On Tuesday I set off for the airport at around 11am stopping for a nice coffee with Ariane on the way to the tube. Got myself out to Gatwick. Got myself on the awful Easyjet flight with handbag stuffed into case etc. Got myself to Ciampino airport in Rome. Thought I was very clever having booked at shuttle direct bus to pick me up but that went to shit when I had to wait an hour and a half for other passengers for the bus. By this time I had a roaring headache (something I never get…or so I boast) and the horrid young Brits on the bus with me nearly sent me into orbit. By the time I got to Chris’ (she was arriving from Portugal later) all I could manage to do was pull out my bed and collapse. However, by the time Chris got back at 1am the headache had gone and all was well.
Spent a lovely morning with Chris, had a nice bar lunch and set off for the station to meet up with Norjie. Without going into details, that all worked well. We had a 1.5 hour wait for our train because we had to allow a margin for error when it comes to relying on flight arrivals. Then we set off for Lucca. A very quick changeover to the regionale train in Firenze. This train was a killer because we happened to get in a carriage where the air conditioner wasn’t working. So we, and everyone else, were in a pool of sweat…it is SO hot and humid.
On arrival in Lucca we had to walk around the back streets to avoid the massive crowds waiting to get into the Bob Dylan concert in the middle of town. We collapsed on arrival at the apartment, had an Aperol Spritz, then, with no food in the house, had to go out for a quick meal. We skirted the Dylan concert and listened to a song (it was a bit boring and we couldn’t see much), then home to bed!
This morning Norjie is still asleep, I’ve been out and had my coffee and am catching up.