How many Italian drivers does it take to fill a road?

Today I went into Siena to say hello and goodbye before I make my trip back to the US. The bus that I take into Siena is a small bus, half the length of but equal in width to a New York city bus. This morning it was just me and the bus driver. The ride is always an adventure because the terrain is extremely hilly and the bus is a manual - it's hard (even for me) not to notice when the driver is shifting gears. The roads are also very narrow, and this morning as we were driving we got caught in a jam with a very large truck. The truck was traveling toward La Gavina and we were headed away. So, what did my bus driver do? He rolled down the window and started yelling to the truck driver "now what do we do?!" and they both sat for a few minutes laughing. I thought - has this never happened before? That seems unlikely. But, the two of them spent a good amount of time figuring out how to maneuver their vehicles around each other.  Once they had their window aligned, they stopped their vehicles and had a nice long chat. It turns out that they know each other. They caught up on everything - families, work, etc. The bus driver has a three year old and she's doing well, thank you for asking.

Oh! I wanted to take a brief break to talk about the cherries! A while ago - maybe a week and one half - Sergio and I covered one of the cherry trees to protect the fruit from being eaten by birds. Yesterday, Sergio and I saw that the cherries are growing safely and beautifully! He picked about ten and handed them to me to eat. They were so delicious - juicy and warm from the sunshine. Even though the work here is so hard that it's almost impossible for me to imagine doing it for a lifetime, there are these little moments that would make anyone understand why it's worthwhile to Sergio and Lorena, and why they chose this life. I still don't know how they maintain the energy or the patience but oh boy do I respect it. They really did make a strong choice in choosing this lifestyle but from talking to both of them I understand that it is truly theirs - their choice, their work, their life. And that makes all of the hard work worthwhile to them. Plus, the cherries just taste SO GOOD.