Tuscany 2017 - Day 1

Saturday, 15 July 2017

11:08 a.m., 18 °C, it finally starts: odometer reading 139,552 km

The tank is full, the bladder is empty.

The people involved in this holiday trip are well-known: Lisa and Herbert. And also Christian, Bettina and Ella. You could almost say "same procedure as every year". But it's been a few years since we were in the promised land together. In 2014, to be precise, what a shame!

This time it is not a rally but a pursuit race, although the pursuit is not a real one, because we start about 7 hours apart. The good, but in this respect somewhat crazy, Tullners want to set off at 4:00 a.m.

In principle, that's good because then they'll be in the area on time, cook good food, decant the wine, chill the beer, so it's something. But 4 a.m.?

The satnav says it's 6:18 p.m. With a few breaks, I estimate we should be there at 7.

We've barely got on the motorway but we find ourselves in the first construction site, Graz East-Graz West. Well, this could still be fun. The reason is quite banal. Work is being carried out on the construction site, and the concrete is being broken up in a very martial manner with a so-called "cutter", which maltreats the concrete with a guillotine-like axe. The Carinthian construction company calls the thing "Kutter", but there is no water in sight anywhere...

By the time we get to Pack we have made up for the time we lost. There is drizzle on Lake Wörthersee and it is still 18°C in Villach. As always, we cross the border quickly, there is only a short traffic jam at the toll booth and off we go into the Val Canale. Driving, driving on the motorway. It goes quickly and without any problems. In Udine it is only 17°C and heavy rain sets in. A kilometer-long band of gray clouds stretches across the country and moves in the direction of Slovenia/Croatia. We drive under it and stop at the next rain-free rest area.

Then the satnav shows us our new arrival time as 9:44 p.m. Exciting.

But the many construction sites and accidents around Bologna are, as always, just fake and it is only before we get to Florence that we are really stuck in a traffic jam. There are now two routes between Bologna and Florence. One new route through the mountain and one over the "Panoramica" mountain. We choose the old, familiar route, which is currently being improved.

Just before Florence the traffic jam clears and we quickly head over the Fi-Pi-Li to Montopoli and then directly over a steep, bumpy dirt road to Villa Casabella . Odometer reading 140,256 km, exactly 704 km from home.

Unlike usual, the K's come to meet us and show us our annex. A room half under the pool, from the outside like a hobbit cave. Really casual and nice and cool. And the whole property is very, very dignified and tastefully designed and furnished.

Children in the pool, the house owners bring antipasti and wine, what more could you want.

Then another wine and another wine and spaghetti con ragu. And another wine. And gift giving, I get 3 bottles from my homeland in Lower Austria (Weißgipfler and Sauvignon Blanc), but they probably won't survive until they're transported home. I give Christian the photo-etched parmesan grater and matching cut-resistant gloves 😊.

In the evening, the lawn is watered in different zones, staggered and automatically via the sprinkler system. The house's dog and cat visit us again and again and the cicadas chirp constantly. You just have to ignore that.

The garden is subtly lit and so the glasses are not emptied until around 1 a.m. Buona notte.