As our time in Tuscany drew to a close, we never made it onto a hot air balloon over the Tuscan countryside.  There were thunderstorms most of our remaining days there and apparently that is not conducive for hot air ballooning.  We spent some good times with Irene Gren, our Italian host in the village of Pergine Valdarno.  She and her younger brother Eduardo, have launched a new sort of Tuscany tour experience for newcomers staying with them in one of their multiple VRBO locations in the village.  That endeavor seems to be going well for them.  She said for experienced Tuscan travelers like the Wagnersons, it probably is not the sort of thing that we would be looking for.  Irene filled us in on the history of the village and the various homes and buildings in the town.  The villa where we’ve been staying on this trip (Villa Fracassini) used to be the village landowner’s home.  It was the only home in the town that had an internal water well dug so that fresh water could be obtained without needing to go outside to the town well.  The separate villa where we stayed the two previous times we’ve been to Tuscany was the home of the person who tended the vineyard in the town, called Casa di Vignolo.

On Wednesday morning, May 17th, we said our goodbyes to Irene as we left Villa Fracassini in Pergine Valdarno, our home for the past eleven days.  We would be traveling back to Rome today and turn in the rental car in the late afternoon at Rome’s main airport.  Before doing that, the new order of the day was to return to one our favorite restaurants in Tuscany, La Solita Zuppa (or Zuppa’s as we’ve come to know it) in the town of Chiusi.  We have already eaten there on two separate occasions so far this trip and we wanted to squeeze in one more visit.  They make the most delicious soups you’ve ever tasted and their offerings for primi (first course and usually pasta) and secondi (the second or main course consisting of beef, pork or chicken) are nothing short of amazing.  We stopped at a designated parking area in the town and walked into the historic center on our way to Zuppa’s.  As we came into the restaurant, the restaurant owner stopped his conversation he was having with two people at the front counter.  “I’ve been talking about you guys.” he explained as he greeted and welcomed us to come on inside.  His wife seated us and we then spent the next two hours visiting with them, Andrea and Lorella, the proprietor and his wife.  The six of us exchanged family stories and photos and even invitations to visit.  We bid farewell, with hugs and Italian two-sided kisses (?) and as we walked away, it dawned on the four of us that we had just experienced perhaps the most wonderful capper to our Italian vacation.

Climbing back into our rental car, we proceeded to drive for the next hour and a half through a monsoon thunderstorm all the way back into Rome.  Doug “Mario Andretti” Anderson negotiated the Italian autobahn through the driving rain as if first place in the Indianapolis 500 was at stake in our quest to reach Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci airport.  No accidents, further flat tires, or breakdowns occurred, and we turned in the rental.  In not time at all we found ourselves in our hotel near the airport as we readied ourselves for the sprint home the next day (Thursday) that would begin at 3:30 a.m. in the morning (6:30 p.m. Wednesday back home).  Our flights back home followed the way we arrived in Italy…Rome to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Seattle, take the airporter shuttle from Seatac to the Stanwood exit.  Thanks to Jose and those involved for depositing our car sometime on Thursday at the Stanwood park and ride, so when the shuttle dropped us off at the Stanwood exit, it was a simple walk to our car where we loaded up our luggage and drove home to our Pacific Northwest paradise in Elger Bay.  What a glorious day to return: sunny, 65 degrees and a gray whale feeding for over three hours just off the deck in front of our home.  What Dorothy told Toto in the Wizard of Oz, is certainly appropriate here,  “There is no place like home!”

The Wagnerson’s Italy 2018 adventure is now complete.  We explored, laughed, sampled, relaxed, reflected, and on some occasions, endured.  We are getting older.  That fact became apparent as the trip progressed.  Indeed, we found the spirit was more than willing, but the flesh more often than not, was weak.  That was just a fact of life we incorporated into this adventure.  I looked at the conclusion of the Wagnerson’s first adventure to Italy in 2013 and I think perhaps it is fitting to repeat a portion of that conclusion here as a summary of Italy 2018.  “For Lynda and me, this truly was a dream trip.  That we could undertake it and experience it with our lifelong friends Doug and Barb is again the stuff that dreams are made of.  When you spend 32 days alongside of anyone…friend or foe…..night and day, that time together will usually give you your fill of that person and you’re ready for a break.  I don’t know if it is a reflection of the Stockholm Syndrome at work among us (where you become friends with your kidnappers) or if we really do like each other so much, but from Day One to Day Thirty-two, the four of us got along great and at the end of the trip….we still really like each other.  And THAT I submit is another amazing fact!  Thanks to all who watched our travels through this blog, and thanks for all of those comments.  We talked about all of them and laughed along with you. 

Finally, Proverbs tells us that “a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth up the bones.”  There were no broken or dried up bones on this trip …..but there was a lot of laughter.  A LOT of laughter.  With our best friends.  We are so blessed!!!!”   Yes indeed!