September 22
Venice was fun but it is time to move. I had hauled our bags over the bridges to the apartment but Vicki was not comfortable with me taking them back so I arranged for a porter. He arrived early at 9:40 and by then Alan had arrived. We loaded the bags on the cart and off we went. The porter was not the person we had hired. Bandi had sent a new hire. I know this as I watched him struggle over the bridges with just three bags, but he accomplished the task and delivered the bags to the train station.
Train stations are uncomfortable for anxious travelers. They do not post the track you are leaving on until about ten minutes prior to boarding. If you know this, it is no big deal. Alan was told this but was still anxious. He has become, what is the word I am looking for...maybe pain in the ass is the expression. He discovered recently that his American Express Card that his business pays thousands of dollars a year for, has concierge service at almost every airport in the world and outside the US he is met at the gate and escorted through formalities or to his next gate. It has kind of spoiled him. This was only was made worse as the train was late arriving. As I told him, just relax and you will now where and when to go when people head in that direction. You will have plenty of time.
Once the track was announced we all herded over there and got our covid cards and temperature checked. We quickly settled into Car 4, a first class car. First class is usually just a few dollars more so why not. It was not very full and the majority of the passengers were Americans. Even the ones that discovered they were on the wrong train. Not a big deal. They just got off in Bologna, the next big hub and got on a train to their destination.
In Florence we transferred from the high-speed train to the local. It was a bit confusing as you had to exit the highspeed area and reenter the local platform with the same formalities again. All the tracks are on the same platform and usually you just walk to the next train. Florence chose different, but even though it was a little confusing we sorted it out.
At the Lucca train station on time, we walked about 15 minutes to the apartment. Well, to be honest it was 20 minutes because I thought I knew a short cut. I did, but it required climbing the wall with our luggage.
So, what are we doing. Enjoying Lucca. We are reading, walking a lot and eating even more. I am afraid I may become a statistic and gain all my weight back. I got to get this under control. Alan is being productive and taking Italian lessons.
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| Struggling up the steps. I felt sorry for him. |
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| luggage monitors |
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| walt's square in Lucca |
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| The Doma around the corner. |
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| he was there along time taking lots of photos of the little figure |
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| some famous couple |
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| this puccini town |
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| dinner on the balcony |
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| there are a lot of electrical commercial vehicles like these ambulances but we do not see many electric cars |
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| the ground floor of this plazzo is actually a AirBnB. we looked at renting but the furniture did not look comfortable. |
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| amazingly the streets in the towns are super clean and have a lot of red shoes |
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| This guy is a waiter we call Capt Jack Sparrow as his actions remind us of Jack and we think he his schnockered most of the time |
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| Drinking some of Jack's stuff. |
Videos: Of course, unedited
Alan paid this guy to play under his window in the morning for a couple of days.He
did, just under the wrong window.
A
October 3
Well, it is the end of the first month. It has been great.
Walt and Hellen have stopped by on their way from Levanto, a little north, on their way to the Amalfi Coast.
Alan has departed to keep up his adventure. He had lost his non-cowboy Stetson hat that he bought at the Harley Davidson shop in Paris several years ago and we were with him. He was really bummed until he got a message from the eyeglass shop in Venice that he had visited saying they had it. He got this info while having dinner with Walt and Hellen and "we" decided he should go back and recover it. It could be a start to a new book that we titled "Back Tracking in Life" and so he had to go get it.
So, I put him on the train and sent him on his way. He overnighted in Florence and bought a red shirt trying to match the one Vicki had bought. On his overnight in Venice he had gone to the famous Florian restaurant on St. Marks Square and ordered the famous Club Sandwich. Venice has done a great job of running off the pigeons that used overwhelm the square and the tourist that fed them. However this has a downside when they get hungry. One swooped down and grabbed a section of Alan's sandwich turning over dishes as he did so.
So, what have we done. Not much. We have walked, we have lounged, read books, drink Spritz and eaten incredible meals. So that's it.
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| Sending Alan off. We will see him again in Paris |
We found a cooking class at Extra Virgin Cooking Classes Lucca, We thought we would go some place, chop up some stuff and watch someone cook it. In fact we had no idea. What we got was not only a cooking class but a classic Italian experience. Giuseppe met us at a central location and as we walked to his home he would stop in and pick up some of the ingredients that we would use for lunch. His home is an apartment that he and Liz, his US wife, own in a old palace. We were quite amazed at the elegance of the apartment and that our cooking and eating would be there. The kitchen was large and modern. With only four people, us and the Driggers, we were able to do all the work around the central island around the stove. We, well mainly Giuseppe, cooked a fantastic meal with four courses. It was amazing and he is the perfect person for this. It was like we had been old friends and just stopped in for a visit. That type day. We will do it again.
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| By the way there was not a piece of meat in the meal |
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| The menu |
Alan bought me a shave and a haircut. It too was another ""experience". I would get one of these every week if I lived here. The shave was really a half facial with a little razor work. When it was time to cut the hair my barber consulted with the maestro and they both decided what they were going to do to what little hair I have. Great concentration went into the production.
