Almost ready for dolce far niente mode

After two days and nights without heat, and weather outside in the 40s and low 50s, we finally warmed up just before bedtime Thursday night. The heating tecnico said it was the electrician’s fault. The electrician said the tecnico had shorted out the electrical circuit. We will never know what actually caused the problem, but we were thankful just the same that after three service calls, the heater finally fired up just before we went to bed.

We spent most of Thursday driving to Maranello to see our friend and former exchange student Simone. We drove off from the visit with his dad’s car, which we are renting for a couple of months at a bargain rate while his dad is out of the country. This temporarily solves our problem of how to get up the long hill to Montecarlo. The car came in terribly handy today, when it rained for long periods of time, as we needed to go grocery shopping. On the drive back, I recalled the times we once had to carry backpacks and bike baskets full of goods while riding in the pouring rain. We love riding our bikes in Tuscany, but not so much in February.

We haven’t figured out what we’ll do when the time comes to return the car, but that’s a problem for another day. Friday I also had to return the other car that we had rented at the Pisa airport and then take a train home. Lucy picked me up at the San Salvatore train station. With our unpacking and arranging for heat, cars and groceries, we haven’t fully slipped into the dolce far niente (the sweetness of doing nothing) mode yet, but that should come soon.