This entry was written on the bus to Montalcino two weekends ago. I am trying to get Firenze up and an update of what’s been going on here. Much to tell on that front, and hope that will be up by the end of my day. I just included this to have a current account of what happened that weekend and the terrors of traveling into the unknown.
“Under the tuscan sun; these words have never rang so clear. We are on the bus to Montalcino, well Buonconvent, looking at the rolling tuscan hills covered with snow reflecting the late afternoon’s last rays. The crazy, stern looking, with a mean mug, bus driver yelled at me in italian for asking if this was the bus to Montalcino. He kept saying no Buonconvento and that we were wrong. Luckily there were a few peole on the bus that spoke broken english and explained what was going on.
We weren’t the only ones who had trouble with the driver. When he arrived at our station (a difficult task for us to do ourselves) he blocked in a BMW. It was a dad picking up his family when they got to their car they were quite surprised. The man started to ask our bus driver to move so he could get out only to get cut off with a very loud “No!” The argument escalated into a yelling match before the wife started honking their horn. The man went and returned from his car with his cell phone, demanding the drivers name and supervisor until the driver relented and pulled forward. This guy needs a new profession…
Last night after dinner, we went to Barrone Rosso, a bar/club that a friend who studied in Siena suggested. It was fun but loud, with very eclectic American music including We Are Family, Build Me up Buttercup, and then Lady Gaga. Besides the fact that the guys in this joint needed to shower we all had a good time. I mean there is no way that they can’t tell that they smell. I would have to run 20 miles a day for 2 weeks without showering once to smell this bad.
Today after lunch, we walked around some more before heading to the bus station to Montalcino. We were told it is 3 stops on bus #10. we got on 10 and after three stops, we were no where near the main train station where our bus would pick us up. We ended up doing a loop through the outskirts of Siena and back to our original stop before the same bus took us 3 stops to the train station (don’t ever ask me how bus routes work).
At the train station, we bought our bus tickets to our next destination for a 4:45 departure. We killed the hour and a half we had playing old card games like Scat and Egyptian Rat Screw. A crazy, maybe homeless, guy came up to us muttering about the Secret Service, CIA, FBI, Stalin, and 007 or as he put it “Zero Zero Sette.” He then said something and mentioned Tony Blair and flipped him the bird. We tried to resume our card game…
Now that we had made it on the bus, we thought we were doing fine. We were in some town when we tried to make a right and suddenly stopped. We had 2 cars to our left and cars parked on our right. The bus driver didn’t say anything and proceeded to sit for 20 minutes until the 2 cars on our left moved and the parked car got moved. A policeman had yelled at him, about 6 cars in front of us (trying to go the opposite way) turned around and about 30 cars were stuck behind us. This guy doesn’t give two shits.
After this escapade it was “smooth” sailing into our unknown stop/change over in Buonconvento. Our new American helper from South Bronx told us this is where to get off but had no clue what to do. After that, no one spoke english and we marched towards the Tourist office. Remember that it is 5:45 and our next bus is apparently at 6 and we had no clue where we are (and now having checked it, it’s not in any of the 3 guidebooks I brought). Finally a man gave me direction sin Italian to the bus station and once we saw the bus we started running (5:57!). We reached the bus with a large digital MONTALCINO written on the top of the windshield and proceeded to sit for 20 minutes until we were scheduled to leave (turns out we were early).
Now all is apparently well (ignorance is bliss). And we should arrive to have a good calm night in the 2,100 person wine town of Montalcino. For so few people to produce 333,000 cases of wine annually is quite a staggering feat. It will all be worth that first glass of Brunello di Montalcino.
….Pray for our safety”
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