THB has a new perspective on Life. People are more important than events. The Flavors of Tuscany tour is comprised of brief visits to pretty, old, well preserved village, towns and one major city (Sienna). During the bus rides and walking tours, the tour's guide, Marco, managed to sap the energy and beauty out of the experience. Eventually THB took out his earbuds during the walking potion; THB couldn't take the mic away from Marco on the bus.
Marco on the right. This was the only pic of him that THB took the entire trip, and he is in it by mistake.
If Marco had an agenda as THB would summarize it: to convince the tour members that we were fortunate to be on his tour, he was special, Tuscany was special, and it was almost a "religious experience of joy" to be under his guidance for a week. So lucky!
It got to the point where some members were checking with each other to see what they would rate Marco. Some suspected he was takin kickbacks from restaurants. Enough. THB didn't like the guy.
Accommodations: All had very nice rooms, even our bonus night in the Hilton. The chicken disk staff at the Hilton was easily the most inefficient, rude, didn't understand what was so important about a printed receipt, and soooooooo slow.
Surprises
- The 10+ hour drive from the Munich airport to the Castello didn't actually seem that long. And THB didn't think he slept during the drive.
- Having a gelato every day for a week even seemed excessive to THB. However, in Florence (no longer on the tour) THB and DB kept up the pace.
- Vaping is still a thing in Italy and Germany.
- THB had no trouble ordering a brewski at both lunch and dinner (on the same day). What brought on this behavior? The beer tasted really good!
- Prices for food were very reasonable. Equivalent to about 75% of US prices when dining out.
- THB finally found out why his mother salted every dish brought to her (even before tasting anything). She must have spent more time in Tuscany than he knew, and probably salted every slice of bread she consumed.
- A few members of the tour were willing to talk about DJT, mostly the ones whose kids had been DOGE'd out of their jobs or lived in a blue bubble in a red state. When the price increases of medical care start soaring (including high prices for vaccines), maybe more of them will be regretful about their votes (or, probably not, seems like a lot of people in the western democracies are craving "strong" crooks, er, strong leaders who lack a scintilla of compassion).
- THB thinks there used to be a TV show called Fear Factor and he knows that Survivor is still running. Who knew these would be every day experiences in daily life. Not sure, was there something called Lawyer Up (before all the good ones are no longer accepting clients or spending time in penal facilities themselves).
- Even the Uffizi Gates are fake, the real ones been moved somewhere else.
Book Reviews:
Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (novel, pub'd 1985, read by Lee Horsley): A terrific book, and the mini-series was great also (though dated), and. while it takes a long time to get through, this mammoth novel is so well done you end up wishing it went on or much longer. Two retired Texas Ranges are living in the barely populated town of Lonesome Dove, situated on the north side of the Rio Grande. A former Ranger tells them that Montana is a virgin territory that would make a great place to run a cattle ranch. So they agree to round up a herd of cattle, gather up some cowboys and horses, and traipse due north in search of the ideal spot to plunk down. Highly Highly Recommended
Lone Star Rising, The Revolutionary Birth of the Texas Republic, William Davis (pub'd 2004, read by Jonathan Hogan): Almost a day-by-day history of the initial settling in the Texas territory by colonialists moving west to find better opportunities and occupying's land that was part of Mexico. Fit in real well with THB's listening to Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy and Lonesome Dove. Recommended if you like mixing fiction and non-fictrion.
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