We made it! The journey which began with a crazy idea two years ago…and after I was diagnosed with uterine cancer in December became my motivation for getting through all the crap related to cancer treatments and recovery…started on Saturday in South Carolina and ended with our arrival in Tavernelle Val di Pesa, a small town in the Chianti region of Tuscany, on Sunday afternoon.

What. A. Trip.

After a quick flight from Greenville to Washington Dulles, where we picked up our travel companion for the first two weeks of our month-long adventure, we flew to Brussels. The connection there was a bit frenzied, which was surprising to me considering we arrived around 6:30 a.m. local time on a Sunday. But strong tailwinds was causing all flights from the west to arrive nearly an hour ahead of schedule, and the assistance guys and gals really had to scurry to keep ahead of demand.

I am glad I listened to the advice my doctor offered (and yielded to mom’s requests) and arranged for wheelchairs for us at Dulles and Brussels. The Dulles connection was a bit tight, and I probably could have made it, but it was a LONG walk. But the Brussels connecting gates at Brussels were at least a mile apart, with a passport control station in between. No way I could have made that walk after a sleepless overnight flight.

Our assistance guy in Brussels was Will, a twenty-something robo-cutie from the UK. He was so attentive to us, and let Louise come with us through all the restricted, back-hallway shortcuts. Thanks to him, we were able to skip to the front of a LOOOOONG line at passport control and roll easily to our next gate.

Our ground time in Brussels was marked by a lack of freshly brewed decaf coffee for mom (ugh) and quick roll past dozens of very high-end airport shops. But no time to waste, because it was on to Florence!

The Florence airport was, in a word, a total zoo. Again, I am thankful that we arranged for wheelchairs, not due to the distance, but because if it were not for our chair guy, I’d still be trying to push my way through the crowd to get to the baggage carousel to get our suitcases. What a mess. The rental car process was also a zoo, but the attendant who wrote our contract, Daniela, was lovely and very helpful.

We managed to fit all our luggage, and three adult passengers, into what Italy considers a “full-size sedan” (thank god I lost that 120 pounds two years ago), then it was time to fire up the GPS and find the Lidl grocery store 4 minutes from the airport so we could purchase provisions before heading to the hours.

Did I say 4 minutes? More like 45. It took us the combined efforts of the TomTom and my phone’s Google Maps to find the darn store. And then it was another zoo…I’m sensing a theme here…as we navigated our way around harried Sunday shoppers and a very unpleasant Lidl employee who apparently didn’t think answering questions from customers was her job. Kinda wish I’d kept the wheelchair guy with us. But I have no idea where we would have put him in the car.

So after playing a game of “let’s jam these grocery bags into the nooks and crannies of this stuffed car” we fired up the Google maps again and headed to the villa.

But first, I had to confess to mom and Louise that I was totally stressed out by the prospect of driving in a country where I was unfamiliar with the driving laws, didn’t speak the language and was in an unfamiliar car. And I was terrified that I was going to miss a pedestrian walkway and kill someone. I told them they would need to be patient with me and OVER communicate directions and be my extra eyes.

They were great.

The 40-minute drive took us on the Autostrada (where the unofficial motto is “Get the FUCK out of my way!”) out of Florence and into Chianti, past gorgeous hillside towns, beautiful churches and villas, and miles and miles of vineyards and olive groves. When we finally exited the Autostrada, we took the local road through Tavernelle Val di Pesa and drove another 5 or so miles to our villa, which is part of a farmhouse complex consisting of several houses along the side of a ridge and surrounded by the requisite grape vines and olive groves.

The villa is GORGEOUS!

Our hosts, Lucia and her husband Andrea, are warm, welcoming, friendly and a lot of fun. The house seems to have anything anyone would ever want (except we haven’t found any mixing bowls yet), and the area is extremely quiet and relaxing. After a short orientation, Lucia and Andrea left us to settle in and unpack.

We hung out for an hour or so, then Louise and I whipped up a pot of soup while mom napped. After a light dinner, we headed off to our rooms to settle in for the night.

We have made a few plans for the first week — an all-day winery tour on Tuesday and a cooking class in a local restaurant on Thursday. And next week, we’ll head to Venice for two nights to get a taste of that city.

But for now, we are going to focus on living La Dolce Vita in our lovely villa in Tuscany. Ciao!