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When I went this morning to buy fresh, literally hot from the oven, baguettes and croissants the young lady behind the counter stopped to speak with me for a few minutes. She was sad that I am leaving today and said “arrivederci “ because it doesn’t mean goodbye, but “I will see you again”. She has been so sweet and helpful that I really will miss her.

We arrived at La Chiocciola without incident, thank God. I have a little compound I’ve been setting up for the dogs since Bolnuevo. It consists of garden stakes attached to garden fencing with zip ties and its pretty big. Anyway, giving how vertically challenged I am and my lack of upper body strength, I really struggle to pound those stakes in with predictable results. Unless I have close in trees that I can use as stabilizers I’m not able to get the stakes very far into the ground so I end up with falling stakes, sagging fencing, the wind blowing everything down – you get the picture. After arriving at our pitch I dragged all this stuff out of storage and started trying to get everything set up. Apparently, after watching me for at least 10 minutes, a very large (and I don’t mean fat) Dutch gentleman came over and took over, saying that it looked like I could use some help. Understatement!!!. In 10 minutes the whole thing was set up and secure and I was falling all over myself thanking him. He, his wife and their two sons are staying in a static caravan directly opposite my pitch. Such nice people!

Tomorrow I’m going to see about arranging for a rental car. I’m anxious to get started looking at properties to rent. This area is so beautiful. Unfortunately it looks like I’ll have to get a taxi to Arezzo because that seems to be the nearest place to rent cars.

The Dutch couple, Chris and Renee, came back over this evening to check on me. Chris is 52 and Renee is 53. They have a daughter, 18, and two sons, 17 and 19. Their daughter has been in Greece on holiday but thankfully not near the wildfires and she is now back in the Netherlands. They are obviously a very active family. Tomorrow they’re doing some sort of river hike. More power to them!

Tonight is our last night in Village Il Poggetto. The staff has been incredibly friendly and helpful and the site itself is very pretty with trees all around. Very clean and great views, too.

Our new site isn’t very far, less than 2 hours away and I think it’s all highway. I have no idea if it’s more mountains but I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m hoping that the last few days of rain have taken care of that and I won’t have to contend with any rain while I’m driving tomorrow.

Today was a cleaning day and prepping for leaving tomorrow. It’s astonishing how much dirt you can pick up in a week, not to mention how much the dogs and I (ok, mostly me) have spread stuff out in a week. It’s ok though because not doing too much this week has let me catch up with some folks back home, both in Charlotte and Massachusetts. I’ve also had the time to read a couple of books. My granddaughter has recommended a couple of her books to me. I have them, just haven’t started to read them yet, but I will.

I can’t remember if I mentioned it or not, but almost everyone on this campsite is from the Netherlands. I’m the only vehicle with a Spanish plate, and I think I saw 2 from Denmark, a very small handful from Italy and literally dozens from the Netherlands. I find that to be very strange.

Well, it’s dinner time for the doggies, and me, so this is it from Rignano sull’Arno.

I discovered that the nearest town with a grocery store was about 10-12 kilometers away so today I got instructions from one of the women at Reception and headed out to catch the bus. If you stand on the road in one direction you will go to Florence. If you stand on the opposite side of the road you will go to any number of places including where I wanted to go to La Gaccioni (I think that was the name). I was told to find the Centro Commerciale whatever…to find a grocery store. I told the bus driver where I needed to get off and he sold me a ticket for €3, all the time talking on his cell phone. Well, he continued to talk on his cell phone using one hand to drive this massive bus around hairpin turns on tiny roads, using the left hand lane as much as the right! No moving out of the way for people on the side of the road, either. I saw one old man turn sideways so as not to get hit! It was absolutely terrifying (I was sitting in the front row seat, btw). When we arrived at my place to get off he said to stand exactly on the other side of the road for the bus back to the campsite when it was time. Long story short, I found the Centro Commerciale, no grocery store. My Wi-Fi wasn’t working so no Translator. I did my best to ask around for where I could find one and finally a couple of younger women pointed me in the right direction. By this time I had 45 minutes to find the store, shop and get back to wait for the bus. After walking over a mile – no grocery store, I headed back to the bus stop from a different direction. Now I have 20 minutes to catch the bus. Guess what? There’s the grocery store!! I ran in, tried to grab a few things quickly and rushed to the checkout where an older man had an entire cart full of food to check out. Now I’m sweating for real, checking my watch and trying to stay calm. 12 minutes, ten minutes and I’m nowhere near the bus stop. Finally, I get through the checkout and high tail it further up the street to where I’d been told to wait by the other bus driver. I arrived there with maybe 2 minutes to spare. The bus, however, didn’t come for another 10 minutes and when it did the driver blew right by me and stopped about a hundred yards away so that I had to run to catch the damn thing carrying whatever I had purchased. The driver then berated me in Italian about not standing in the right place!!! All I could do was say “si, si” and sit down. This ends the story of my first Italian bus trip.

