Tuscan Landscapes

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A geographer cannot image a better day than one viewing a cultural landscape from a hot air balloon!  Thus it was a wonderful day that began early, as we rose and floated over the vineyards, olive trees, rural farmsteads, and hills.  On this American Memorial Day we also passed over both a traditional Italian cemetery and the lines of crosses of the American cemetery from WWII.  We ended up coming down in a farmer's field.  The farmer, an immigrant names Ivan who came from Moldova, rescued us with his old tractor and proceeded to pass out wine as we gathered in his farmhouse courtyard.  And all of this before breakfast!