25 September '05, Sunday.
By 10:30am we were underway. Heading south from Venice to Bologna was flat, flat...then we hit the mountains. In the flat areas the farmlands were either being plowed for the next crop, or in a lot of the cases, the grape vines were being picked for the crushing. We even saw a small family doing their own picking and thought as we went by, we should stop and see if we could help...I know, some help we would be... The sun was out bright, and seeing as how it was Sunday, the traffic was light. There must be a law in some of the European countries that the "lorries", the big trucks, can't travel the roads on Sundays because we saw very few of them. Just after we passed Bologna we were into the foot hills and then steadily climbing to the higher peaks. I really don't remember just what the grades are in the states, but we are constantly finding them at 10 Plus degrees in just about every pass. Some of them go as high as 25 degrees...poor "Bumble Bee" has to go into 1st gear a lot when it gets that high. Another thing, the tunnels. I know we don't have the quanity of tunnels that we have found in Europe. This is a big thing here...tunnel after tunnel after tunnel...from the short one to some running miles. Arriving in Firenze (Florence) about 3, we set up and headed out for a look see of the town. We are close enough to walk into town quite easily, because it is all down hill from the campground. Now saying that, let's remember that what goes down has to come back up...and a steep up... Well, we did both quite easily (we're trying to get in shape for Rome), but for tomorrow we will grab the city bus for a Euro each. This will give us the opportunity to see some things we most likely wouldn't see by walking. We spent a couple of hours walking around and then it was time to head back. We had no sooner opened the door to "Bumble Bee" and I saw OB and Kris (one of the American couples we met in Antebes France)walking towards us. They left France the same day we did, but headed south into Italy while we headed north and east. They still have about 2 weeks with their motor home, and then they will be continuing their trip by flying the rest of the way around the world and back to Denver. It sounded like they had a good time on their venture south, so we picked up some tips. While catching up with the last 2 weeks, they shared a couple of glasses of an Italian lemon liqueur...2 very small glasses was plenty...very tasty, but potent. They had also just finished 2 days here in Florence, and in the morning are heading out to Venice. Just we separated with plans to see each other off in the morning. Tomorrow (for us), Firenze (Florence)...
By 10:30am we were underway. Heading south from Venice to Bologna was flat, flat...then we hit the mountains. In the flat areas the farmlands were either being plowed for the next crop, or in a lot of the cases, the grape vines were being picked for the crushing. We even saw a small family doing their own picking and thought as we went by, we should stop and see if we could help...I know, some help we would be... The sun was out bright, and seeing as how it was Sunday, the traffic was light. There must be a law in some of the European countries that the "lorries", the big trucks, can't travel the roads on Sundays because we saw very few of them. Just after we passed Bologna we were into the foot hills and then steadily climbing to the higher peaks. I really don't remember just what the grades are in the states, but we are constantly finding them at 10 Plus degrees in just about every pass. Some of them go as high as 25 degrees...poor "Bumble Bee" has to go into 1st gear a lot when it gets that high. Another thing, the tunnels. I know we don't have the quanity of tunnels that we have found in Europe. This is a big thing here...tunnel after tunnel after tunnel...from the short one to some running miles. Arriving in Firenze (Florence) about 3, we set up and headed out for a look see of the town. We are close enough to walk into town quite easily, because it is all down hill from the campground. Now saying that, let's remember that what goes down has to come back up...and a steep up... Well, we did both quite easily (we're trying to get in shape for Rome), but for tomorrow we will grab the city bus for a Euro each. This will give us the opportunity to see some things we most likely wouldn't see by walking. We spent a couple of hours walking around and then it was time to head back. We had no sooner opened the door to "Bumble Bee" and I saw OB and Kris (one of the American couples we met in Antebes France)walking towards us. They left France the same day we did, but headed south into Italy while we headed north and east. They still have about 2 weeks with their motor home, and then they will be continuing their trip by flying the rest of the way around the world and back to Denver. It sounded like they had a good time on their venture south, so we picked up some tips. While catching up with the last 2 weeks, they shared a couple of glasses of an Italian lemon liqueur...2 very small glasses was plenty...very tasty, but potent. They had also just finished 2 days here in Florence, and in the morning are heading out to Venice. Just we separated with plans to see each other off in the morning. Tomorrow (for us), Firenze (Florence)...