Arriving in Italy

We had heard a number of horror stories of how Ryan Air manages to cut costs. The fact that we paid 1 pound each for our flishts from London to Pisa, Italy meant that we were going to be amazed to see how they were going to make money on us. As is turns out they were fantastic and a breath of fresh of fresh air. After we boarded this 12 year old kid in a pilots uniform and entered the cockpit area. Gab and I felt a little old looking at our junjior pilot.Ryan Air sold food on the flight such as cup-a-soups that we purchased. They would give you a cup and come round with a kettle and fill it with hot water for you. After the food extravaganxa was finished (it was 7am by this stage), the flight attendant who must have been all of 17 then started selling scratchies. At least then we had the answer as to how they were going to making money on the Gordon's. We had heard that the Italians were a bit pushy when it came to queues so we were determined to show how Australians could hold up there end. As it turned out the Gordons were a dead last getting out of customs and our 3 pieces of luggage were looking pretty lonely as we arrived at the baggiage collection area. We picked up our hire 'bus' and everyone clambered on board. We took off for the hour and a half drive from Pisa with Gab and Scott displaying the usual level of calmness despite the fact that we were driving on the wrong side of the road, in a small bus full of nigly children who had been up since 3.15am. We had precise directions to get to our accommodation which worked fine until we got to the town square, which we were meant to drive through, and discovered that it was market day and the square was closed to traffic. Scott dumpted Gab and the kids off to try to find the accommodation whilst he attempted to park the bus. Scott finally parked the bus and returned to Gab and the children who had managed to purchase bread (a bit rock-like), cheese, strawberries and tomatoes by conversing in Italian - well done Gab!Scott was simply amazed that Gab was hiding her fluent Italian language from him after 12 years of marriage!He said - you are full of surprises darling!Xavier needed the toilet and Gab couldn't handle that so Scott took over - well done Scott!Our accommodation is like a scene out of 'Under the Tuscan Sun'. It is almost a clique of almost everything you expect an Italian villa and village to be. Now the fun of conversing with real Italians begins.We insisted on each person learning a sentence or too then trying it out on the locals. William arranged a table for six, Elizabeth asked where the toilets were, Xavier asked for olive oil and Scott asked for tomatoes and ham. Once you successfully test out your Ilatian language Scott took a phot as your record of your achievement. The food here is simply tastier than home - it is superb! We think it is because the raw ingedients are fresher and tastier. The tomatoes for example smell like an dtast like they are from some home grown plot. The capsicums are sweeter than cherries and the broccholi is even liked by William!We went out for one meal to a recommended pasta place and had gnocci with a tomato and basic sauce and Scott had ravioli with a mushroom and truffel sauce - both out of this world. The salad was also beautful. It was all sensational.Our first tour was to a couple of random of towns down south. Scott notices a little sign saying "Etruscan tombs'. This we discovered was a complex of 3000 year old tombs that pre-date Jesus by about 800 years. We found a village nearby that had a great museum with a display of Etruscan artifacts as well as a nifty 14thC tower to climb. We also visited Lucca. Lucca is another walled city that was built at the time Florence and Siena were at war. The fortress walls around Lucca are so thick that they have enormous trees growing out of the top and a huge roadway on which you can hire bikes to easily pedal along. We decided to do this, thinking that James would be happy to sit in a baby seat. How wrong we were. James threw a tantrum and insistied on riding on a tanderm bike with Scott which we eventually gave in to, so hiring 4 bikes (one for William, one for Elizabeth, One for Scott and James and one for Gab and Xavier (tandem bikes)) we headed off on our journey of the wall. After 50m Scott called for a phot stop and Gab went to pull the camera out of her bike basket. It seemed that we had been robbed. Gab sent William back to the bike shop for a look around where he discovered the camera sitting in another bike basket very similar to the bike she was riding. Gab then said she was too stressed for any photo's for the time being.Everyone thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of the bike ride, the freedom, the overtaking, the enormous plane trees, the history, the locals. It was almost dream-like in its beauty. After our ride we returned our bikes (16Euro for one hour for all our bikes - not bad) and ventured through the city. We explored the town on foot. Lucca is full of the sort of back streets you would imagine you would find in Rome or in any Italian movie. That is until you hit the central square which is jaw dropping when you walk into as it is a perfect oval shape. It turns out that the central square is actually a roman ampitheatre that was destroyed in 1100AD. The buildings have been rebuild on the foundations of the ampitheatre. We took rest with gelati and coffee. The trick with ordering food at Italian restuarants is to not sit down at the tables. Our whole order was just 7 euro (about 13 dollars). This dispells the myth that Italy is ridiculously expensive!On the way back to Greve in Chianti (our home base) it was pelting rain and Gab displayed amazing naviagation skills where she did not need maps or signs to get us back home. She in fact uses a thing that she has picked up in Italy that she calls "the vibe". We got home in record time and then William and Elizabeth decided they were confident enough to go out on theri own to purchase the supplies for their evening meal. They purchased beautiful fresh spinach ravioli, spicy tomato sauce and freshly grated parmesan, as well as the raw ingredients for a salad. The fact that they had purchased this feast off shopkeepers who could not speak English made Gab and Scott very proud of their achievement.Another day in Italy is upon as and we are very much enjoying this next experience on our trip.