Another lazy morning, up about 8:30.  Our routine the last few days had been to take the laptop down to the lobby, where there was free wi-fi, check email, and then eat breakfast.  This morning Lana got an email saying that here voice mailbox back home was full.  That was odd.  We had both changed our outgoing messages to explain that we were out of the country, and listing whom people should call if they needed anything…so there was no reason for anyone to be leaving voicemails.  We dug out our international calling card and checked in.  Somehow, our new voicemail messages had been erased, and our old, standard “Leave me a message and I will get right back to you” messages were playing.  And it happened on BOTH of our cell phones.  We never figured out what happened, but folks were calling for us, not getting the information that they needed, and were not getting return calls.  We were TICKED.  We checked all of our messages and contacted as many people back as we could via email, saving the callbacks for later (since it was 3AM back home).  We also changed our outgoing messages back to what they were supposed to be.

In our business, our phones are our lives.  We never turn our cell phones off.  When we are going to be unavailable for any length of time, we always change our messages so that our customers can get service.  Having this happen really burned us up, and, in then end, cost both of us business.  Lesson learned…even when traveling internationally (in other words, out of cell range), we will make some kind of arrangements to check our voicemail daily. 

The tour was on a large double decker bus, and took us up some tight little roads that reminded me of North Carolina.  The tour dropped us at a winery/castle where there were snacks and a tasting, and then to a little town called Greve where they dropped us off to sightsee and shop.  It was too cold to do either, so Lana and I made one loop around the square, then headed back to the bus, where we both nodded off.  Overall, the tour was OK.  The drive out was very pretty, with the trees showing their fall colors, and the winery was interesting, but it really wasn’t worth 40E per person.  It seems like the best way to do the Tuscan wine country is in a rental car, where you can really get out and explore.

We were back at the station at 7, so we walked back to the hotel, where Lana returned some messages from this morning (it was about noon at home by this time), and we went out to dinner.  When we walked in, the owner (I never did get his name) greeted us with two glasses of wine, and apologized for our table not being ready yet.  In his simple English he explained that people were slow to leave tonight, because nobody wanted to go out in the cold!  The wine was good, the room was warm, and we didn't care.

 Now ya see it, now ya don't!

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