Sad Mumma is back but she’s not going to hang around for too long. I hate goodbyes and am very bad at them and I hate the feeling of coming back to emptiness, it makes me so sad. But not to be too indulged for too long…so what does Sad Mumma do? What any woman does in this situation. Laundromat, clean every surface in range, hand wash jumpers, organise, buy mad things like labels for the rubbish…you name it. And then there’s eating and drinking to console and there’s reacquainting with my most loyal of friends, Al Jazeera, as well as getting back to a long overdue email to remember the wonderful last few days and finding a new series to keep me happy. Ham left House of Cards Series 3 so I guess that’s where I start. Is it there? Haven’t checked yet!!
For the purposes of this email I think I’ll work backwards starting with the last 24 hours. Yesterday morning, early, Rose and I set off from Lucca to get down to Roma and then out to the airport. Everything worked well and we were at the airport with excessive time to spare. I started to blubber before we left Lucca!! But generally got through it all. After a horrid airport drink and food (really shit) I waved Rose through security, narrowly avoiding one of the security people thinking I was having a breakdown and calling an ambulance for me!!! I then got myself back into Rome and up to Chris’ place. I must say that it is good to feel so familiar with Rome these days, it feels a bit like coming home. Got to Chris before she left for work…it was good to be with a friend!! When she went to work I went out walking. Got myself a Gelato and some wine and went back to the apt. I set up her fantastic home movie thingo and watched ‘The Theory of Everything’ which was good and gave me a legitimate reason to cry again. When Chris got home she cooked a yummy meal, we watched some Breaking Bad (she is hooked) and I was so exhausted I went to bed. This morning we went for coffee. There was a bus strike so we were thinking Chris would have to drive me to the station to get my train back to Lucca. But I saw the only bus for miles around trundling down the road so made a mad dash across a massive, busy road and jumped on it. No time for even any goodbyes!!! It was good that I did because at the station there were just no busses in sight so I was lucky. Since then…. go back to the beginning and read ‘cleaning, organising, obsessing and being compulsive’.
Back to Wednesday…Rose’s last day in Lucca. A quiet and really nice day. Doing some shopping and wandering around. having a lovely lunch back at one of our favourite places…a Fresh Produce ‘Market’. We had a rest in the afternoon. Then I kept insisting that I wanted to ride a bike around the Wall so that Rose was with me to get over the hump of getting back on my bike (as it were). Rose was sceptical but compliant, so Mission accomplished and I’ll now try and ride a few times around the wall as often as I can. Then we rested again, had some aperitivo at a nearby wine bar and then went out to Rose’s choice for her last meal, Buca di San Antonio. They greeted us like long lost friends, treated us very well and we had a lovely meal which included striking up a conversation with George and Judit at the table next to us. An older Hungarian couple who live in London and were very interesting.
The day before was Tuesday…and this was a BIG one!!! Very big for little me and so amazing, a really great day that was such a good thing to do. Off we set at 7am to get ourselves to the Cinque Terre. This meant a train to Viareggio, a change of train to La Spezia and then the Cinque Terre train. We got off at Riomaggiore and got all the information we could find, decided to get back on the train and go to the furthest village of Monterosso. The only part of the walking trail that was open was between Monterosso and Vernazza. It was the hardest walk and it really was challenging, in anyone’s terms I reckon. It certainly challenged me but having said that it was also so rewarding. The views were undeniably spectacular, the sun shone as only the sun can shine and the towns are delightful. It was just a great day. When we got to Vernazza we had a well earned beer (yes, even I was hot enough to have a beer). I had a delicious lunch (Rose wasn’t quite so lucky). We had the mandatory gelati on the waterfront. Then we decided we’d done everything we’d set out to do and it was a long trip home so we got back on the train(s) and headed home. After a bit of a rest, and an aperativo we went out to tea at a Pizza restaurant we went to with H&A…Rusticanella2. This was good. Home and to bed exhausted.
Nearly there…If I was anyone reading this I probably would have given up by now. Monday was an ‘explore Lucca’ day. We wandered around and went to the Duomo (finally), the Palazzo Sfanner which is utterly divine with a most beautiful garden, then to Chiesa San Michele. We had a nice lunch in a little Piazza looking at a statue of Puccini. We were both tired on Monday so had a restful afternoon and went out to a restaurant we hadn’t been to before, Da Giullio which was OK but not that great.
So that’s it…caught up again. Now it’s time for me to think about some tea. I bought a ready-made lasagna before Rose left so now is the time to devour it!!
My love to all who read this garbage….sorry it is so endlessly boring this time around.