We’ve had tons of rain for the past 2 days. So much rain that my awning filled and ripped a corner from the weight. I had to empty it a couple of times before bed and again this morning. It has gotten chilly. Only 64 degrees F (17 C for you Brits). Had to wear long pants and a sweater over my tee shirt today, although it did warm up to about 70 F (21 C) this afternoon. It’s getting quite chilly again now that the sun has gone down. I discovered a leak in the storage cabinet where I keep my shorts and some tee shirts. Everything was soaking wet and had to be hung out to dry. Hopefully, that’s it for the rain for now.

The area where I have usually been walking the dogs is at the top of the hill with a little valley below. There’s fencing so no one can go down there but one house fairly close to the hill has chickens. I’ve counted as many as 11 out at one time and I know there’s a rooster because I’ve hear him crowing. They’re beautiful birds – some white, a couple of black ones, a couple of red ones, etc. Henry and Polly (in particular) are fascinated by them. She stretches as far as she can to watch them. It’s pretty hilarious.

Tomorrow is our last day at Camping Village Il Poggetto. Monday we’re moving farther south to Bucine, which is just outside Arezzo and the area I’m hoping to find a place to rent. I’ll probably have to rent a car for a week or so to be able to view properties. Fingers crossed everyone that I find a place quickly!! 🤞

We had a helluva storm come through here last night. I’m really glad I had closed the roof vents because it thundered and absolutely poured down rain for hours. It’s been overcast all day and a bit chilly – enough to out on pants instead of shorts. It looks like it may rain again at some point.

Pretty boring day today. I’ve been reading and now knitting to pass the time. If the weather had been better I had planned to take a bus into Florence today as we leave here on Monday. We’re moving to a campground outside Arezzo, which is quite near where I would like to live. There are a number of properties that I want to look at, so I’ll probably rent a car once we’re settled in the campsite. I also need to find a grocery store as I’m getting low on fresh food.

I had dinner at the on site restaurant last night. Why is it that a woman eating alone gets ignored and couples or families get waiters falling all over them??! It seriously pisses me off!! I’m thinking about making a placard to put on any table I sit at that says “Yes, I am a woman eating alone, however for excellent service I tip generously”. What do you think?

Since I’m a little low on food I think I’m going to get a pizza from the restaurant for my dinner which I will of course share with the dogs!

That’s about it for me today. Until next time, ciao!

The picture above is a look down on the valley from where I walk the dogs.

I finished writing this blog about an hour ago and it disappeared before I could post it! Here goes again…

This is a view of part of the marina with a good sized yacht at anchor

We had another quiet day today. I ambushed Henry outside so I could cut his hair – he was not thrilled but he sure looks better and I hope he feels better with some of that hair off.

It took me until today to realize that the helicopters I heard constantly flying overhead weren’t for tourists. There is a military base just outside the gates to the marina and they’ve apparently been practicing or drilling or whatever. Usually 2 at a time so pretty noisy. At least they stop when it gets dark. I take that back. It’s dark now and I just heard them overhead again!

I went to the little store on site and picked up some of their fabulous salami (just like I used to get back in Massachusetts), provolone cheese, wine, bread and another 6-pack of 2 liter bottles. We seem to go through about 2 bottles a day between me and the dogs. There’s also a snack bar/bar next door that has yummy gelato. I had to have some, but of course I shared with Henry and Polly. 😊

I met a couple and their daughter from Surrey in the UK traveling in their motorhome. They have 2 adorable Yorkies named Buddy and Oscar. They’ve been on vacation traveling for almost 3 weeks but are headed home now. They didn’t like traveling those mountain roads any more than I did!

We have to leave the campsite by 10:00 am tomorrow and are heading for Camping Village Il Poggetto just south of Florence. Hopefully it will be our last campsite. I’m going to be looking for a rental property south of that area. Depending on what I can find, I hope we’ll be moving out of the van by mid- to late August or the first of September. Frankly, I can’t wait to get into a solid structure that I don’t have to move every few days. The dogs will be thrilled too. Is everyone keeping their fingers crossed that we’ll 1) get there safely without incident and 2) that I can find some place for us to live pretty quickly? I also have to start looking for a car because once I park this behemoth permanently I don’t think I’ll be using it again.

More from Il Poggetto…..