Today I was going on this big adventure to find the river outside Lucca’s walls. I had taken a deep breath and was doing this by myself but last night Susana emailed and said she’d like to come with me. That was really nice because it’s so much easier to explore new territory with someone else egging you on! Susana is very like Madeleine in Bologna. She is a young girl (30ish) from Mexico but living in Colorado in a resort town surrounded by mountains so she’s into hiking and skiing just like Madi. I’m not sure what I have to offer these lovely women but we get on well and it’s great to have the company.
I met her at the bike hire place where she hired a bike and off we set, not really having a clue where we were headed. It took a lot of wrong turns but we did eventually find the river and it was lovely. Across the river was the little village of Monte San Quirico. It’s one of those villages with a church way up on the hill and tiny cobbled streets. We walked half way up vertical inclines towards the church with the bikes but decided that was a bad idea, so we decided to lock up the bikes and go the rest of the way without having to push a bike. We wandered around the streets for a while. It was so lovely, such a tranquil little village with gorgeous views from the top looking back over Lucca.
Eventually we got back to the bikes and started peddling again. We found the bike path and rode along the river on both sides before returning to Lucca. It really was a lovely excursion. After we’d returned Susana’s bike we went to the little restaurant next to the bike shop and had a pasta and a couple of glasses of wine. Susana came back to my apartment so I could lend her my Lonely Planet as she is off to Firenze for the weekend. So…an unexpectedly lovely day all in all.
I haven’t got much of a plan for the rest of the weekend. It’s going to rain tomorrow so a good day for a Laundromat and a go at pulling together another soup to last me through next week. I also have to do some writing up of Italian lessons. We’ll see what the day looks like then. Next week it looks as if it’s going to really heat up to mid 20s which will be great.