| Julie and I had our hair done at a shop around the corner from our hotel. I had never seen Julie’s hair so shiny and soft. She said the same about mine. We decided they must use really softened water in Italy, which is why they consume more bottled water than any other nation in the world. |
| In between getting our hair done, we decided we were going to mail home some of the heavy stuff and not have to lug it anymore through airports and onto trains. No problem. We had seen a Mail Boxes, Etc. just across the Arno. Julie walked there while I was getting my hair done, only to find that it was not open. She came back, and I said maybe they would open later on Saturday. So, while she had her hair done, I walked there, and they were still not open. Then I found a local man who said they are never open on Saturday. Now we didn’t know what to do. |
| We were racing against time because we had to be ready to leave for the wedding, but we also had only one other chance to mail our things, and that was through DHL out of a travel agency a few blocks from our hotel. But everything had to be boxed and ready for shipping first. Now it was 11:30am and we had all our things in bags. We begged the concierge to help us out because the travel agency closed at 12:30pm. He helped us carry our bags around the corner to a shop that wraps gifts and gets packages ready for shipping. The women dumped our stuff into boxes, wrapped them up perfectly, then called us a taxi. We got the boxes into the taxi, had him race us over to the agency. Great, it was only 12:10pm by now. One problem: they actually closed at noon, not 12:30pm, and the women didn’t want to let us in! I barged in anyway, pleading with them to help us out. Finally, a man came out of the back room and said he would help us. Three hundred dollars later, we walked out of there, painfully relieved of our money and our ever heavier burden. |
| Julie then dragged me back to the Pitti Palace to see the family jewels in the Argenti Museum. It was quite an impressive collection. Even better was that we got to wander through more of the Pitti Palace, which was really the star attraction. We didn't have time to see the Boboli Gardens, because we still had to find the gift that Julie wanted to get for her friend John (she'd seen it on our first day here, but now had to find it again), and then get back in time to get ready for the wedding. Our shopping trip was a great success and we managed to get ready in time to meet the wedding party in the lobby to get on the bus to head out to Castellina, the small town in Chianti country where the wedding was to take place. |
| Unfortunately, it started raining again as we were waiting for the bus, and it let up only intermittently throughout the rest of the day. We were supposed to walk to the bus that was to take us to the Albergaccio di Castellina, but no one was much inclined to trudge in high heels in the rain. Kelley’s brother, Ryan, saved the day by going to the bus driver and convincing him to break the law by driving the bus to the front of the hotel and picking us up there. Finally, we were all settled in the bus (minus Kelley and her parents, who were driving over alone). As we wound our way ever higher into the Chianti hillside, the weather got foggier and foggier. It was both beautiful and scary -- scary to contemplate what the ride down might be several hours later in the dark. |
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| The wedding ceremony took place in a rock walled room of the Albergaccio di Castellina. There was a pianist, a still photographer and a videographer all waiting to enhance and capture the beauty of the bride and groom and the ceremony itself. |
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| Both of these pictures were taken out back of the Albergaccio di Castellina, where the wedding was to be held in just about an hour. |
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| This is a view of the back of the Albergaccio di Castellina. You can just barely make out Dave, Tim, and Ryan under the canopies. |
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| Here we see the bride as she gets ready for the ceremony. She had some help from her mom, Betsy, her dad, Roddy, and her brother, Ryan. |
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| The first picture is of Dave and Kelley's brother, Ryan. The second picture is of Dave and his sister, Jenn. Both were taken as we awaited Kelley's entrance for the ceremony. |
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| Here is Dave and his dad, Bill. The second picture is of the wedding guests waiting for the ceremony. Counter-clockwise from the front: Jamie, Jenn, Dolores, Fred, Betty, Frank, and Tim. |
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| Here are the rest of us waiting. Counter-clockwise from the front: Cindy, Betty, Pat, and Me. The second picture is of Kathy, Dave's mom, and Tony, Dave's stepdad. |
| Kelley finally made her grand entrance and Silvio, our guide from the previous day, began the ceremony . . . |
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| Here is Silvio officiating Kelley and Dave's wedding ceremony. Although this ceremony was not a legal one (in Italy, it must either be a civil service or a Catholic one for it to be considered legal), Kelley and Dave had actually already had a county clerk in NY marry them for the legal stuff. |
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| Kelley puts the ring on Dave's finger. |
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| Their first kiss as husband and wife in the eyes of their friends and family. |
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| The first official picture of the happy couple. |
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| The Wedding Family from the left: Roddy, Betsy, Cindy, Ryan, Kelley, Dave, Jenn, Kathy, and Bill. |
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| And now the entire wedding entourage from the top, left to right: Betty and Frank, Dolores and Fred, Pat and Tim, Betsy and Roddy, Me, Cindy and Ryan, Kathy and Tony, Julie, Bill, Jenn and Jamie, and Kelley and Dave. |
| Please continue to page 2 of the wedding day for the reception and return back to Florence. |
| Use the links on the left side of the page to see days two, three, four, and five in Florence. |