Quiet Sunday in Certaldo

Sunday was another very hot day, so we took it very easy. We went to 7:30 Mass at the church in main Certaldo (as opposed to the 9 o’clock Mass held every Sunday in Certaldo Alto). Afterwards, we stopped at our favorite pastacceria near the church and had a cappuccino and a pastry.

We got into the car, and Bill put the top down (something we do surprisingly infrequently because either we have too much stuff in the trunk or its too hot), and we drove around the area outside Certaldo. The hillsides are just gorgeous in the Chianti region in which we are currently living.

Our plan all along has been to send some stuff home once we got settled into Certaldo and no longer needed to live out of a suitcase. Ultimately, our hope is that we can send enough stuff back home before we leave that when we walk out of here to head back to France to drop off our car and catch our plane home, we will be down to our two suitcases that turn into backpacks. It seems almost impossible, but we are determined. Bill has never complained, but it has really been difficult hauling all of our luggage into our hotel room or apartment when we land someplace and then back into our car when we leave. He will be especially glad when we only have a couple of suitcases.

So, we spent much of the day going through all of our things and deciding what we could send home right now and what we need to hang onto. Our plan is to locate the Mailbox Plus store that is somewhere between Certaldo and Poggibonsi and mail one box home Monday. At some point nearer when we are departing Certaldo, we will send another.

We also went through our books. One bag that Bill has been hauling around is full of just books. We have gone through all but about six of them, and we are going to take the ones we have already read to the English-language library that Bill knows about in Lucca. We don’t want to carry them home and we don’t want to throw them away (although before we came up with this idea, I was leaving books behind as I finished them).

We cooked a big Tuscan t-bone steak on the grill. Having gotten accustomed to being alone here at the Priest’s House, we were somewhat disgruntled that the couple from Denmark was sitting outside on the patio (though they have every right to do so). But we just went down and lit the grill and as we waited for them to burn and cook our steak, we had a nice conversation with them. They are on a three-week holiday, and after a week here, plan on heading north. People are always surprised when we tell them that we left our home on April 26. It is a bit of an adventure, isn’t it?