Day 8: Lost in the Fog

Today is the day we head to our villa in Montalcino where our family and friends will be joining us!   We run and grab the Fiat, pay a ridiculously large fee for parking and pack that baby to the gills.  Then we try and program the GPS to get us to the villa.  The problem is that the name of the villa is Pian dell'Asso which also happens to be the name of the region the villa is located in.  And...to compound that problem there is no street address.  It's off of a long road, on a road with no name and there is no house number.  That's just how it goes in Italy.  You spend half of your time utterly lost.  So we type in what we have and head out.

The day starts out beautiful and sunny and the scenery is amazing.  At some point we get off the path the GPS has plotted out (which happens a lot) and it recalculates and it seems that we weren't off after all.  We eventually get hungry and in the middle of absolutley nowhere is a little rest stop.  We pull in and there are two buildings.  One seems to be like a convenience store and behind there is a building with food.  We go in and realize quickly that there isn't anyone who speaks English but there are a ton of people ordering some very handsome sandwiches and it smells delicious.  Dan has to run to the bathroom so I hang back and watch how it's working until he gets back.  We have to go to the register, tell the lady what we want, pay and then take the receipt to another lady who will then make our sandwiches.  It's a little rocky and we aren't quite sure what we ordered but in the end we were rewarded with a succulent porchetta sandwich and a salumi sandwich.  YUM!  Back on the road.

We start to get more into the mountains and there is tunnel after tunnel and we wind our way on some roads with steep drop offs but it's fun.  GPS starts to give us some more turns to take and judging from the time we are close!  I pull out the "detailed" directions the wedding planner emailed us and start looking for the cues.  We find the road SP14...yes!  As we start driving on this super windy road the fog starts to settle in and it is THICK.  We drive and drive and drive and I realize that we should have been seeing our landmarks long ago.  But the GPS shows that the villa is right around the bend!  We get around the bend and...there is nothing but fields.  GPS: "You have arrived at your destination."  Me: "F U GPS!"  I try turning on my roaming on my phone to see if I have any better luck with that.  Nope.  We reach the end of SP14 and pull off into some warehouse parking lots and try to figure out what the heck to do.  We reset the GPS and even though we are about in tears we are hopeful as it seems to have found someplace different.  As we start driving back up SP14 the fog is clearing up.  The GPS tells us to make some turns and we find a dirt road that leads up to some villas.  But not the villa we are looking for sadly.  We end up in the middle of someone's vinyard and I'm about to lose it.  Dan gets out of the car, regains his composure and we start driving again.  We get back to the end of SP14 and pull back into the warehouses to finally break down and cry.  It's at this point that I realize there is a road way in the back of this parking lot and it clicks...this is where the directions said to go but we got off course way back and came from an entirely different road which is why the directions made no sense!!!  We take the dirt road and find a tiny sign for Pian dell'Asso and pull in and there is a guy there and we are stoked.  We weren't exactly at the right place but he directed us next door to a gorgeous villa.  Our villa.  It should have taken us 2 hours, it took 4.

We pull up and get out of the car, excited to finally have made it and anxious to see the house.  There is a car there already and I figure it's someone to let us in but there isn't anyone.  So we walk around the house testing doors until we find one that opens and go in.  There is nobody.  Weird.  Anyway, we start to check the place out.  It's dark and a little scary frankly but we start to throw open shutters and when the light hits the rooms they are beautiful.  I open one door and see feet at the foot of the bed in the dark room.  It's Ryan and Carrie!  Zonked out.  So we left them alone to sleep and continued to explore.  Gradually people started trickling in and it was so amazing to realize that we were in Italy with some of the most special people in our lives and we were about to share our wedding day with them!  That night we ventured up to Montalcino to find some food and ate at the Grappa Blu restaurant and it did not disappoint.  My brother's kid was so tired that he literally fell asleep on the table.  We all felt his pain.  Then what?  Gelato of course!  Then back to the house to settle in for the night.

Tomorrow, tour of a lifetime with friends.