Tuesday - Traveling to Cortona (Under A Tuscan Sun)

Today we were all up early as it's a travel day. Breakfast for all and then we needed to get Bonnie and Jane out the door as their taxi arrived at 7:20 to take them to the station. Then Martha and I did a pick up of the apartment and put it back into the shape that we found it in. The owner has lots of knicknacks setting around....pretty to look at but we had to move things a bit so we had a place for our things. Now everything is back and in good shape for when the owner comes in at 10:30. Our taxi for the train station will arrive about 10:45 and then we will be off for Cortona.

Meanwhile we are busy with our computers making good use of the internet while we have it as in Cortona we will have to go to an internet shop to find wifi. I think that I will post this for now and finish this day at a later time. Our landlady came right on time...soon we were all checked out and waiting downstairs for our taxi to the train station. While I watched the luggage At the station, Martha went back to where she had purchased the sim phone chip for her new Italian phone yesterday. She has not yet been able to make it work so off she went and we think the clerk had not activated it yesterday as promised .today he said one hour....yep after one hour she had a working phone. So now Martha is a happy camper. We are on the train headed to Chiusi where we will change trains before we get to Cortona. Our landlord, Simon is planning to meet our train and give us a ride up to the top of the hill where the town is located...from the sound of it we would have quite a walk trying to find it by ourselves.

. Yes, we do come in town by the seedier sides but out in the countryside the views of the Itialian landscapes and buildings are beautiful. Martha has been getting some great pictures for her slideshow. We have Arrived in Cortona and Simon bless is heart did meet our train and drove us to our new apartment. The building in over 1000 years old but charmingly decorated, even has 2 bedrooms but for only 2 nights we are only going to use the larger bed. We found our way to city hall and found that sitting on its steps gives us a good internet signal. So we have gone to the market and are back home charging our equipment and typing our blogs. Soon we will return to city hall to post our journals and check email again before sitting down at one of the quaint restaurants on the square for some dinner. Heard from Bonnie that she and Jane are safe in Serrento.

talked with a couple on the square, who will be snowbirds in Sarasota this winter, about the bad news from Home. They had bought the last USA Today and shared news about our government shutdown. Bad news for everyone especially the veterans and anybody working for the government. I hope people remember this when the next elections come up.