Ciao!
As I wrote at the end of yesterday’s blog, today was a moving day. But first, we needed to change cars at Fiumicino airport. It turns out that when one uses ones Visa or MasterCard to rent a car, you can decline additional coverage on the vehicle, and the credit card company will take charge in case of any problems. However, most companies have limited the number of days they will cover to something like 30 or 31. In our case, we needed to have the car for more days than that, so in order to make things work nicely, we took back our Dollar Rental car to the airport today, and turned it in. Robert stayed with the luggage, and I went back to pick up our Thrifty rental car. Now the really interesting thing is that Hertz, Thrifty, Dollar and FireFly (whatever that is!) all are in the same office.
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| Countryside in the Maremma |
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| Always another hill top village! |
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| Robert happy; these are grapes! |
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| View from our balcony! |
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| Trying to figure out how to wash & dry clothes! |
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| Gate into town! |
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| Main plaza in Massa Marittima |
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| Massa's Duomo |
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| Great Wall in our dining room! |
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| Deb, see necklace! |
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| Incredible veggie appetizer! |
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| My mixed salad |
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| R's grilled eggplant & zucchini |
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| My chicken! |
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| R's fish ... yes, all of it! |
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| R's vin Santo with biscotti |
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| And always a few more poppies! |
However … Up this morning about 6 and down to breakfast at 7:30 am. Checked out of the hotel by 8, collected the car and loaded everything up. Then, cross country toward the coast and the airport. It took about three hours to get to the airport, with most of the time spent getting from Orvieto to highway A12 (a motorway or, in Italian, an autostrada), but we arrived at the rental car return location by 11 am. Everything worked great, and we were out of one car and into the next and heading back out of the airport in less than an hour! How’s that for efficiency?
Headed straight north this time, following the coast, and arrived at Massa Marritima in the Tuscany Maremma district by 3 pm. Our room is fine – 303 on the third floor (no lift, but the guy at the desk managed both of our suitcases, which is great!). It’s compact, let us say – not much room to spread out, but we have gotten everything nicely arranged. The room has a small balcony with two chairs and a table, and we are facing the sea, which, if it wasn’t hazy, we could see! It is so reminiscent of Southern California’s “Gray May!”
Got everything into our room, and I looked up the local self-service laundry in town – and it was less than a km away! Loaded up our dirty clothes and soap, and out we went. Found it very quickly, and wow, it’s a self-service laundry, just what I’ve been looking for! There are only three washing machines and three dryers, but the washers are quick – only 39 minutes!! – and the dryers are hot! We were back to the hotel in probably just over an hour; very efficient, and I’m very happy! Robert will be happy too, seeing as he now has clean T-shirts to wear for a couple of days. Thinking that as it opens every day at 7 am, I may also do a load on Thursday, so that the first thing when we get to our week’s apartment in Montepulciano, won’t have to be wash!
Heading out shortly to dinner, at a place recommended by the hotel, so more later!
m
xxx
Well, the walk UP to town isn’t that bad after all! The gal at the hotel made reservations for us for dinner at a place called “Prosciutto et Popone” and it was FABULOUS! To get to the center of Massa, all we have to do is walk through the next-door parking lot and then there is a regular paved walkway all the way up! It’s great! Got there just at 7 pm and asked to sit in the indoor dining room. As it turns out, not too many tourists in town (or those who eat at 7 pm) and we literally had the place to ourselves. Lovely room, Andrea Bocelli on the CD player – who could ask for more than that? Robert ordered their vegetarian starter plate – and it was incredible! Lots of little dishes of various things – a dish of grilled eggplant, a dish of grilled zucchini, a dish of tomatoes, then various kinds of vegetarian bruschetta along with fried polenta squares and pieces of cheese and a spoonful of strawberry jam. Incredible! Then came the main courses … and we were already full! Rordered the fish of the day, which turned out to be sea bream (orate, in Italian), which he loves. That was served with a plate of grilled veggies – eggplant and zucchini. I ordered their chicken with Black Bastard Beer sauce; half of an entire chicken(!). It was amazing, as were the French fries that I ordered with it, along with a mixed salad. All of this accompanied by a very good local white wine (sangiovese). I was way too full for dessert, but R had their vin santo– sweet dessert wine and two biscotti. Needless to say, everything disappeared. Dinner was 75€ and, as I say, just fantastic! We will definitely return there before we leave!
Night, all!
m
xxx
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