Its Saturday morning at 4:30 – Alarms go off (did we really sleep) its time to embark on the epic vacation. We have SO many moving parts that just reviewing it makes my head spin. I am trying to capture so much because I know one day Chelcy and I will be in a nursing home together arguing about the details so now I am making a record!!
5:20 AM – the car is packed to the gills and the boys are off. Nick it over the moon about a bar trip and Shane is still in his jammies wondering why his folks find it so easy to disturb his slumber. I later learn that Nick had to pee within 20 minutes of departure. Ooops…
Chelcy and I tried going back to sleep on the coach with a football game in the background – but no luck, we were full of nerves and excitement (you pick who had which one). Chelcy went downstairs in hopes of finding a hot shower (Deakon’s was frigid as we forgot to mention our hot water heater is set on a timer that I am uncertain about adjusting) she had no luck, but was no longer in need of coffee.
6:45 - we were out the door with backpacks on ready to hit the bus. I had her taking photos of the bus and train schedule so she could be the expert traveler during her return trip with Deakon. We managed to have a quick hot drink at the airport and boarded the plane for Florence.
11:30 – we arrive in Florence and Chelcy enjoyed every second of her prop plane tour. Maybe she is ready for Deakon to take her on a romantic ride in the skies…. We check in with the boys who have made it to Switzerland by now. We nabbed a Taxi and hit the streets of Florence – directly to the Duomo for some wine and pasta!
While we were navigating planes, trains, and taxis........ I hear Shane can be entertained by a waffle for hours - he has 4 teeth now and really puts them to work
Not a bad rest stop
Here is the final push to Tuscany. I know this because they are following the McCulloughs who do not appear to be carrying a bike anymore.....
Back to Chelcy and Sara.........After we started headed to the Porto Vecchia and got turned around a bit. During our misdirection we both determined our bags were a bit heavenly and luckily our next turn brought us to the train station. We figured that must be a sign. So we boarded the train that was due to arrive in Lucca at 15:30. Impressive timing!
15:30 we arrived in Lucca (thanks to the couple in front of us who were also headed to Lucca) Only a minor altercation with the Italian ticket checker (we never ‘validated’ the train ticket – guess my excitement over just purchasing the ticket currently, finding the track and boarding the train within5 minutes was now totally negated. Thankfully we looked enough like tourists that our fine was reduced to 5 Euro instead of 80! Wonder if the guys would have experienced the same luck…) We hailed another cab – showed him the print out of our destination and off we went. Villa Mori bound!
You can see the pool from the entrance of our villa. Ahh...
16:00 and we were the 1st to arrive which was helpful to Silvia, the Villa Mori care taker. She toured the grounds with us handing our towels, sheets and keys while Chelcy and I tried determining family locations. Within 30 minutes our crew started arriving. It was like clockwork.
1st - Lundy, Bob, Brayden & a STARVING Madeline arrived from a night before in Italy to break the trip
2nd - Lindsey & Chris pulled in (expert drivers as they not only had no kids, but lived in the area for 5 years!)
3rd - Diane, Wayne, Eve & Anna arrived from a night before as well
4th - Farrah, Brian, Tate & Macy with Chris, Deakon, Nick & Shane closely behind as they were very lucky to be close in proximity during the drive as I will only reference the incident regarding a top mounted bike rack. Refer to Farrah’s blog in case she offers more detail.
Everyone got out of the car to enjoy a MUCH needed stretch of the legs. The kids immediately took to the AWESOME playground and green grass running space. The ladies sat down to discuss the rooming layout. Wayne was the rock star that night as he had the forethought to purchase Italian meat, cheese and the infamous bottle of wine that aided our discussion and helped fill the bellies of starving adults and children for hours!
After assignments were made the ladies ventured out to grab 16+ pizzas at the nearest joint and fill the fridges with beer for a few non-wining drinking hubbies. If you can believe it, pizza finding was a cinch, beer finding, IMPOSSIBLE. Farrah and I drove for 30+ minutes while Chelcy and Lindsey enjoyed happy hour at the Pizza place. We finally discovered a Lidl. As we ran with excitement to its doors we realized they weren’t opening. It was 20:07 and it closed at 20:00. It’s a German store so boy are they prompt! Thankfully a sweet Italian on a vespa (which we saw 1 million of) directed us to the COOP which was a HUGE store open until 21:00. Jackpot! We ran through the aisles grabbing snacks, fruit and wine (aisles of wine, while beer was only an end capper – we are in Italy right?)
The Boys made Mac&Cheese for the kids as our adventures lasted longer than anticipated – so only the adults dined on pizza. It felt good to unpack that night. We sat around the table chatting all night enjoying the jug of wine and many other elements of Italy’s finest. Most importantly we were all there together!
