CBS

As Teams traveled through the gorgeous Italian countryside to Florence, grandson and grandfather Nick & Don vaulted into first place by taking a Fast Forward that shocked them both. Meanwhile, TK’s problems at the Road Block put his Team behind, but dating Goths Kynt & Vyxsin’s navigational woes sealed their last place finish. However, a non-elimination Pit Stop saved the Goths, who face a new twist in the next leg.

ALL ABOARD!
Departing the Pit Stop in first place at 2:19am, father and daughter Ron & Christina opened their clue instructing them to travel by bus to the port city of Split, Croatia. From there, they would take a ferry across the Adriatic Sea to Ancona, Italy, where their next clue awaited.

At the bus station, Ron & Christina discovered the first bus to Split would depart at 5:00am. This allowed dating Goths Kynt & Vyxsin and dating couple Nate & Jen to catch up, but TK & Rachel and Nick & Don didn’t even check out of the Pit Start when the lead three Teams departed on the bus to Split. Checking out at 5:37am, dating couple TK & Rachel took the second bus to Split departing at 6:00am hoping for a chance to catch up. Last place grandfather and grandson left the Stone Cross at 7:06am and caught the third bus to Split, where they happily rejoined the lead four Teams on the same ferry to Ancona, Italy. During the relaxing ride across the Adriatic Sea, Vyxsin noted, “When we hit the ground in Italy…it’s going to be a really intense leg for sure.”

OUT OF ANCONA
Landing in Ancona, Italy at 9:40pm, the five Teams raced to the parking lot, where a barricade held their clue. Opening it, the Teams discovered they needed to drive deep into Tuscany to the town of Empoli and find an airfield for their next clue. Along with their clue, Teams were given a Blackberry handheld device. At some point during the 200-mile drive, they would be receiving a message. However, Teams could not attempt to use their Blackberry for any other reason.

Taking a lead out of the parking lot, dating couple Nate & Jen got excellent directions from a man at a gas station, who told them to drive through Forli en route to Florence and finally Empoli. He added that driving up to Bologna and over to Florence would be out of the way. Meanwhile, from reading a map, Ron suggested taking the slower route through Bologna while Kynt & Vyxsin and Nick & Don received the same incorrect information from locals. TK & Rachel opted to drive through Rome after speaking with a local at a restaurant, but the couple had bigger problems to worry about when they later realized after frantically searching through their car that they left their clue on the table and had to drive back to Ancona, putting them in last place. TK joked, “This is too much. I’m too mellow to handle this.”

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE
With hours of driving on the highways of Italy throughout the night, the Teams got a big surprise when their Blackberries rang and messages from their families appeared on the screen. Nate’s parents joked, “Just wanted to say that you better win or don’t come home.” Ron teared up after hearing a message from his other daughter, Steph, who told him to use the time on the race to strengthen his relationship with Christina. Then Ron noted, “We gotta do better. There’s room for improvement from me.” Vyxsin also began crying after hearing from her parents, saying, “I’ve been really missing my mom a lot lately.” While Don had difficulty figuring out how to read the Blackberry, he laughed when he saw that his son joked, “Don’t embarrass me.” After TK heard his mom’s words of encouragement, he said, “If she only knew what we just went through.”

NEW ROUTE
While Nate & Jen cruised into Empoli to discover that the airfield wouldn’t open until 7:00am, the Teams that went through Bologna encountered a traffic jam and couldn’t get onto the highway to Florence, forcing them to read their maps and make an alternate route. Christina figured out a way to take smaller roads but also knew that this would take much longer than the freeways. Vyxsin noted, “We knew where we were going and to have ourselves detoured this way is completely frustrating.” Grandson and grandfather Nick & Don made a different choice and opted to wait until 6:00am when the road to Florence reopened instead of seeking a different way to Empoli.

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