Wednesday was all about personal grooming and packing.
We walked up to North Finchley and back several times for eyebrows, lashes and haircuts. Lunch at a local Japanese restaurant in the middle, then spray tans for Pauline, Jen and me. Add in a quick trip to the supermarket and packing and that pretty much filled Wednesday. We had an evening of football World Cup with salmon bagels and champagne just to ready ourselves for Italy.
On Thursday morning we were all ready when the taxi arrived at 7.30 am as organised for our trip to Heathrow.
There was a small crisis when we got to Finchley Central and JenY realised her phone was under her pillow. Fortunately Pauline always plans with a time buffer so we were ok but JenY was ultra stressed until she could actually locate the phone.
We actually arrived before the bag drop opened and the process to get through security and on to the plane was incredibly smooth and fast.
Not so smooth and fast at the other end though. Pisa airport’s automatic document readers weren’t working and we all had to be photographed and fingerprinted.
We had a taxi booked to get us to Livorno where we picked up the rental car. I’d booked a manual and got a MG. It’s basic but we got there. It’s actually over 2 hours to Guadalupe Resort and we needed some cash but with Jen’s expert navigating we managed to locate an ATM and reach our destination in about 2 hours 30.
Guadalupe is lovely. A rustic rural property with enough accommodation for all of us and areas of lawn, olive groves, grape vines, and organic vegetable garden and an orchard.
Our apartment has a lounge/kitchen area with bathroom behind and a double bedroom. There’s a mezzanine bedroom up a tight spiral staircase where Jen will stay on Thursday night before moving to a 3 bedroom apartment with 2 other bridesmaids.
From Friday we are sharing with Mark, whose luggage did not leave Houston when he flew to Rome. A shopping trip in Rome was required.
After arriving we went and had dinner at a local restaurant as the restaurant here was closed. It was a lovely place with great food and wines.
