Sunday - Antiques Fair in Arrezo

Today was Joan and George's 40th wedding anniversary. Phil had arranged to have flowers sent from all of us. Early in the AM, a gorgeous, huge floral arrangement arrived and we surprised them with them. Then we headed off to Arrezo, a town of about 90,000 people about 1/2 hour from Foresteria. Today was All Saints' Day and most shops, restaurants, etc. were closed. However, the monthly Antiques Fair was on, so...on to Arrezo we went in our usual tandem procession. I had miscounted one of my medications so we planned to stop at a 24/7 Pharmacy in Arezzo. Unfortunately, we came upon it before we expected to and couldn't make the turn into the parking lot; so in our inimitable fashion we passed our lead car and drove into town expecting to circle back. However, one-ways streets are the regular design in Arezzo and we simply couldn't get back to the other car...so we called on the walkie talkie and stopped in the Train Station parking lot to set up a rendezvous. Finally headed towards the old town parking area and proceeded to make another wrong turn. Just our daily routine. When we finally parked, we found that the city had built an escalator (3 levels) to take us up the steep hill to the main square and the Fair. Very nice, not to have to walk up the hill. Very large, eclectic antiques with some funny things like a sign for 'Bass Lake Lodge' and one for 'Harley Davidson' - old Italian reliques! We walked down the square - all down hill - found out that the restaurant recommended for lunch was back up the hill :) So up we went.

Had a wonderful Tuscan lunch at a very cute, authentic, small restaurant, walked around - up and down for awhile - and headed home. On the way home, we did a daylight dry run to a restaurant and village where we were taking Joanie and George for dinner. It was a lovely place but up a road with multiple switch backs and after enjoying the views and heading back down, we decided that taxis would be the way to go to dinner. Called a taxi driver recommended by the restaurant owner and arranged for 2 taxis for 9 people. The taxis arrived - 4 of us went in one and the other 5 in the other - when we got to the restaurant, we (in the 1st taxi) found out that one off our friends had to sit in the 'boot' of the taxi! Our adventures continue.

Our dinner was fabulous - we were the only people in a small, lovely restaurant with chef owner who waited on us like royalty. Food was wonderful and included complimentary appetizers, and ended with Vin Santo and cookies. Very full crowd climbed back into taxis to go home. Another great day.