Tuscany Then Rome Then Home

Grave markers at the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial

Sunshine, Grape Vines and Cypress Trees

The towers of San Gimignano

We departed our Florence hotel with its comfortable rooms and jam-crammed mob scene of a breakfast room around 8 in the morning.

This is our last full day in Italy. Our sample of Tuscany, along with simply driving through the stunning countryside, included the deeply sad American Cemetery where about 40% of the young people who fell in the late days of the Italian campaign are laid to rest.

Then we went to San Gimignano, a heartbreakingly quaint medieval town where rich people built towering homes as their mark of status and wealth. These tended to tip over, so the town imposed a height restriction of 200 feet. There were more than 70 towers at the height of the building frenzy. There are a bit more than a dozen left. 

I still stand by my observation that rich people ruin everything. But, in doing so, they build things that tourists come along to take a look at much later. And then the cruise ship tourists ruin everything (more about that later).

Kim and her designed-to-the-smallest detail cup of tea. See next shot.

The tea came on its own wooden tray, with a special plate for the skinny pyramid
tea bag whose string ended in a precious little leaf that protruded through
the hole in the lid for the cup: exquisite.

We were in Rome by about 5:00 p.m. and shortly after that sat down to our last meal together as a randomly selected group of people who happened to book the same travel tour.

The Five Canadians will be shuttling to the airport tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. and, after one last blast of duty-free shopping, will be airborne around 2:00 p.m. Italy time. We'll be home around 5:00 p.m. Toronto time. Actually, only Bruce and I will well and truly be home. Carol will have another long trip to get back to Nanaimo. Kim and Kevan will still have two hours or more ahead of them to get home in Belleville.

This has been an amazing trip. I'll sum up tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Karen