A beautiful morning dawns with the light haze burning off the hills to the south. There is not a cloud in the sky and a gentle breeze stirs the leaves. Highs in the 80s are predicted.

Now let me vent about the apartment. In America we are guaranteed, in the constitution, the rights of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, a dish washer, a garbage disposal and a dryer. Certain rights are not universal in Italy especially the last three.

Without a garbage disposal we are required to eat EVERYTHING on the plate so there is less to scrape into the garbage can so nothing goes down the drain (where the garbage disposal is supposed to reside). Yes, it is me who does the dishes and cleans the kitchen after Ann’s gourmet meals. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I take the plastic draw string garbage bag down stairs and set it next front door where it is picked up at 8:00 magically.

About the dryer issue. Ann did several loads of washing the first day we arrived. Yes we have a washer. The laundry then needs to be hung to dry. Remember it rained the first two days we were here? It took three days of stooping through doorways and stepping around hanging light fixtures before some of the garments began to dry. Today, for the first time we can walk not like Neanderthals through our apartment. We have no outside line to hang the washing.

Vent over. I will survive though.

Ann and I went to the Chianti region town of Greve today to taste wine. In this delightful little town is an enoteca (wine tasting shop). This is not your ordinary wine shop, though. It serves over 100 different wines in a high tech fashion. Around five kiosks are 20 bottles of wine each. There is a card slot in each kiosk and one button for each of the twenty bottles of wine. You purchase the amount of money you want to spend tasting and the card is loaded. Each button dispenses a tasting of wine (about the same as in the US) with each taste costing between 45 cents (There is no “cents” key on a computer!) to $11 depending on the price of that particular bottle of wine. The $300 bottle of wine was the $11 tasting. No, I didn’t.

We also tasted olive oil from different producers and of different ages gratis out of the same type of kiosk. Here is a Tip from Bob: Wine tasting is so much more enjoyable than oil tasting.

We loaded $25 into the card and got loaded ourselves. We then had lunch in the main Piazza at an outdoor restaurant. Sober after a long lunch (with no wine to the horror of the waiter) we drove home.

Lesson for Day 16: No matter if certain luxuries are missing in the apartment, there is always the wine – cheap and good.