did today. We came upon a mountainous area around a town called Montaione that was breathtaking to the point it took my breath away. There are those moments in life where you walk into a situation or place and you reach a level of happiness so overwhelming you get moved to tears. This would be one of those experiences just like the day I walked into San Marco Plaza in Venice. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was like looking at a living painting. Suddenly the sunflower patches were vast and the flowers themselves were huge. We didn't have time to stop and wander through them like we wanted, but it was so nice to take the afternoon and drive through these areas. We passed more towns like Peccioli and Campannoli that were equally beautiful before we encountered the interstate again. It was so overwhelmingly beautiful and relaxing at the same time, which was good since it was about 5:50pm when we found the interstate in Pontedera. From here it was another 20 minutes to the car terminal in Livorno. We got in a cab and were back on board by 7:00pm. Whew! Just made it. We then got ready for our two shows. Whoa!! I'm completely exhausted now. This was a day to remember.