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Tuscany Trip Day 1&2

Well, we're off for our trip to Tuscany! I'll try to keep posts short and concentrate on things I think will help other travelers.

Our trip is from Saturday, December 12, 2015 to Sunday, December 20, 2015.

Day 1 - Leaving from Atlanta. The day started off in the morning by trying to get our two cats back inside. I left the door cracked since Pepper couldn't decide whether she wanted to come in or not. Francis came rushing by to come in, but there was something in her mouth. I ran and blocked her entrance, but not before she dropped a lizard just inside the door! I blocked the lizard with my foot while my wife went for a broom and dustpan. We didn't need it, the lizard ran up my leg. I scooted out the door and did the hokey pokey (left leg out, shake it all about) and he fell out and ran away.

We got both cats in and drove to Atlanta, which took an hour. They now offer reserved parking. We reserved for the week in the hourly parking, which was as cheap and offsite parking. Skymiles let us upgrade to Business Class, which was wonderful We had a nice dinner, then slept on fully reclinng seats. I think we got in about 5 1/2-6 hours sleep.

We flew into Rome, landing at 9:30 Sunday morning. FCO is well marked in English. Customs and baggage claim was fast. Hertz sent us our car information (Hertz Gold is worth it) and we were directed straight to our car, a Renault diesel.

We left FCO heading to A1. I have a newer Garmin and had ordered the Italy/Greece maps. This is well worth it. I pre-loaded the addresses of everywhere we plan to go, so we just pulled up Greve from "Saved Places" and the Garmin tooks us directly to where we are staying.

See my post, "Driving in Italy/Tuscany".

Posted by
8319 posts

Glad you finally made it to the ATL airport without incident or traffic problems. Those little pet incidents happen, which makes me lock our cat in the bath while we haul luggage to the car.
We also find Tuscany to be relatively easy to drive in, with roads well paved if a little crooked. We stayed between San Gimignano and Certaldo where virtually every farm had apartments and/or rooms for secondary income. The roads are well marked and we didn't even use road maps or GPS--and easily found our way. We love just rambling from village to village, but didn't run up on many people in the Tuscan countryside speaking English.
We especially enjoyed Volterra for 1/2 day and San Gimignano at 4:00 pm after all the tour buses were gone. But we found Siena very congested and difficult to find a parking spot in.
Just have a great time on your trip.

Posted by
11613 posts

If you have as much fun in Tuscany as I had reading your report, you'll have a great time!