On this rare day, I still had enough energy to do another walk through Montecatini (this wouldn’t have been the case if we had driven to Florence).

D had discovered a brand new spot where they served every beverage you might imagine including more beer taps than D had seen on this particular trip.

The owner was just putting out offerings of meat and cheese. He said they do so every evening free of charge so that patrons will stay and continue to imbibe instead of heading home or out for dinner.

I wandered through Montecatini before we headed home to get ready for our last Tuscan evening.

For dinner, we went back to Toscano Doc where we were anticipated by Francesco, the waiter we had befriended earlier in the week.  He was busy in another area of the restaurant but had a chance to send us over a complementary focaccia.

It was so simple and so exquisite! The crust was a thin as a cracker and as crispy and flaky too. The char from the wood fired oven was delicious as was the drizzle of oil and sea salt that we applied.

We started by sharing a pasta dish of sea bass and gnocchi. D loved the fish and I remember thinking that the gnocchi was the lightest I had ever tasted, anywhere. I guess made sense given our locale. Earlier in the week D had ordered the fried seafood and I had been so taken with the dish that I selected it again.

Doug’s eye was caught by pork tenderloin served with crispy red onion and rosemary potatoes.

We returned to the hotel to get organized for our departure the next day.

Kath’s quote: “My idea of heaven still is to drive the gravel farm roads of Umbria and Tuscany, very pleasantly lost.”  ― Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun    

Love never fails.

We left New York at approximately 10 pm. I settled in fairly quickly, took a sleeping pill and woke up as we were landing in Milan. The process of renting our car was a hassle as everyone arrived at the same time and they only had one clerk on. With patience though we were on our way. Navigating ourselves out of the airport and Milan was a fete in itself. I spotted the first of many Lambergenis on the Autostrada. In fact, D’s constant exclamation whenever we were on the highway was “don’t look now but there is a Mercedes up my ass”!

We stopped along the way at one of the many Autogrill Rest Stops along the highway and ordered delicious sandwiches for the road. I mean seriously fabulous-fresh bread, succulent meats and cheeses. It suddenly dawned on us-we were in Italy again!

When the scenery started to change and we spotted rolling hills and mountains, we knew that the Tuscan countryside was near.

The sun was starting to sink as we got more and more excited that our home for the week in the town of Montecatini would soon be in sight.

Upon check in at Hotel Puccini we were delighted that Patrizia, the owner of the hotel was able to keep her promise and put us in a room with a terrace. This was our view from the terrace

and this was the view of the terrace from inside our room.

We were hungry for some supper. I had done some advance research and had seen that a local recommended a couple of his favourite restaurants. We found out from Patrizia that La Cantina del Toscano was within walking distance of our hotel. Little did we know at that time that we would fall instantly in love with the food and our server Francesco and that we would return almost every evening of our stay.

Later we took a short stroll up and down the main street where our hotel was located to get our bearings.

We understood that we were actually staying at a different hotel closer to the town square but decided that we quite liked that we were on a quieter portion of the street.

This was a glimpse of our hotel lobby from the sidewalk.

This was the covered sidewalk patio outside our hotel. We were too pooped to stop for a drink that evening but did so a couple of nights later. Our bed was exceedingly comfotable and we had a good sleep to start our Tuscan adventure the next morning.

Kath’s quote: “Life offers you a thousand chances… all you have to do is take one.” ― Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun    

Love never fails.