Alex Safely in the Fold

The E&J Sauer brood is all together in Italy. Alex successfully navigated the Rome Airport bus and train systems and made it to Chiusi, where we were waiting for her in the train station. Her only glitch was that her flight was delayed by three hours out of New York; inexplicably the Delta web site stated "on time" at both ends so we arrived in Chiusi three hours before necessary. Oh well.

The extra time allowed us to take a tour of the Etruscan water and cistern systems, and as I've always said, you haven't lived until you've seen an Etruscan water system! Actually, it was pretty cool. A series of tunnels literally under the city, with a monster cavern (cistern) for major storage. The system dates back to 200 BC and supplied year-round clean water for the entire city. It was such a good idea, the Roman sacked the city and started copying it as part of its empire.

When we got back to our apartment, Alex was pretty bushed so we all went down to the pool for a refreshing dip, then some serious "laying out". Since we were unsure how the entire day would go and what time we would actually arrive back "home", we ordered dinner from the castle (they have a catering staff where you simply put in your order(s) two days in advance -- I guess some people get most of their meals this way). Anyway, at precisely 7:30 pm two woman knocked on our door carrying trays of food; lot's of food!! I am not exaggerating when I say we only at 25% of what the brought, so we actually bought four meals in this one shot. It was such beautiful food that's what today's picture shows.

Today it's off to Siena! Another day in the mid 90s with a cloudless sky. Great lake weather!