Author: susan

So I’m not just whinging…hottest ever in Italy. AJ has just told me so. Low overnight around 28-ish, massive humidity, just generally exhausting weather. Last 2 days at school. After school for 2 days in a row I’ve suffered the laundromat in order to keep up. School is good but I think it is time to stop now and admit a large degree of failure (and a minor degree of success). Just ate at home last night and downed an excessive number of Spritz’ in our efforts to keep cool (or oblivious). Today Norjie has been off on a boat cruise to the Cinque Terre, she’s not back yet but when she returns we are going to “Olive Oil” for The Last Supper!! Unfortunately I kind of got us stuck with one of my class mates who wanted to go to this restaurant and I felt I had to ask her to join us…hopefully it will work out OK. She is a woman from Hong Kong who is currently studying in New York so she will have something in common with Norjie.

We are all going to school like zombies, no-one is sleeping much. Nothing more to report…not much by way of activity at this end, it’s hard to bloody well move!!

Norjie leaves first thing in the morning and then I have a week of cleaning up, packing and preparing to farewell another city I’ve grown to love.

Sunday was a back to the car day. The car is actually an extraordinary relief in this heat with its lovely aircon. Just so that it is recorded … the car hire place I’ve been using is Autonoleggio Giglio, Via Orzali 391… in case anyone wants to know in the future. They have been quite good to me.

So we set out to do a bit of Garfagna driving and made for the furthest point….Castelnuovo. A town up the river. It was an OK town but there are definitely towns more beautiful. We wandered around there for a while and then went back to the car to drive to the Fort …’Fortezza di Mont’Alfonso’. Up and up and up this windy road we went, and then up some more. There was a town we had seen way, way on top of the mountain and when we reached that town we concluded we had gone too far….a bit dumb I have to say and when we turned around and went back down the vertical road we saw that we had driven straight past the fort in totally unobservant style. Still it was a very scenic drive if a little daunting to ensure the Panda kept going, in first gear, on the steepest parts of the road.

We found the fort and walked around its walls…the best part was the views, it was otherwise uninspiring!! Then onwards and downwards to Barga. I love this town every time I go, it is a really stunning little medieval, walled town. We found a place to sit in the shade and have lunch, then I insisted Norjie walk up to the Duomo!! I on the other hand had been there twice before, so I insisted that I remain in the restaurant sipping wine and having a wee pannacotta…I’ve got my priorities right and I’m bossy enough to ensure Norjie got her priorities right too!!!

After Barga it was back to the Panda and off again, making our way back to Lucca, with a brief stop at the Devil’s Bridge at Borgo a Mozzano for a photo op. We dropped the car off after the biggest difficulty of the day which was working out how to fill it up in a self service thingo!! I put in 50 Eu and then couldn’t retrieve any change which made it an expensive fill-up!!

We got back to Lucca and the apartment at around 6pm. Just time to cool off, have a shower and go the “The World’s Best Restaurant” , Ristorante Giglio for dinner…my shout to farewell Norjie. We had a MASSIVE bistecca to share because Norjie wanted to try the Tuscan specialty…I can’t believe I got through it…took a while!! It was a lovely night and a late night.

So then there is the Monday morning need to face school. Each week we are missing some of the friends from previous week but today there was a ‘new’ woman who is from Adelaide and who I knew from ages ago when she was at Italian school before she went off to Sicily, Carmel. She is lovely although I think far too good to be in my class.

After school I had to meet up with this other Australian woman I had met ages ago through one of the teachers. She is a delight and we sat over a 3 hour lunch nattering like mad. She hasn’t come to school yet but will do so, probably after I leave.

Just in case you are wondering at how badly I am neglecting Norjie, she went off to Pisa for the day today and had a lovely time. Dinner at home tonight!! She leaves Thursday morning then I have one more week before I head down to Rome and then on to Matera.

Norjie has hired a car for the weekend so we’re mobile again and went off for a day in the Chianti once again (for me). It was beautiful, it is beautiful and I guess every time I go back it will indeed be beautiful. Having said that, todays experience was totally different to the day spent with H,A & R. To start with Norjie is not really into wines so it wasn’t a day of being off the beaten track searching out wineries and good wines. Instead it was a day of exploring the little towns of the Chianti area.

