[Itinerary Page]The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
September 27 - Settling In at La Selva
The drive from Pisa to Villa La Selva, our home for the next week, took less than two hours. Traffic on the autostrada moves quickly -- VERY quickly if you are driving a Ferrari, Mercedes or Audi. Those drivers seem to run at speeds well over 120 miles an hour. I was moving with the flow of traffic -- 120-140kmph (75-85mph) and they would pass me like I was parked! Posted speed limits seem to be mere formalities as I have never seen anyone pulled over by law enforcement on the autostrada.
For sure, you do not want to be in the far left lane unless you are passing. Get around the other car and then get back in the right lane before you suddenly find a Ferrari imbedded in your trunk. Those boys do not take kindly to having to slow down!
We are staying in one of the seven charming apartments on the La Selva wine estate in the Chianti region of Tuscany. Tonight we are sharing the house with Hap and Pat Gray, friends from Cleveland. Hap was a classmate of mine at Cornell and we have kept in touch in the (many) years since. Tomorrow we will be joined by a third couple, friends of the Grays, who we haven't met before. But any friend of Hap's ...
The Grays got hung up forever at the Hertz desk in Florence, so we made an intial grocery run and we all got to the house about the same time. It seems that as soon as we stopped moving, Margene's stomach started ... accompanied by severe chills. She went to bed to try to ride it out. Hopefully whatever critter got ahold of her will be on its way by morning.
But there was work to do, so Hap, Pat and I lit a fire in the fireplace and started on the wine research project along with a lot of catching-up on each others' lives. It is always nice to have time alone, but there is something special about sharing unique experiences with friends.
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