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| What the hell is the to talk about? I have no hair. |
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| Great concentration |
Then there was a flag throwing competition
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| There were art installations made of paper all around the city. One day they were all gone. |
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| They recycle EVERYTHING. And they know as you have to have a credit card device to get into to these bins. |
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| Animals are welcome everywhere in Europe. Why? Because they are well behaved. On my morning five mile walk on the wall you see lots of dogs. I have never seen one go over to another dog or approach a person. These guys are owned by four different owners and this was part of their training. The church is in the main square and they stayed put for a good five minutes with people walking by. One lady was allowed to approach them, everyone respectfully stayed away and they all stayed accept the puppy. |
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| This is another sign of respect. Everyone wears a mask inside without whining. Most people store it on their arm so it is always available. |
October 3
One thing that has always amazed me throughout Europe is that in every major city there are hundreds of little boutique shops and I can not figure out how they all stay in business.
They are all artfully decorated too. Including the marijuana shop......
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| Almost looks like a jewelry shop |
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| And they are considerate enough to offer 24 hour service |
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| The spritz |
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| The little dog is staring up at it's owner. A little old lady setting on a stool playing the slots. I don't know if he wants a treat or just wants her to quit before she loses their pension. |
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| Sardines in oil and pesto |
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| Brositta with fish |
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| Stuffed clams |
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| Seafood pasta. The pasta was flat. We have never seen this type of pasta. |
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| Pasta with clams and mussels in squid ink |
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| The sardines. They were perfect!! |
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| We both chose the hot chocolate cake |
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| Coffee and grappa. This was the best meal deal we have had in Italy so far. |
October 4
Backtracking in Euro, by Alan Gibson.
Chapter 2
I mentioned that we encouraged Alan to backtrack to get his hat and he could use that in a book. Well....when Vicki came into the living room at 7:30 in the morning I knew this would not be good. Those of you who know her, know, unless she going to the gym, she is more of 9 o'clock person. She had decided she wanted to go back to Monte San Savino to get the scarf she left there. This was not an easy task or cheap task. Almost 6 hours round trip by train as we had to take a lot of different local trains to get there or cough up the big bucks that the rental car companies were ripping us off for right now in Italy. I said "no". This I repeated several time and then sat down and made a car reservation.
We walked over to the Avis in town outside the wall and picked up a very nice Skoda station wagon and off we went. The plan was to take the rural route down and the autostrada on the way back. Things went well for a little while. Google maps had been doing pretty well lately but sometimes it just decides it should go it's way no matter what you say. Pick a route, click "no highways", "ferries only", does not matter you are going where it wants to go. This time it wanted Autostrada all the way. The second problem is my navigator is not the most well versed operator of computer technology and at times not the best listener as I tried to talk her through the process. Granted Google was not cooperating either so this further complicated the process. Finally, I said screw it headed for Sienna which is a big city on the route I wanted to go as I know that if you ignore Google long enough it will get on board with you, which it did. All of this is further complicated by my failure to do the research. With MyRoute app that I use for all my scooter trips, I could have planned out the perfect trip, but I got lazy and thought that Google could handle it. I was wrong.
Ultimately we made it to Villa Ceppeto, visited with Manuela and the cats and headed home. Lunch was at country restaurant off the Autostrada that caters to working people and truck drivers. We got a great meal for a reasonable price.
Driving the Autostrada around Florence like taking I4 around Orlando. It is always under construction and always a crap shot. Today was not bad as the slowdown was only 28 minutes and we got home in the rain. Parked the car in front of the Avis office, glad to find a parking place and hoping not to get a ticket as the office is only open in the mornings. Dropped the keys and walked home.
October 5
Last night we had a lot of thunder and lightning and rain. Being next to the mountains the thunder would echo and I loved it.
This morning is dreary, cool and some drizzle. I still went for my walk on the wall and around town. I decided while walking today would be a great day to treat myself to another shave, so I walked to Swing and made an appointment
Now this is not your granddaddies' barber shop shaves where they throw some warm lather on your face and scrap the whiskers off. No sir. Here is the whole process.
1. suit you up with collar and cape
2. trim face with electric razor
3. remove collar and cape
4. apply two different products to the beard and massage in
5. wrap face in hot towel
6. shave with straight razor
7. apply and massage in another treatment
8. apply another hot towel
9. apply and massage in another treatment
10. shave with straight razor
11. wipe beard with warm towel
12. apply and massage in another treatment
13. wrap beard in cool towel
14. apply another treatment
15. fan face with wrap towel at about 100 mph
16. thank you and bid you good day.
WARNING: This face may scare you!
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The menu in English |
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| Heck, I told you it would be scary! |
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| No, that is not snot. It is product |
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| It was scary taking a selfie (which I very rarely do) with a blade to your face. |
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| The towel fan. I did not notice until I looked at this picture that they have Elvis in the building. He is still big around the world. |
Well, that's it for Lucca. We had a bowl of soup for lunch and were planning on going out tonight for a final meal, but decided to stay home and finish of all the leftovers in the refrigerator and the leftover wine and booze. All except the bottle of expensive white wine that Walt and Hellen had given us. He had warned us that it was the most expensive bottle he had bought while he was here but it was not the best. The last part "was not the best" was a understatement. Walt and Hellen, thank you for the wine but it did not make the cut.
Tomorrow we start heading for France. We will spend a few days in Sanremo just on the Italian side of the of the border where I plan to fill up on fried seafood.
