For our last day in Tuscany, we rented another Smart Car and headed southeast this time, toward Arezzo and Cortona. We’d read good things about Arezzo in one of our books, and even better about Cortona, which was made famous in Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun.

The drive to Arezzo took a few hours by back roads that wound through rolling hills of grape vines and olive trees, interspersed with villages, towns and castles. But as we navigated our way through the suburbs into the center of Arezzo, we realized it was much bigger than we’d anticipated. We weren’t interested in being anywhere large enough to have suburbs, so we nixed that part of the plan and continued on to Cortona.

Thankfully, Cortona was all that and a bag of bruschetta. Perched on top of a hill with stellar views, Cortona is cute and quaint personified, with winding little streets, window flower boxes, open-air restaurants, and tiny shops with friendly shopkeepers. I can see why Frances Mayes fell in love with the town.

Heading back to Florence, we opted for the faster route of the toll highway, zipping back to Florence in about an hour. We had time to spare, so we drove up to Piazzale Michelangelo, a peak with spectacular views of the city. We were so pleased we had time to stop there, but in the end it meant another race back to the rental car office in order to make the 7pm deadline. Thank goodness we don’t have any more plans to rent cars on this trip, because another one of those crunch endings might just be too much for both of us!

In the last couple days we’ve continued to see the sights of Tuscany, while inadvertently testing out as many modes of transportation as possible.

Yesterday we hopped a train to Pisa to see the ever-famous leaning tower. I know plenty of guidebooks that will tell you it’s not worth the trip just to see this one sight, but I heartily disagree. This is my second time visiting it, and as before, I was struck by how dramatic the white tower (as well as the church and baptistery) looks against the blue sky, and how simply novel its sharp tilt is.

Upon the recommendation of our hotel owners, after going to Pisa we headed north to the cute walled town of Lucca. Our plans to ride the train there fell through when we couldn’t find a cab to take us to the station, but as luck would have it we found a bus line to Lucca instead. At the bus stop we met Diane and Gene, a friendly couple from northern California who proved to be a wealth of information as far as the bus and train schedules were concerned. Before long we were making plans to join them for lunch in Lucca, where they have spent a couple months a year for the last seven years.

After lunch we rented bikes (thankfully much more comfortable than the ones in Rome) and rode around the town on top of the wall that surrounds the city. The views of the town were lovely, and at one point we found ourselves joining a crowd watching a rooftop fire being extinguished.

Today we set out for a tour of the sights of Florence. We had debated whether my mom could handle a three-hour walking tour, what with her ankle still recovering, when we stumbled on what seemed like a clever solution: A tour company that specializes in Segway tours. Segways are a sort of electric scooter that you stand on, which meant we could zip around town without all the walking.

While the Segways were amusing and attention-grabbing (virtually everyone we passed was curious about them), they didn’t provide quite the relief we’d hoped for. We found our knees, ankles and feet just as sore (if not more) at the end of the tour than if we’d walked, since you tend to be a bit tense while learning the nuances of operating a Segway. It was also tough to get good photos, and the tour guide wasn’t up to par with the ones I’ve had on walking tours in Florence. Nonetheless, we had fun and I’ll definitely add that to the list of unusual and unexpected experiences I’ve had on this trip.

While on the tour, we saw most of the expected sights (visit http://babas.typepad.com/photos/my_gap_year_4/ for more photos), but my two favorite unexpected moments were spotting a man in lavender pants (I thought Italy was supposed to be a fashion capitol?), and finding out that Nero (or at least his statue) is as much of a hunk from the back as from the front. Now that’s culture.

We arrived in Florence a few days ago, where we have settled into our lovely (and cost-effective, by European standards anyway) hotel just a few blocks from the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge.

On our first night, we found a cute little trattoria just down the block for dinner, and my mom delightedly ordered the lobster spaghetti, which was listed at a mere 6 euros (approximately $9 U.S.). Unfortunately, what was unclear on the menu (but which the waitress was happy to explain after the fact) was that it was 6 euros per 100 hectograms (or at least that’s what it sounded like the waitress was saying, after I took issue with the 36 euro item on our bill). She laughed when I said we expected it to be 6 euros, saying “ees imposeeblay!” Grrr.

Yesterday we rented a car (my first time driving the cute Smart Car brand I’ve seen all over Europe) and headed south to explore some of the Tuscan countryside. But first we had a little tussle at the rental car shop, where I asked for a breakdown of the 34 euro rate (which was much higher than the 13 euro reservation I had made on their web site). I knew there would be fees, but more than double? When I mentioned the 13 euro base rate, again I was met with “ees imposeeblay!” I swear, if one more Italian woman tells me “ees imposeeblay,” it’s poseeblay I may get violent.

When we finally settled into the car (and after an embarrassing return to the rental car counter to ask how to put the car in gear) we tootled down to San Gimignano, a hilltop village dating back to medieval times. We enjoyed a delicious lunch overlooking the Tuscan hillside, and walked around soaking up the utter cuteness until we could soak no more. Most importantly, I bought I fantastic red leather shoulder bag for a steal – 60 euros, talked down from the 79 euros on the price tag. The guy told me he’d just make it up on his next sale to a Japanese tourist (Who am I to argue? The dollar is weak right now!).

Next we tracked down a winery to buy some wine we’d had over lunch, followed by a drive to Siena to visit a government wine shop that we’d read had afternoon wine tastings. Unfortunately, we didn’t time our trip quite right, and by the time we got to Siena it was already time to leave in order to make it back before the rental shop closed.

Between the traffic getting out of town and our fear of rush hour in Florence, I ended up driving the 60 kilometers back like a madwoman, going 120 km/hour in a 90 zone. My mother only gasped in fear for her life a few times (possibly a world record for her), and we made it back with just five minutes to spare. Phew!

Today we tromped down to the Uffizzi museum to learn about Italian of art over the centuries. There was some lovely art, of course, but we found ourselves raising our eyebrows and chuckling at the snooty voiceover on the museum’s audio guide. “Note how the artist has created an otherworldliness by placing the subject in a setting that transcends time and space” – imagine two hours of this nonsense! As we exited one of the halls, my mom cracked me up, saying, “Note how the architects have created a sense of relief with the placement of the 20th century benches.” (Upon which we promptly collapsed.)

Something I most definitely will not miss about India is its airports (or for that matter, all public transportation hubs). But the airports have their own special charm, most notably the overwhelming body odor you encounter at every turn. I won’t even begin to speculate why there seems to be an aversion to deodorant among Indian air travelers, but I swear, at times it’s so strong it’s like a slap in the face. My worst experiences have been at the baggage carousels after long flights.

In all my flying to and around India, I’ve had a chance to sample a few different airlines. Indian Air was the smelliest, but that flight was also the longest, from Thailand.

Kingfisher was the freshest, though they failed to live up to their motto, “Fly the good times.” You can imagine my disappointment when I found out that not only would they not be serving Kingfisher beer (same parent company), but apparently alcohol is banned from all domestic flights in India. Pah.

Sahara Air, which I flew today, lands in the middle of the stink-o-meter, but at least made me laugh with their motto, “Emotionally yours.” Because when I’m checking in for my flight, I don’t want the experience to be efficient or expeditious or even merely effective -– I want it to be emotional.

One plus that all Indian airlines seem to have in common is the meals. Even on a couple-hour flight between normal meal times (say, 3-5pm), they serve a hot meal. I wish U.S.-based airlines would get back on that bandwagon, instead of literally laughing in your face if you merely inquire if a meal will be served.