and on the other days

We seemed to spend our first three days in Italy in the hire car, getting to Tuscany from Bologna, then driving round after the Giro. Aware that we'd have another big drive to get to Lazio for the last two days of our holiday, we were happy to spend time at the house and in our little town. Mr FF had offered to install satellite tv for the house owners which kept him busy and left me free to laze around. I did do some dorissing, always a pleasure in Italy, and a bit of weeding in the garden but a lot of time was spent sitting outside. The local riding school which the first floor terrace looks onto held some kind of gymkhana, this involved riding round various obstacles, a very long lunch and a bit more riding. I didn't do much knitting, started a pair of cotton socks for Mr FF but really it was a bit hot.

Late one afternoon we went down to Lucca, it was a pleasure to walk round the beautiful town as the temperature cooled, the day trippers left and the shops started opening again for the evening. We had a coffee beside the city walls, explored the narrow streets and joy of joys found the wool shop was open this time. I was served by a very knowledgeable man who told me he had once travelled to Edinburgh on his vespa, he said he fell off at Viareggio, not far away but after that he had a comfortable ride and liked Edinburgh very much. I bought this beautiful alpaca that I have in mind to knit a blanket for my niece's baby and some sock wool, all made in Italy and great value.

We were up early every day, ate all our meals outside, spent evenings sitting out watching the fire flies and exhausted from doing not much slept soundly in this beautiful antique bed. I know I said no more Giro but I just wanted to tell you that when we were leaving we met in the airport queue a charming couple from Edinburgh who had been to Rome for the weekend blissfully unaware that the boys were coming to town. The man showed me his photo of Lance, Lance on the time trial in his skin suit, and kindly offered to email it to me. It arrived yesterday, woweee, thanks Aditya, you've made this retired lady very happy.