First, I have to once again pay homage to my dear friend of the GPS. I love her for many reasons, again confirming that there definitely is a worse Italian accent than mine but secondly she unfailingly gets me there!! For this I love her and am in Hammy and Ariane’s debt. I remember being reluctant to take her, now they will have to prise her off me in Sicily.

We set off and went first to Castellina in Chianti. A lovely Chianti town but very busy and very much geared to the tourist trade…i.e. full of restaurants, enotecas and a bustling market. We walked through a wonderful passageway under the old cellars which was fabulous. A highlight for me was lighting upon a dress I liked in the market…and that fitted!! I bought 2 for 20 Eu each and they will certainly help me through the long hot summer.

From there we went to (back to for me) the lovely town of Volpaia. Last time we were there Hammy and I tasted wines while Rose and Ariane walked through the town. There was also the added excitement of me needing to get to a loo, so I missed the town. This time no such drama. First we went to lunch in order to secure a table. We went to the restaurant on the other side of the piazza to where we sat last time at that little bar. We sat out on the terrace under the vines with a splendid view and a yummy light lunch and, of course, a glass (or two ) of wine. Gorgeous. We then wandered through the town and what a lovely town it is…ancient and quiet, away from the hoards and totally beautiful. The Harley Club arrived to shatter the tranquility but they had soon parked their bikes and settled down to enjoy their lunch at the bar opposite.

From there we went to Panzano. Another lovely quiet, ancient little town to wander through. The main trauma here was the exceedingly steep streets. No problem on the feet but I had to park the little gutless Fiat Panda on a very steep hill. I had had awful trouble in the car park in Castellina because it wouldn’t get up the vertical slope out of the car park…I had to reverse back and make the 3 cars behind me reverse so I could get a run up and even then only just got the little gutless wonder out of there. Not a car to be buying any time soon…all I could think was thank god for my solid training in the hand break start and the manual transmission all those years ago!!! Anyway the long and the short of this exhaustive tale is that we got up the hill in Panzano with (according to me) considerable skill and tenacity.

Last stop was Greve. The heart of the Chianti, or so they say. A lovely town. We had read about this thing there where you put money on a card and slot it into these wine tasting machines for a tasting. I wanted to do it because it sounded like a lot of fun. So we put 10 Euros onto this card which we shared and had our tastes. It failed a little because I was driving and couldn’t taste as much as I would have and could have, and Nora is definitely not into wine and she curled up her toes and refused to have more. So…there were no refunds. But fortunately we’d been chatting to some Aussies in this enoteca and despite the fact that he was a Collingwood supporter my ‘waste not want not’ instinct overcame my ‘hate every Collingwood supporter’ instinct and I gave the remaining tastes to him.

Then we returned to Lucca and to top a good day I found a car park immediately….dinner at home tonight and tomorrow a lesser excursion into the Garfagna.
Ciao all XXXX

Really just a very quick update. Off to school on Thursday to struggle through more passato prossimo / passato imperfect / reflexive verbs / modalis and god knows what else ….brain scramble!! Home to try to write it up. Then Norjie arrived back and I had 5 minutes to say hello before I headed back to school for my hour with Ele. But what was nice was that I had arranged to meet Norjie at a bar after my hour for a Spritz and a catch- up. That was really nice. After our Spritz we walked around town a bit to book some restaurants for Norjies last days here in Lucca. She came back with lots of ideas for what she wanted to do in this last week which was terrific. As a result we have booked a car for the weekend and are going to ‘do’ the Chianti area again as well as Barga and the Garfagna around Lucca. After that flurry of organisation we went out for a meal which was very pleasant indeed.

Today, off to school again. It being Friday it was a day of goodbyes to friends made during the week as each Friday is. I then met Norjie for lunch at one of my favourite places (San Giorgio) where I always get my Al Papa di Pomodoro (this yummy tomato soup). It was a nice lunch, then we came back to the apartment to stay out of the sun for the hottest part of the day. I had lots to do…plane ticket to Trieste, train tickets back to Rome from Trieste, looking at accommodation options for Bordeaux, replying to emails of long ago…etc etc.

