Thursday, October 13, started out with a beautiful sunrise:

I peaked out the window around 7:00ish, admired it then crawled back into bed! A few hours later, upon rousting out, the day was cloudy and drizzling! My knee was feeling about normal but to avoid irritating it again, we took off for a day of just wandering the close vicinity in the car. Our first stop was Strada in Chianti which is within 5 miles (I think) and closest grocery, butcher, etc. I bought matches - the Italians didn't understand Google translation but luckily had enough English to know what I wanted! We are so fortunate that so much of the world's population speaks English. I also had two delicious pastries!  Here is the rainy piazza:

Terracotta trash cans! Finding a factory with a public store is on our 'to do' agenda!

The church was our next stop - a Romanesque one:

Garden of Eden

We now headed out towards our main objective without really knowing how to get there but, lo and behold we made it the first try! 

The drizzle had stopped so we had a very nice time visiting this special place along the Greve River that honors the fallen soldiers that helped liberate this area of Italy. It is always so humbling to stand among a military cemetery. There are 4,397 headstones here with 213 unknowns, the majority being from a bomber division.

This is a photo of a picture in the visitors center to give you an idea of the overall layout.

This is looking from entrance towards the memorial.

This is part of the memorial.

A partial view of one side of the graves.

I have many more photos but must move on with this blog. I have decided I do need to write each day so trying to catch up tonight. Or if not each day, then just completely skip that day.  We left the cemetery taking back roads looking for a place to have lunch. We ended up back in Impruneta at one of the places that was closed on our last visit. La Loggettina was a perfect spot after being out in the damp weather - delicious!

Sarah's tagliatelle with boar sauce

My special of the day - seafood pasta.

Plus we got a gorgonzola calzone to go for tonight's dinner!  In checking to see if the pastry shop was open - it wasn't , we found another one with a helpful young man from Grassina which is where we wanted to go next!! So armed with his directions, we once again set off. What a drive!! These were barely lanes though they were paved!!

Spectacular vistas though!

Intrepid driver Sarah prevailed and we made it to Grassina which turns out to be a fairly large town only 4 km from Florence so could probably be considered south area of Florence!!

Interesting design.

We were now ready to head home - found a more direct route so made good time.

This is the lane to our house - take the right fork! 

The host had turned on the heat so the house was a warm welcome. He is surprised at how chilly it is plus it rained hard again tonight. We rested, Sarah figured out where we had been then she journaled while I blogged. We then had dinner of salad and part of the calzone.

Now way past bedtime! We are planning on a 9:00ish start tomorrow. Can you guess our destination? It is named after an author of a well-known children's classic!