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11:08 pm – Italy – Day 1 – Lucolena
I
write to you, dear reader, from the Villa Il Castelaccio
just outside the small Italian town of Lucolena
in the hills of Tuscany. For this journal, I'm going to dispense
with the  preliminaries as much as possible. However, for the record and just so you
don't worry, Molly dog got to the kennel and our drive to Newark airport was,
despite torrential rains on the east end of Long Island, uneventful.
I
write this wearing a standard issue white tee-shirt issued by British Airways
as our luggage did not follow us to Italy
via London Gatwick and Bologna
airports. Beth will be haranguing all
airlines concerned (Continental and British Airways) later today in an effort
to track down our belongings. One of
the items is the power adapter to the computer with which I'm typing this
journal, so if a sentence ends rather abruptly, you will know the battery ran
out.
 We are sharing the Villa with
three other couples: Lesly & Gary; Brian & Susan; and Charles &
Elizabeth. Remember those names as
there will be a quiz later. Elizabeth
and Charles have stayed at the Villa previously and organized our stay in Tuscany. The Villa is nothing short of
magnificent. A 19th Century
country house with four ground floor bedrooms each with their own bathrooms
and showers, there is a private garden with barbecue and private swimming
pool as well. While there are only
eight of us staying at the Villa, it can accommodate up to 12 persons by
means of an additional bed room and bath located upstairs with its own living
room containing two sofa beds. And, most splendidly of all, an enormous
kitchen with oven, refrigerator, dishwasher and microwave next to a dining
room with fireplace - not mention a local laundry room with bathroom and
2 showers.
With
this crowd, it was clear early on that the kitchen will be a big time meeting
place. This evening for instance, because of Charles and Elizabeth's
forethought, we had a sumptuous evening meal and went through eight bottles
of wine. This is going to be some
fun! Well, at least once we get our
suitcases…
So ends Day One.
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