Alas, Two and a Half Days in Volterra/Tuscany!

      Ahhh is what I thought after we landed in Rome, and while we were driving in our rental car somewhat north toward Florence on the A-1 highway. Everything seemed organized, clean and planned. Even the endless fields of  sunflowers on the right stood all in a row like child-soldiers at attention. Their flower faces pointed in the direction of the 6pm sunlight.... It was striking and odd as I sharply remember " lights out" in Costa Rica at precisely this same time.  Hmm Costa Rica has all that lush beauty but the sun shuts it down shortly after sunset just before 6. Such a switch, Whoa, the extended day! I kept slapping myself in the arm. Almost like I could not believe where we were. Pinching myself would have been too harsh as this was a pleasure trip after all! In the back seat, I caught a hidden glimpse of my daughter, Siena, dancing in her seat to the music on the stereo. She was a happy kid though tired...she did not know she had jet lag yet. Liam, our 16 year-old had the unimpressed look he usually does but this time it had a little half grin. I believe it was meant to be unseen by us. We were joyous, stopping at the Auto grill and getting new sodas in our favorite flavors: Lemon, orange, and strawberry-kiwi.  Buying a road map, getting cheeses and just fooling around. We were so enamored with arriving that we were unaware of the fact that we jumped into the car and nearly drove straight to Florence.
    With Bill behind the wheel and tired me in the passenger seat, we were destined to get lost. All the while, we did not realize that we were having a beautiful homemade Italian dinner made for us. Nadia had messaged us while we were in flight that she would have dinner ready once we arrived. Wish we had checked email and even logged-in to touch base with the world. Made sense, 4:00 arrival, 3 hour drive. We should have arrived just in time. Nadia was making a zucchini parmesan with a savory tomato sauce, mushroom quiche with a flaky-feathery crust, and a traditional Farro salad complete with capers, hard-boiled egg, olives, mini salamis mixed with balsamic vinaigrette and garnished with full leaves of Basil (so beautiful, I had to take a picture! see below). And Selene's father, Raphelle was visiting, too. Nope, we never knew and we never made it for dinner. Instead, we drove back from Arezzo and"back tracked" across Tuscany the longest way possible until, we found Siena, our daughter's namesake. We got out of the car, made a pit stop and called dear, sweet Nadia to apologize for our delay. That's when we found out that what we missed. Oh dear! We felt horrible! We knew we had an hour's drive but it was already 11pm. Yikes! So, with Siena super proud to see her name everywhere she went...the hospital, the pharmacy, the street signs, we jetted off to Volterra. We were surprised when we arrived that at midnight, there were still so many people walking the streets, returning home from a night out...my kinda town, I thought! After we crested the hill of Volterra, our quest was to find this little jewel of house, built to look old just like it's neighbors...we found it, surrounded by olive groves and vineyards on the back hill of the quaint yet, glorious city. Nadia met us in the street and motioned for us to park. Her newer home was beautiful, modern in it's effectiveness to conserve energy resources yet, old in conforming to municipal mandates that the home be built in a stone-faced, traditional style. Perfect. We were so tired, we were ready for bed...the sleep of one thousand years. We spoke with Nadia for a while and apologized for the missed opportunity and she politely commented with a smile "oh, no worry, it will be great for Lunch tomorrow!" what a relief! Nadia informed us that we had a big day together. We would be learning about the house and the community in the morning. Rest was in order.
     Morning broke with bright sunlight and lavender-scented air. Heaven for me. After a light, European breakfast, we headed to town taking in all the sights of what Medieval life left behind: Squared, cobblestone roads, flags of the contradas hanging high along the paths, Bell towers, Italian word spoken, smiling friends of Nadia greeting us. Nadia and this opportunity were truly heaven-sent. In one morning, we registered Siena for school at San Lino, visited the Medieval festival coordinators, met with hardware store owners, sought out the best public water supply source, paused at the dance and musical schools locations and got to know the ins and outs of our new community and our new home. Whew, what a whirlwind!
In all the hustle-bustle, we realized we had not contacted anyone to say we were safe and sound plus we had no electrical appliance converters to charge all our computers and devices. Whoa, buy 'em, charge, and get communcatin'! Check!

     We settled into what dinner the night before should have been. Such a lovely aroma while it heated up! Nadia set it all up, sweet soul. Lunch was fabulous! Later, we drove

 

to return our rental car to Cecina, a beach community on the Meditteranean. Best of all worlds right at our convenience!  We were understanding what Dolce Vita meant. We have yet to eat at a restaurant. Selene, your mom is an awesome cook! In love with this location. Tomorrow, we go for a walk and explore the neighborhood, neighbors and vistas. Oh what is to come is just more dreams!