Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Rome, Italy to Siena, Italy
Big day today, we leave Rome by car and head into the wine region of Toscana (Tuscany).
Not without trepidation, this day, as we go to the Europcar office on Tiburtina and rent our cars, then try our luck with Rome traffic on the city streets as we try to get out of town. This day just smelled like trouble to me, from the start.
Checkout was not an issue and went smoothly, but the taxis we ordered were very late and we got to the Europcar office a bit late. Dick's car was upgraded to larger, as their baggage has expanded a bit with the shopping. We were stuck with our little car we ordered, a small black Lancia. A bit of a screwup as the cars did not come with the GPS units we requested, so we have to go with the one we brought from England, and Dick will have to follow us, at least initially.
The journey out of Rome went quite well, all things considered, though the GPS had some 'Roman moments' and seemingly didn't care for the rigour of finding the correct path. We went round the roundabouts a few times, and missed the main turnoff from the ring road to Florence on the A1. But Jan The Navigator found us the correct path, and I 'drove for two' and made sure that I kept my course changes reasonable so that Dick could follow, which he did very well. Eventually, we got out of town and were soon maintaining a 130 km/h speed on the A1 all the way to our turnoff at Ovietto.
There we stopped for lunch and toured the lovely town with its huge cathedral. The thing is a monster, white and grey/blue striped marble in alternate layers giving a striped effect. We admired it from outside before lunch, then stopped at a lovely outside cafe for lunch. Lunch was good, as was the coffee; the others had wine but it makes me sleepy so I declined in favor of caffein. After lunch, the girls went into the cathedral and pronounced it lovely.
On the road again, this time bound for lake Bolisano which we found to be huge, round, and beautiful. Then a run due north for Siena about 110 kms away. The road was single lane each way, narrow, and winding but exhilarating to drive. It was long though, and we averaged a speed of 50 km/h so it was a 2 hour drive. On arrival, we had nowhere in particular to go since no reservations were made in advance. Keep it simple, somebody said, don't make it so complicated. Jan and I thought better of it but maybe we would be late enough in the season so that reservations wouldn't matter .... Maybe??
They did matter, and we struck out twice in trying for accomodation, any accomodation let alone handicapped. We were helped out at the Garden Hotel for though they were full they pointed us at the Hotel Italiano in town just by the old city gates, and we went straight there. All they had was a suite, a bedroom and an anteroom with two couches. And a very small elevator, too small for Sheila to get in on her scooter. And up some steps, no railing. And the hotel 'not approved for handicapped', they said. But it was a room for the night and we were tired so we took it.
Dinner up next, but no hotel restaurant. We were referred to a Pizzaria in the old town, 'a 10 minute walk' away. Ha!! For an olymmpic walker, maybe, for us it was half an hour. It too had steps as a barrier to Shiela's scooter (funny how I never noticed these issues before) but we overcame it as Dick and I lifted up the scooter's back end with Shiela still aboard. Dinner was had, and was good, and we made it home (me with visions of the scooter konking out like in Nurenberg, but it was good as gold) with a quick ice-cream (sorry, Gelato) stop along the way.
Then full and tired after negotiating stairs and small elevators, it was off to bed for us after Dick used his Iphone and 'booking.com' to reserve a room at the Garden Hotel for the next night. That worked well, and we will approach the day happier knowing that we have a place to sleep that is handicapped-friendly. Tomorrow, we head south over the route we travelled today for a short distance, to Montelcino, home of Brunella wine. Dick knows all about it, and Jan and I am going to learn.
