The Cross Egypt Challenge was great, but the time flew by. More scooter time in the desert would have been great, but Vicki had been sitting in Luxor for a total of 4 days and her time there did not fly by so she was ready to go... so off we flew.
Luxor to Cairo to Rome. I think I have mentioned that the Rome airport is the worst I have ever been in for signage, service and people. I could do five pages on just the rental car event, but I will cut it short. "Your car is on level 5 and there will be someone there". Yea right. Level five was the roof, 200 cars, and the only people there were other renters wandering around trying to find a car they had never seen before. No space numbers, no nothing. I know what you're thinking, just push the remote button. Didn't work.
We eventually found the car and roared off to Villa Ceppeto (http://www.bestoftuscany.com/) with no further problems. It is nice to see green again. Vicki dropped her bags in the apartment and said "it is nice to be home" and that is the way we have come to feel about this place. I headed off to the olive orchard were I found Manuela up the ladder and she came climbing down yelling "zio Ken, zio Ken" with a tear in her eye......honest. Big hugs all around and Daniel came driving up on the tractor and more hugs. Manuela gave me the afternoon off, but told me to be at work tomorrow.
After a few days of olive picking we went on an adventure. First stop was a little winery that we found a few years ago (the second home run) to get some Grappa. They have some of the best we have ever tasted. Then we were off to find lunch in Chianti.
As we were driving on a very windy road, I hit a hole, ran off the road, hit a chianti bottle or something. Anyway, the end result was a blown tire. A really big hole on the sidewall. No problem. Find a safe place to pull off and change it. Luckily there was a place just around the bend to get off the road. I pull out the tools and start to change the deflated tire. The problem is the lug wrench will not fit the lug. I look to see if there is a hub cap covering them but there is not. Ok, just pay the big bucks, turn on the Verizon phone and call for service. Nope, no service. OK now what? Hitchhike to Gaiole in Chianti and get help. The first car, and there are not many on this road, picked us up. Nice guy and he drops us in town. The lady in the Tabac shop give us hand signals to where the mechanic is but he will not be back until after lunch. We share a nice pizza for lunch and walk down to the shop. He already knows we are coming as the Chianti telegraph in a small town has already put out the word. He does not speak English but with hand signals and smiles we work it out. He gathers some tools and we jump in his car and off we go.
When we arrive at the car he looks at the lug nut, goes back to his car and comes back with some angle needle nose pliers, reaches in and pulls off a plastic cover for the lug nut. Boy do I feel dumb. Everything works now.
It was all part of the adventure of life. We met nice people in Gaiole and more when I bought a new tire, and I have a story to tell you.
"So what do you do all day?" people ask. Most of our travels to places we have been before are much like when you travel to your second home. Some days we do nothing, some days we pick olives, some days we walk and some days we just go for rides/walks. We eat most meals in and really just enjoy being.
One day we went to Monte San Savino, the town you see out our window, to buy a few things and just walk around.
Walking down a back alley I looked in the window and saw this......
I asked through the window if I could come in and take pictures. The mechanic quickly opened the door and I found his name was Tiezzi Andrea and his passion was restoring scooters and motorcycles and turning them into high performance machines.
He explained what he had done to the 50cc Vespa engine, but to be honest I did not understand a word of the technical stuff.
Daniel had to go to Switzerland for a few days and Manuela invited us to go to Arezzo for happy hour. We had never heard of such a thing in Italy so off we went. The walking streets were packed with people when we got there at 7:30 and by the time we left at 10:00 it was all young people. Are these children old enough to be out this late? I guess I am getting old.
The happy hour bar was a very upscale place and you buy a drink and get free tapas. There was a long line of these tapas and all very, very good and they seemed to stay out all night. I was pretty much left out of the conversation as the women talked about men and pretty much had the same party line.
Luxor to Cairo to Rome. I think I have mentioned that the Rome airport is the worst I have ever been in for signage, service and people. I could do five pages on just the rental car event, but I will cut it short. "Your car is on level 5 and there will be someone there". Yea right. Level five was the roof, 200 cars, and the only people there were other renters wandering around trying to find a car they had never seen before. No space numbers, no nothing. I know what you're thinking, just push the remote button. Didn't work.
