Better Late than Never...
Today is Saturday, June 23,2012. We owe you all a big apology. We had no access to the internet and by the time we would get to a city that might have an internet store, we would be too excited about what we were seeing (or shopping ), we would not have time to work on it. So here is the scoop. MaryCae and Melissa left for Venice yesterday (Friday). Melissa was to fly home on Saturday and Lenny Williams flew in to join MC. They will be staying in Bologna for a few days. Meanwhile, the Marzolfs and the Weabers drove to another home in Tuscany. It is so big here, if any of you want to quickly fly over, you can stay with us until Friday. At any rate,Mary and I now have internet access at our current abode and will update you all on our adventures. We will be able to incorporate a few photos taken with this computer but alas, my son's wonderful explanation on how to download photos from our cameras has left my brain. When we get home, we will add our favorite photos. So, here we go again..... Dotty Saturday, June 16 Today we took both cars and drove and drove and drove until we arrived at the wonderful villa in Umbria. At first we could not find the key but MaryCae did a second sweep and tada! , she found the key. What a lovely home! Melissa ran through through house, openning shutters and greeting our new abode. Now came the time when we said good bye to Herb and Ken. We all had new adventures to attend to and so they begain. The four fearless women led by the brave and knowlegable MaryCae, drove off to Todi, the nearest large, mountain top city. Our first stop was a grocery store. What fun we had, checking out how the pricing worked and how the products were packaged and deciding what to buy. As we were about to drive back to our house, we decided to walk up the hill into the walled city of Todi. WELL, we walked forever. Up and up and up we climbed. This introduction to the intricacies of walled cities was perfect. We noticed variations of brickwork in the buildings as well as the roads. There were many shrines recessed into walls. Around each bend of the road another beautiful view of the buildings or of the valley below would greet us. We often stopped to study gardens and tried to name the various plants and trees, etc. Finally we arrived in the Plaza. We sat in an outdoor area and ordered a bit of food and drink. We decided to start our trek back to the car, but chose a different route...mostly stairs...many, many steps. Down, down, down we went..first to the right and then to the left. We were trying to guess where we would exit the walls in relation to the car. And then, we were through a gate and less than a block from the car. Whew, we were more clever than we had hoped. Back into the car and away MaryCae sped..Down the roads and then up into the twisting roads of the beautiful hills and finally back to our house. Mary cooked a wonderful pasta meal, we had wine and were so happy to be in such a great place with our good friends.