finding paradise

tuscany 1...
we practically ran to the airport shuttle bus in milan the next morning. angels' wings could not have carried us fast enough out of that lovely city. we were greeted by a very pleasant older, albeit slow-moving, italian man behind the car rental counter. he gradually handed us our keys and we were off to the parking garage. we then spent a solid five minutes sitting inside the tiny car in the parking garage. reason? the reverse function on the stick shift appeared to be "broken." marcus futilely arm-wrestled with that thing back and forth and left and right. when it miraculously slipped into gear on one final attempt, he said audibly, "how did i do that??" having zero experience with standard cars, i could offer no reasonable help. just as i was about to reach for the manual, he found the ridiculously simple solution. gently push down. no man-handling necessary. obstacle one.
now that we could actually back out of our parking space, we started to fumble through our next venture: navigating our way out of the city. obstacle two. i am the designated "in-charge-of-maps" person. i look things up before we go. i print the prices, hours, locations, directions, maps...you name it. however...being the genius that i am, i for some reason thought that printing step by step google directions to everywhere we were going would suffice without the maps. what my genius self did not plan for, however, was the fact that european roads are like a tangled web. there is no street grid system at all. and there is no such thing as a simple way in or out of any place. not to mention the fact that every road sign has to be hunted down like you're on a where's waldo search. AND they're in a foreign language, so forget trying to remember the name of the street you're looking for without having to check the spelling fifty times. and by then, you've breezed past the road you were looking for in the first place. so lesson learned: maps are not just nice to have, they are mandatory. luckily, marcus has pretty good instincts when it comes to directions, and we are both somewhat intelligent human beings. so even though we did head the complete opposite direction on a major highway for 10 minutes and end up in a hideous morning traffic jam trying to correct this error, we somehow managed to find our way to our next destination, the incomparable village of figline valdarno.
in all sincerity, i feel like we actually tasted the afterlife in italy. milan was like hell--a horrid place that you literally scream to get out of. but figline.....sweet figline.....a heaven like no other. we left the autostrada after a few hours of driving and headed off into the tuscan hill country. you know those cheap tuscan paintings that EVERY home decor store sells with lined hillsides and rows of pointed trees set in hues of yellow and green and red? well i always thought those were generated to look like an "ideal" countryside. they are just too perfect and symmetrical to be actual places. but, oh they are not. they are exact replicas of every single twist and turn of tuscany. you feel like you're living in a painting. there's no other way to describe it. imagine our relief, gratitude, amazement about this being our next destination. we drove through the village and up a small country road which shortly turned into a dirt road. we curved our way up the jagged path to an immaculate olive farmhouse perched atop a hill. we turned off the engine and stared at each other. could this be real? we stepped out of the car. peaceful sounds, peaceful smells, peaceful views. yes, it must be heaven. for the next several minutes, we would literally take three or four steps and then stop and just stare at each other in bewilderment. i'm not sure that we even said more than two words. we were both feeling the same incredulous feelings and couldn't help just trying to soak it all in. standing in the courtyard like two gaping idiots, we were soon greeted by our innkeeper, the mild and gentle patricia. she graciously checked us in and offered us breakfast and lunch options. she then apologized that she would not be putting us up in the smaller room we had originally booked. to "save heating costs" she was instead putting us in one of the VILLAS, complete with living room and kitchen. no apology necessary. when she led us to the little house, we started staring at each other again. and there we were.....in the middle of this gorgeous countryside, in our own private cottage, without another soul around for miles. incredible. i don't think we stopped smiling for the first few hours. living in a painting didn't seem to cut it anymore. more like living in a dream. we took a bottle of wine from the main kitchen and sat there in silence with the breeze blowing around us. green grass. the scent of olives. cold, stone steps. trickling water. brilliant sunset. sigh......paradise.