It was time to leave Venice.  Never enough, we both agreed.

Elisa walked us (carrying my suitcase) to the boat and we could see the sun rising over Venice.  I took this shot from the vap:

The train ride went smoothly; we had to change in Mestre but the Intercity went all the way to Arezzo, 4 hours from there.

We decided to walk the 20 minutes to the Antiche Mura B&B from the train station because there were no taxis and several people waiting before us.  As long as it wasn’t raining, I was up for the walk which proved to be quite strenuos going up hill with our luggage.  So, we got an unexpected, good work out.

Check in went smoothly.  This place is a little less adorable and more in need of an update than I expected but we are fine.  

By this time it was just after 2:00 so we went out to find a place we ate in on our last day-trip visit.  We walked right by it because it was closed so we just wandered a bit, not knowing one building from the next.  I need to do some research!  It seems this town really closes up on Mondays and that yesterday they had 100.000 people here for the opening of their Christmas festivities. We finally saw this little spot with an open sign. 

The woman was just coming to turn it around but she said we could come in.  We got this lovely plate of Tuscan appetizers, including a small bowl of hot pappa pomodoro in the center, and 2 glasses of red wine and walked around some more when it started to rain.  Back at the B&B for a rest.

For dinner we walked, not far, to another closed place and jsut happend to find an open trattoria, La Cantina del Doc.  We had two fabulous plates of house made pasta—mine with broccoli and crispy prosciutto, Ken’s with radicchio and pears.  The pasta itself was the star of these dishes.  We also shared a plate of spinach and finished with vin santo and cantucci.  

It was a very Tuscan culinary day.

Back at the B&B we watched another Homeland and went to sleep.