Less than a week to go

This is the view I expect to be seeing everyday over the next 4 weeks; from Villa Chianti in Tuscany. I'm headed there in 6 days for a 5-week trip, with the last week to be spent in Florence. After the 10 days that I spent in Italy last year, I'm really ready for this trip.
I leave on Friday from San Francisco airport and fly to Frankfurt. After just an hour in the Frankfurt airport I fly then to Pisa, where I will meet up with my friend Marilyn at which point, in our rented car, we will head to the villa to start our time.
Villa Chianti is right near the town of Tavernelle in Tuscany, about half-way between Florence and Siena.
The reason for this trip is Marilyn's birthday. She is turning 70 and wants to do so in style. So she has rented this villa for a month and has invited friends and family to come spend a week with her. Allen & I are there the whole time to be the desk clerks/van drivers/concierges/etc. We're managing the guests for her, one could say.
I need the break and am really looking forward to getting away. It's been a long time, it seems, since I've had a day off and I'm ready. I've never been away for this long, unless you count my year in Australia. But that was more like living there than traveling there. None-the-less, 5 weeks is a good amount of time. I'm sure it will practically fly by.
Thanks for reading my blog. I hope, depending on access to the internet in the town near the villa, to enter once or twice a week. Who knows--this could be the last entry. I hope not though.