I gave Carla and I a half dose of Zquil the night before to make sure we slept through the night and to get us on the correct time zone as soon as possible. We went to bed at 11pm and set the alarm for 8am thinking that would be more than enough asleep. When the alarm went off at 8am I felt totally disoriented and sat there for a minute thinking about how long I could still lay there before I needed to get out of bed, when the room phone ringing totally jarred me awake.
The front desk man said, ‘Hello, the airline called and said they have your bags. I have them on the other line now and I let them know that you have a late check out at 4pm and they can deliver the bags anytime before then.’ My mind immediately though, oh no, I said a 4pm check-out, but really we wanted to be on the road by 2pm with our rental car. I said, ‘Hi, actually, we need the bags by noon, we may be leaving earlier.’ He said, ‘Yes, of course, I will tell them now.’
With that wake-up, I jumped out of bed and started getting ready so that we could be down at breakfast no later than 8:45am. Pulling Carla out of her bed seemed harder than expected. Turns out, she was obsessed with the King Sized down pillows and didn’t want to leave them or her bed. I think the princess life was taking hold and gently reminded her that Florence adventure awaited us outside this hotel and we needed to be at the Accademia Museum by 9:45am for our 10:00am appointment. With that she laughed and reluctantly pulled herself away. Within 45 minutes we were both downstairs and in the beautful breakfast room overlooking their winter garden downstairs.
The spread was off the charts and you could easily get lost in the numerous choices along the length of the longest wall. I went for my old standby omelette and a few sausages with a cappucino. Carla was in heaven taking choices from several beautiful stations and savoring each bite and then going back for seconds before finishing with a piping hot crossaint. I looked at her and thought, should I tell her? That a trip to Italy is a marathon not a sprint? That you have to pace yourself with the food or you will burn out too soon in the trip and decide you can’t even look at another piece of bread or plate of pasta for several days. I watched her so gleeful and excited over this breakfast experience and just let her run wild and smiled inside letting her relish these moments. Hey, no one told me anything on my first few trips and it is better to just figure it out on your own with the innocence of one having their first awakening that a world like this exists. In those moments consequences of calories or the thought of over indulgence don’t seem to matter or exist. I have been there many, many times and still love to land there on occasion.
On our way out of the hotel we dropped off our keys and the bellman said, ‘Look your bags have arrived.’ And like a dream, the handsome bellman in dreamy St. Regis bellman attire came floating towards us towing our two bags. ‘May I bring these up to your room?’ “Yes, please.” Oh what a sight for sore eyes. When your bags have been lost, in the back of your brain you start mentally preparing yourself for the fact you may not see them again the rest of the trip and can you really switch back and forth between your travel outfit and the spare outfit for the week? Just when you are at the place, were you realize you can, your bags arrive and you are so grateful for the all of your ‘options’ returned to you in a moment.
We then headed over to the Accademia museum to see David. We had appointments so were able to walk right in. We had downloaded a 28-minute Rick Steve’s tour for the museum and popped in our iPhonrd to take in ‘just enough’ info about the museum and of course, the masterpiece of the statue, David, that Michelangelo carved from marble when he was 26 over the course of 2 years. This is the second time I have seen this astonishing piece of art and it once again took my breath away. You can’t help but to feel complete awe standing next to a work of art that seems impossible and is so a polished and complete displaying the artist’s portrayal of David as a shepherd boy about to slay the giant, Goliath with a smooth stone from his sling shot. Every detail is amazing from the veins in his arms, to his finger nail beds, to his furrowed brow that makes you think this is the moment he decides to take on Goliath.
Once we were done with the tour, we walked around Florence a bit to do some leather shopping. Many shops look very similar and carry the same items. We probably browsed through 6-8 stores and enjoyed the brisk walk that morning through the streets of Florence. It is so amazing to be here this time of year, with the toursit population down about 80% and seeing everyone in their winter jackets and coats. Such a contrast from when I was here last the summer before in July with the sweltering heat and every other person, licking on a dripping gelato. I was enjoying the contrast of this view and Carla was still in her this-feels-like-I-am-walking-around-a-movie-set mode. We walked the last leg along the Arno River and she was able to see the Ponte Vecchio on the way back to the hotel.
We needed to pick up the car by 12:30pm as the rental agency closed by 1pm, so we headed back to the hotel quickly to see our bags and hug them and for me to pull out of the safe the things I needed for the car rental – the passport, the international driver’s license, etc. Fantastically, the car rental place was also about a block and a half from where we were staying and it was only a 5 minute walk. We showed up to the counter where there was a sea of people who all had ‘numbers’ – like at the bakery – and were awaiting their turn. I thought, okay, we are in no hurry, we can wait. So we waited, and waited, and waited…and the three stations at the counter never seemed to move through people. at one point I asked Carla, ‘Are they buying cars or renting cars?’
