Saturday - Santa Marguerita to Montegufoni

Breakfast at the hotel was just like you would expect in a hotel but it did the job.

We headed off for Tuscany at about 10:15am. This time we stuck to the freeways all the way to the turnoff to Montespertoli. Our route took us past Pisa but we decided not to stop there today.

For the first part of the trip there were still lots of tunnels and, as Kristina had warned us, it wasn't easy motoring. The second half of the trip consisted mainly of open, straight(er) freeways. But the freeways were still narrow and full of drivers wanted to travel at ridiculous speeds.

We arrived at Montegufoni at about 2pm. Wow! It was a genuine castle built about 900 years ago. A magnificent building. You enter through a huge doorway into a huge courtyard before finding the reception. The views over the valley are beautiful.

They told us that it was siesta time and the office would be open again at 2:30pm but suggested we come back after 3pm. He suggested a nice restaurant for lunch about 1km up the road at Montagnana.

He was right about the restaurant - it was great. Great Italian food and great Italian service. At the end of the meal he brought us an extra dish that he told us later was tripe. We booked again to come back tonight.

We booked in at the castle and were taken to our suite that is in a building about 100m from the castle. The suite consists of a common area and two double bedrooms. Quite spacious. Nice Tuscan architecture with quarry tile floors, timberwork and timber furniture. But no modern luxuries such as TV, radio or toaster.

After unpacking the car, I decided to go to bed because I was feeling quite sick. We concluded the culprit was the tripe we had at the end of lunch. Pam and Suzy did the washing and then Suzy decided to go to bed because she was feeling sick too. Pam & Ralf went back to the restaurant by themselves while Suzy and I recovered in bed.

I decided to go back to my normal practice of refusing to eat food until I know what it is. Better to be safe than sorry.