My Favorite Area of Tuscany and Bad Phones

So I arrived at the studio full of hope for a great show after a very successful one the previous week. This one would be on "Eastern Tuscany" or at least what I called it on my makeshift map that I drew and then scanned to my computer. The highlight, for me anyway, would be my phone call to my friend Luca who would take us through some background of his town, Figline Valdarno, as well as other places. During the week he told me that his family goes back a thousand years, and many of them in this region. I briefed him on the questions I would ask him and he not only said sure I could call him (remember his time is 6 hrs later than ours, so it was 11:15 PM when I would call), but he gave me a brief answer which I printed to bring with me, just in case the phones mal functioned or he forgot to be around. I dialed, which is not small feat because all told there are 32 numbers that must be pressed on the phone. I did all this live, of course, and got a message that he was unavailable ! Ok let's try again, I told my audience. I did and same result !! I tried again later in the show with the same result !! I was starting to panic a bit, because I had factored about ten minutes of interview with Luca into the show's format for that evening. In fact I finished my presentation with about 10 minutes to go, and just sort of ended so this was, indeed, the shortest show in a long time !!! I went home with the DVD of the show, downloaded it to my computer, uploaded it to Youtube, etc etc. The next day I called Luca to find out what was going on. He said, Alan, where were you last night. We waited all night for you to call !! Damn. I told Luca what happened, and apologized. Such a gracious, wonderful man he is, he said no problem, we'll do it again sometime. The trouble is in 2 weeks, when he told me we could try again because he would not be working, I will be off the topic of his area of Tuscany. The show must go on so regardless of what the topic is (actually Franc Palaia and I will focus on Pompeii) I will be having a chat with Luca. Soon, of course, we will be visiting with him during our trip to Italy in May. Incidentally I just love the area of Eastern Tuscany known as the Casentino and the photos taken by my photographer and wife, Laura, were absolutely stunning. For the trip in may I have asked Luca to continue with his tour of that area with specific reference to an area known as the via dei Sette Ponti, street of the seven bridges, with lunch in Loro Ciufenna, a delightful town along the way. Tune in for more adventures on Alan's Italy !!!!