We got to Florence much sooner than we expected — it took about a little over 2 hours from Venice. After driving around for 1.5 hours — and I cannot say it was only that — we said, “OK, we didn’t want to be here anyway. So, we headed out of big-city Florence to the hill country of Tuscany, the country in Italy we most love. No matter that it was raining. We wanted to be in the gentle rolling hills, decked out in the splendor of olive trees and vineyards, and so we set up shop in San Gimignano.

Now the problem — besides rain — is that our hotel (on the central square, how cool is that?) does not have wifi so I can’t post any pictures, which we didn’t take today anyway.
Hey, we love it here. Absolutely the finest place in Italy for us. Tuscany.
I’m encouraged by the comments about the Pope’s book. Something coming for three more days.