Day two of our Tuscan tour started with breakfast in a lovely little village near to where we stayed. Since Friday is market day in Colle di Val d'Elsa, we decided to walk to the market after breakfast. As it turns out, this market - like many markets we saw in Italy - is less about food and more about clothes, leather and household goods. We managed to find a few stalls selling fresh fruits, fish, meats and pastries. Of course everything tasted great.

Stocked with fruit for the day, we headed southwest winding our way through the Tuscan countryside . We stopped for lunch and a stroll in Massa Marittima, but quickly got lost. Massa Marittima has an "old" and a "new" town, which is a bit comical since the "new" town was built in the 15th century by Siena shortly after it took over Massa Marittima. (And we think that a two year-old cell phone old!) The sites we wanted to see are in the "old town". It took us about 45 minutes to get our bearings and figure out which was the "old" and which was the "new". Once we got our bearings we realized that we were just a few blocks from where we wanted to be - the main square of the "old" town, Piazza Garibaldi. We stopped at a charming little sidewalk cafe for a lunch of insalata di mar and ravioli di pescia. Yum!

We wrapped up the second day of our Tuscan tour along the Tyrrhenian Sea, on the coastal road that leads from Follonica to Rome. Unfortunately it is a Friday afternoon on the last weekend of summer, so the towns and beaches are packed with Italians enjoying one last get-away to the beach . By the time we made it through Tuscany and to the Province of Lazio it was already late in the afternoon. Since we were due in Rome by 6 pm we decided to leave the beach traffic behind and hop onto the Autostrada.

Although we made good time getting to the expressway that bypasses Rome, finding our B&B was an adventure. We got mixed up trying to find the entrance to the bypass - the GRA. (A GPS probably would not have helped us, as the tangle of exits and entry ramps are confusing. They all start and stop in the same place, without clear signage.) A half an hour later we finally figured things out and we were on our way. It took another 35 minutes to circle Rome and get to the San Basilio neighborhood where our host lived. Unfortunately Maria was not there when we rang the buzzer for her apartment. Although we had her cell number, we still had not bought a sim card for our cell phone. (Note to self: buy a sim card tomorrow!) As luck would have it, there was a pay phone nearby, but - surprise - it was not working. Forty-five minutes later, and with the help of a young McDonalds employee who spoke English and let us use his cell phone, we found Maria. Ah, the adventures of traveling.

Tomorrow - Rome!