We eventually found the car and roared off to Villa Ceppeto (http://www.bestoftuscany.com/) with no further problems. It is nice to see green again. Vicki dropped her bags in the apartment and said "it is nice to be home" and that is the way we have come to feel about this place. I headed off to the olive orchard were I found Manuela up the ladder and she came climbing down yelling "zio Ken, zio Ken" with a tear in her eye......honest. Big hugs all around and Daniel came driving up on the tractor and more hugs. Manuela gave me the afternoon off, but told me to be at work tomorrow.
our view for the next 2 weeks
my buddy spotty came running out to greet us
Manuela in the olives
Wednesday market
spotty pretty much moves in with us when we come
smiling for the fire
a little foggy today
After a few days of olive picking we went on an adventure. First stop was a little winery that we found a few years ago (the second home run) to get some Grappa. They have some of the best we have ever tasted. Then we were off to find lunch in Chianti.
As we were driving on a very windy road, I hit a hole, ran off the road, hit a chianti bottle or something. Anyway, the end result was a blown tire. A really big hole on the sidewall. No problem. Find a safe place to pull off and change it. Luckily there was a place just around the bend to get off the road. I pull out the tools and start to change the deflated tire. The problem is the lug wrench will not fit the lug. I look to see if there is a hub cap covering them but there is not. Ok, just pay the big bucks, turn on the Verizon phone and call for service. Nope, no service. OK now what? Hitchhike to Gaiole in Chianti and get help. The first car, and there are not many on this road, picked us up. Nice guy and he drops us in town. The lady in the Tabac shop give us hand signals to where the mechanic is but he will not be back until after lunch. We share a nice pizza for lunch and walk down to the shop. He already knows we are coming as the Chianti telegraph in a small town has already put out the word. He does not speak English but with hand signals and smiles we work it out. He gathers some tools and we jump in his car and off we go.
When we arrive at the car he looks at the lug nut, goes back to his car and comes back with some angle needle nose pliers, reaches in and pulls off a plastic cover for the lug nut. Boy do I feel dumb. Everything works now.
no #4 in our kit. there are other pictures that led me to believe it was an adapter.
so easy....if you know
louie puts on the new $135 tire
"So what do you do all day?" people ask. Most of our travels to places we have been before are much like when you travel to your second home. Some days we do nothing, some days we pick olives, some days we walk and some days we just go for rides/walks. We eat most meals in and really just enjoy being.
One day we went to Monte San Savino, the town you see out our window, to buy a few things and just walk around.
Walking down a back alley I looked in the window and saw this......
I asked through the window if I could come in and take pictures. The mechanic quickly opened the door and I found his name was Tiezzi Andrea and his passion was restoring scooters and motorcycles and turning them into high performance machines.
He explained what he had done to the 50cc Vespa engine, but to be honest I did not understand a word of the technical stuff.
Daniel had to go to Switzerland for a few days and Manuela invited us to go to Arezzo for happy hour. We had never heard of such a thing in Italy so off we went. The walking streets were packed with people when we got there at 7:30 and by the time we left at 10:00 it was all young people. Are these children old enough to be out this late? I guess I am getting old.
The happy hour bar was a very upscale place and you buy a drink and get free tapas. There was a long line of these tapas and all very, very good and they seemed to stay out all night. I was pretty much left out of the conversation as the women talked about men and pretty much had the same party line.
Since Daniel was out of town we could not borrow the truck to carry the olives to the press. So, we loaded up my rental car and Manuela's station wagon and made a few trips. We carried 600kg or 1322 lbs of olives. Several things determine the quality of the harvest. Taste of course, but also the percentage of oil by weight that you extract. We got 14% which is a good number. The press in front of us from someone else only got 11% and that is bad.
to celebrate the first harvest you have bruschetta with oil from the pressing and a good wine. Manuela added anchovies to the mix as tuscan bread is unsalted.
snow has come to the hills of tuscany. hope that election finishes soon so we can go to florida