Now we’re ready to head of for the evening meal. We have booked at Buca di San Antonio (Pots and Pans Restaurant) for one of the final nice restaurants. Off to chianti tomorrow…I hope I’m not pushing my luck by continuing to hire cars…every-time I get a car back I heave a sigh of relief. I do still get a bit anxious despite the increase in confidence!!

More later

S

Another sweaty day of school. The class is settling in now and the nice thing today was that a “my age” woman from Melbourne joined the class. We bonded immediately and I think I have a new BFF. It was lovely actually, we are about the same level. She was in the more advanced class they were trying to persuade me to go into but she hated it and came down a peg to our class. So, it was a fairly pleasant lesson.

But… the same frenetic pace as I get out of class, peddle home, have lunch, write up my notes then basically turn around and peddle back to school for my hour with Ele. Even that was a wee bit better with me talking more (and Ele trying to make out she understands what the hell I’m saying). Anyway maybe these private lessons will help who knows. Having a buddy to have a drink with after class is a bonus!! On the way home I did a bit of super-marketing then back to pour myself a glass of wine.

Tomorrow I have to take myself off to Bologna for my dental “igiene”. A long way to go to see the dentist but what else is there to do but stay faithful?? So, no school at all tomorrow…oh dear I may even miss it!!

It is going to be a very long, hot trip I can tell you. It is even hotter today and tomorrow…sorry guys I know that sounds like boasting but god it’s hot!!

Let you know how it all goes.

Back at LIS today for the first time in about 5 weeks. My decision-making really needs to be questioned!! Now I have NO time at all. I go to class from 9 – 1pm, I come home and try desperately to write up what I’m supposed to have learnt then I jump back on the trusty bike and I peddle furiously back to school for individual conversation class where I stutter and stammer and try to work out what is being said to me let alone forming sentences myself.

So…there are 8 in my class, probably the biggest one yet. There are 3 people from Denmark (a husband and wife and another woman who is not connected to them), 2 American men one young and one old (the old one is here with his wife having bought an apartment in Lucca), One young Swiss girl (I hate the Swiss with their language skills in the same way I hate skinny people who eat anything and everything), and one Chinese woman from Hong Kong who is studying in NYC – she’s older too. The teacher is a bit young and inexperienced but lovely. Her name is Laura. The class, in the theory department, is a bit below me but therefore very comfortable in terms of not feeling inferior.

For conversation I have my dear Ele…she really challenges me to go up a class but we are in agreement that I can’t speak to save my soul. This is the all time challenge and I just can’t give in!!
So home I peddle and grab the bottle of wine!! What more can I say?? I watch Suits which I’m loving but have only 2 episodes left. This will leave me bereft and with no idea what to get to entertain myself and unwind next.

Oh well…hopefully I’ll be here to tell the tale again tomorrow…

Lazy Tuscan days continue. I write this listening to a robust debate on AJ about whether, now that gay marriage is legal in the US, polygamy should be legalised. There is always the next level to debate is there not??

Yesterday I rode my wall. The ride has been reduced to 2.5 giros in deference to the amount of sweat produced which is a hazard directly related to how well you can hang on to the handlebars. I read in my lovely garden, I wandered around a bit and I tried to do a (very small) bit of Italian study before returning to school. Read uneventful day but nice, relaxed and enjoying Lucca. Yesterday marked only 3 weeks left in this city that epitomises everything wonderful about Tuscany. My evenings are dedicated to ‘Suits’ at the moment, with the sounds of a brass band marching around the city in the background.

Today I spent a good portion of the morning shopping for various essentials. I heard music coming from the Summer Festival site so wandered over there and lo and behold there was Elton John testing the sound system. He was a long way away but I was awe struck nonetheless. The town is totally bopping today and I’m going to have to take myself out tonight to listen to a bit of Elton. They were lighting oil lamps all around San Michele, there are people everywhere and a very festive air about the place. I wandered the streets a bit today. Came across an ambulance attending a woman of my vintage who had fallen over which put the wind up me but on I walked with resolution. I had an urge to buy something but didn’t because I just couldn’t make up my mind!

I’m starting to realise how hard it will be to leave this lovely city.