Yesterday afternoon's exhilaration in Venice (walking tour of St. Mark's Square and surrounding neighborhoods, dodging Italian thunder and rain in the middle of it....where are the umbrellas?....in the suitcases!!) followed by a beautiful boatride along the Grand Canal that snakes its way through the heart of Venice and floats past incredible palaces and hotels and churches and museums. We saw Elton John's house, heard about how Lord Byron used to swim in the Grand Canal followed by his gondola of clothes and necessities. We drank Bellinis (sparkling wine and peach juice) at Harry's Bar, a place where famous people hang, though we didn't see any.....

..where was I? Oh yes, yesterday's exhilaration was offset a bit by anxiety as the day wore on and no luggage appeared. Each time we came by the hotel desk, the clerk would shrug his shoulders and look apologetic and say, "All we get is a recorded message that says some pieces of your luggage have been found, we don't know which, and hopefully will be here by tonight or tomorrow." Well, we are leaving at 7:30am tomorrow, so the worry spikes. By 6pm we were beginning to wonder if we were going to have to spend some number of hours in the local hospital or "farmacia" waiting for Chip's blood pressure and cholesterol prescriptions to be arranged and filled (oh yes, several dope slaps for not packing all meds in carry-on)....then lo and behold one "piece" aka Chip's luggage blessedly makes its appearance.

Meanwhile I am imagining my bag is lost forever, and what would I do if I arrive at a painting workshop with no equipment? Well we have a week to figure that out. In any event, we settle down with relief that Chip has his stuff, then another spike of worry....our train tickets are in....you guessed it....Jan's luggage! Back on the travel insurance hotline to see if there's anything to do. Now it's 10pm the night before we leave, and after a long research time they tell us to go to the station and buy tickets there.

So at 7:30am we are picked up by water taxi and ferried over to the Venice train station where we approach the window and ask for tickets for the 8:37 train to Florence and he shakes his head....no seats, not until Noon. Four hours in the train station? OMG. He says when the train rolls in, ask the conductor what to do, explain about the lost luggage. So we do. I've been holding it together until this point....the luggage, the anxiety, the challenges....then I begin explaining to the conductor our situation and start to cry. Well, between the tears and the insistence the train couldn't possibly be full because we have reservations in Coach 1 seats 23&24, he gets on the cellphone and talks to the other conductor and somehow we are on the train and it costs 50 more Euros each to buy the tickets ON the train, plus two new tickets at 60 Euros each. Desperate times, desperate measures.

More anxiety because our International Driver's Licenses are....in Jan's suitcase....but nobody asks for them, and we are in our rental car and on to Montepulciano....the Promised Land. Our rental car is a Black Mercedes, big enough for 6 people and it looks like we are the Italian Mafia. We've named it Diamonte, for Zorro's horse. How much does it cost to feed Diamonte? We'll see!

Photos to come one of these days if I ever get my suitcase. We have a glorious apartment with a balcony and view of the Tuscan countryside. Heaven.