the last few days

Time is winding down here in Italia; only three more days. I have had many amazing adventures since I last posted. I have been hanging out in the small coastal towns of Tuscany and so internet connections have been a challenge...well, just pretty much non existent. I faced one of my fears and rented a car and drove in Italy. I got myself and my friend Mary from point A to point B with no major injuries...just a sore neck(not from my driving...well a little...but from having to go around all those curves on the small winding roads!). My Dad always had to remind me(shouting this at me) to "maintain my lane" as my driving instructor at age 15 as I veered into other lanes or off onto the shoulder, but this does not matter here Italy...maybe I was Italian in a former life.
My house exchange in Sassetta was fun but it is very small and remote town up on a hill...nice church(of course) but does not even boast a castle. The attraction here is having gelato when biking through the town(did that), hiking(did that) and wild boar hunting( no hunting but had the tastiy meat sauce over my pasta.)
Visited the island of Elba. I had to go to Italy to visit a famous French guys house, go figure. The island is lovely. Nice beaches...not a bad place to be exiled.
Visted the hill town of Volterra. Featured in one of the Twilight movies I guess..the books were on sale at the Etruscan museum (seemed odd). Those Etruscans had it going on, woman were equal to men in their society...maybe I was an Etruscan in a former life. We did a little wine tasting at a bar that was small and quaint...and if you got drunk enough, you could remove your bar and sign it and they would hang it from the ceiling. FYI, we did not get drunk enough to remove any undergarments.

We are now in Florence. Stayed the night with high shool friend Shannon Underwood and family.  They have a great house overlooking the city...we got to enjoy the view with some great gelato last night. I do enjoy this Italian living. The weather is getting cold so it is time to return to my cold weather in a few days.

Biking in Tuscany

I just got done with a great biking trip through small towns of the Tuscan coast. It was fabulous! The ride was pretty long, did a total of 250K over the six days. Some parts challenging but other parts flat. Unfortunately in rained three of days but fortunately the parcipitants were four Canadian BCers and me so we can handle that wet stuff. We actually rode through the town where I will be staying on my house exchange so it was exciting to see(after biking 9K up hill so I was really happy to reach the top of the hill as well as to see the town!). Time to give my saddle side a rest and move on to the next leg of my adventure.