I left off with Day 5 so…

Day 5 – Tuscany
As I said, I’d like to visit Arezzo today to see the monthly Antique market. I’m figuring if we could hit the road between 9:30 and 10, we’ll get there around elevenish. Again my concerns go to parking (notice a theme here?). Anyway, b/c of that, I looked into driving to a town along the way (e.g., Cortona) and taking the train in from there but I’m not sure it’s worth the extra hassle – I’ll talk to the others and see.

A few hours strolling around the market, lunch at Buca Di San Francesco (another Buon Riccordo restaurant), a tour of the Piero Della Francesco frescoes and home. That would be my goal for the day with perhaps another simple dinner at home in the evening.

The second alternative would be to explore the area around the house. Visit Pienza, enjoy a long leisurely lunch, catch up on laundry kind of day.

Day 6 Tuscany

Today is falling into place nicely. Chris and I have wanted to visit DEI Winery for a tour for a couple of years. We enjoy there Nobile wines and have several bottles (as well as some of the Santa Caterina) in our basement (and I literally mean basement – while we have a bunch of wine down there, it’s definitely not a “cellar”). Well, it turns out Peter Kilby is friendly with the owner Catarina Dei (I think that’s her name). So he’s scheduling a tour of the facility for us on Monday morning.

Afterwards, we’ll visit Montepulciano for lunch and stroll through the town as the shops open late in the afternoon. Sounds like a perfect day to me…..oh I have to remember, I want to contact Bill and Patty Sutherland Tuscan Women Cook to see if they’d like to meet for a drink later this afternoon.

Day 7 – Tuscany
The next four days get fuzzy only because we need to finalize some plans.

Over the course these four days we want to:

Visit Siena
1. I’m hoping to get together with Cristina and receive “The Insider’s View” tour. If we can get an early enough start this morning, I’m also hoping to visit Monterrigioni first. Originally, we wanted to go here for lunch but then Chris decided he wanted to spend more time in Siena, so I think we visit here first then head to Siena and we can have the entire day here.

Chris wants to see the Duomo but I want to visit Santa Domenica and see Saint Catherine’s head. I know, kinda bizzare but I still want to do it.

Visit Florence
Al wants to see the David, Chris wants to climb to the top of the Duomo and I want to do some shopping. I promised S, from work, I’d get her a Jelly Kelly bag and I’d also like to visit the glove store and Giulio Giannini, across from the Pitti Palace, to get some more journals. A stop in Verrazzano for lunch or a late afternoon snack wouldn’t stink either.

Visit Montalcino
I just want to stroll through the town while the stores are open, do some tasting at the Fortezza, have a nice lunch in the area and possibly visit Sant Antimo.

San Galgano
I’d love to see the sword in the stone having always been fascinated by the story of King Arthur – though I’m not sure I can convince the others to do the 90 minute drive.

Explore the Crete
Yes, we’d like to visit Monte Olivetto (which would probably fit in more with a Sal Galgano trip or Siena) and some of the other tiny towns by us, not to mention Pienza.

And of course things I’ve given up on seeing:

Cortona
Visiting Perugia for the Fair of the Dead

I just don’t know if we’ll have time.