I remembered in the past when I have rented from this location, I just go straight to the garage and get someone to help me there. I told Carla to wait as I headed that way and I would motion her over if I had success. Bingo. I headed there, and a woman immediately helped me. Not only that she said, “We would like to upgrade you into a Land Rover. It will feel more ‘prestigious’ for you.’ Wow, okay, ‘Sure, that would be great.’
While we waited for them to bring it around. We were watching the folks that had been at the counter for a ridiculous amount of time now trying to take possession of their cars. One was a father/son team picking up the car. The dad had on these weird jelly shoes with no socks. We just coudn’t figure these two out. It was so hard to not laugh as they went around and around their car no less than 10 times wishing to point out every scratch and blemish on what looked like a beat up grey mini-van. They had been the same team that had left and come back to the counter 3 times with their paperwork. We just couldn’t figure out why it seemed so hard for them and they kept lingering.
They finally pulled away and revealed these other two guys that were about 6’2”-ish each and had been at the counter also for 30 minutes. It was a sight to see them both crammed into what seemed like the smallest car you could legally drive on the road. It looked like these two huge guys were in a toy car and trying to make it go forward. The sight of this threw us into another fit of giggles and we couldn’t stop laughing. The Hertz car people wondered what was wrong with us and I’m sure then hurried up the delivery of our own car. Within minutes our car pulled up and we happily piled in, got a few instructions and drove back to the hotel to pick up our bags.
Aldo, met us out front and said, ‘Oh yes, you are the two girls. I have been waiting for you. Just pull your car up right here and I can hold it for you for one hour with no charge.’ We were so happy to hear this as it would give us a chance to get back up to our rooms and get what we wanted out of our newly arrived luggage. And I thought, while we were at it, order some more coffee service for the road from Beatrice. Truly, staying just this one night at the St. Regis had been delightful and we felt refreshed and ready for our drive to the farm house in the Val D’Orcia of Tuscany.
Getting out of Florence was pretty easy and didn’t take long and the drive out there was beautiful. It was less than two hours before I was pulling back up that familiar gravel drive of Cretaiole (the name of the farm house I had stayed at the summer before with Dana). I was thrilled to be back on this land and literally wanted to be pinching myself that we would get to be there for the entire week.
They showed us to our room #7 El Pollo (as it used to be the chicken house on the farm). It was beautifully appointed and quaint with fresh farm products laid out on the kitchen table, meant to hold us over for a few days as we got settled. Other travelers were also arriving now in one of the 7 apartments they had on this site. We wondered who we would be meeting this week and were expectant of a great group.
After we unpacked the room, we headed out of our apartment door and there she was walking toward us, ‘Isabella.’ The sleek co-owner and mastermind behind this, the oldest agriturismo in Pienza. She is a City girl from Milan who had married into this family that owns the land. Isabella and her husband Carlo have built the tourist business they have today where they welcome guests almost year round on to this little slice of heaven. Since Dana and I had left the year before, we couldn’t stop thinking about this ultimate Italian couple almost to the point of where she felt like a star in my mind as she walked up towards us. I stopped short of asking her for an autograph. Ha, ha. Just kidding, but that is what it felt like maybe I should do. In an odd way, it felt like seeing a member of my long lost Italian family again.
Okay, moment was over and we headed to Pienza for dinner at the only place that would take a 6pm reservation. We wanted to get to bed early and get back to our room so we could light our fire and relax and I was ready to do some blogging. This dinner place had 6 tables max and there was one guy in there working the whole place. Somehow it works. I had been there the year before, so I knew it was good. We ordered a bottle of wine (cheaper than 2 glasses of wine), split a meat and cheese board an then had our entrees. Carla had lasagna and I had wild boar tagliatelle. Both were so good and we stayed, chatted, and laughed there for three hours. We couldn’t believe the time went so fast. We grew up together so we had so many stories to recall from our past that kept us engaged for hours. We were also enjoying watching the clientele walk in and out. We were the first 2 to arrive that night and the last 2 to leave. It was an amazing first night in Pienza.
We headed back to the farm house where I built a fire in our fire place and we both relaxed trying to get warm. The cottage felt a little chilled as the heat hadn’t totally kicked in yet and the temps outside were in the 30’s. I blogged my first entry while Carla texted her peeps back home. When I was done, she read the blog back and laughed, and laughed, and laughed. It was so fun to recall just day one and we both were so excited for what was ahead.