Pisa and Lucca

Yesterday was fantastic! We traveled from Casa Cares to Pisa and a small city called Lucca. Pisa was your typical tourist town where plenty of people squishing in to get photographs of the Leaning Tower, which in all honesty, isn't as "leaning" in person as it appears in photographs. We walked around a bit while there and I bought an alabaster wine stopper that is pretty but that lady in the store was not pretty. By not pretty, I mean she was rude and a bit anti-American I would say, refusing to take my cash and give me change. Thankfully, Rhiannon had a few Euros and covered me so I could make the purchase and pay her back. There was also a marathon in Pisa while we were there. It was so HOT and Humid, I pray that the individuals running were able to finish and rehydrate! It was pretty cool watching them cross the finish line and listen to the announcers in Italian.

Lucca was stunning. The city is completely surrounded by a wall so it is quaint in it's enclosure. We. Claire, Rhiannon and myself did a pretty fabulous job navigating our way around town knowing little Italian and less than par map reading skills. We ate panini from a small cafe and then began our trek to find a cheap bicycle rental shop. After about 45 minutes of wandering, we stopped in a small shop to purchase postcards and ask where the bike shop was. To Claire's disappointment, I did not bring my small Italian phrase book and she attempted to ask the man in English about the bike shop. Not only did he have NO IDEA what she was saying, she had NO IDEA what he was saying and had to resort to a game of charades to act out a bicycle. With much hilarity, as soon as she completed her actions for bike he knew where we needed to go and we found it without problem.

The bike ride was an Italian adventure! We pedaled all around the city and the wall, taking in the view from the wall of the city and outlying countryside. I took so many pictures of the landscape and city. You will all be amused. We had an hour on 2.5 euro and decided to check out the inner landscape of all the city streets on bicycles. This part of the bike ride was hysterical. Not only did we get incrediably lost and pass a multitude of the same city streets several times, but we also dealt with safety on bike. Rhiannon and Claire at one point almost became hood ornaments for a nice little Fiat flying down one of the city streets! We turned down so many one way streets, dodging cars, pediatrians and market tables. We laughed and laughed and managed to find our way back to the rental place with just three minutes to spare!
Afterwards, we shopped and visited several local Lucca shops. We purchased homemade soaps and spoke (loosely used term) Italian with the shop keepers to practice. We then went into this quaint little embrodiery shop and made friends with the man. He made each of us an embrodiered bookmark with our names. He talked with us about Italian culture and people and genuinely was nice. He made us our souviners and was a true Italian suave man! We ate gelato and wanted more but restrained ourselves!

Our travels back were a nice time to sleep and relax and pretty soon after our return it was dinner! It was delicious and a great time to socialize with everyone. After dinner, Dr. Thompson offered to guide anyone who wanted to try, in the art of watercolor painting. While enjoying some red wine and good conversation, I delved into the opportunity and loved it! I may not be an "artist" by trade, but I think I did quite good with my Italian postcards! Watercolor ended and conversation continued with new friends until 1am. Claire and I slept with our windows and shutters open and it was fabulous - the view of the countryside with lights and the quiet sounds of nature eventually lulled me into a deep sleep.

I will close with this for now and hopefully post about today's experience this evening. Look for photos to be posted later in the day in either blog format or slideshow format on here! I hope everyone back in the States is enjoying the reading and please post your thoughts, comments and reflections because it is all about the reflective experience for me while here!

Ciao for now