Author: susan

Monday followed the previous days of being overcome, overwhelmed and slowed down by summer laziness. I had a Skype date with my beautiful work friends on Monday morning and before I got onto them I chatted for ages on Skype to the Glenns. Then 2.5 hours with Jan, Brendon and Jammo while they wined and dined. Such a lovely feeling of belonging and not being forgotten…completely filled in on all the comings and goings. Poor Norjie was definitely out on a limb for this time. She went off and had coffee by herself and then went to Casa Puccini while all the time I was chatting away. After that we had lunch at home, I went to the station to check out trains for Ham and Az. Then as the laziest day of them all drew to an end we went out for a lovely meal at “Gli Orti di Via Elisa”. This is a restaurant I’d been wanting to go to for the longest time. Rose and I had tried a number of times and it was always closed. Anyway, it was extremely good and we had a lovely meal. I had to get home to get a lesson on the GPS from Ham. Really this lazy lifestyle that encompassed only eating and drinking had to stop!!

And it did. For the last 2 days we have had a hire car. It is one of those things that make me feel proud of myself. I took a deep breath and I’ve driven all over Italy. I think it has broken the back of my trepidation about driving in Europe. Each time you do it you build confidence I guess. Mind you I could never have done it without Madame GPS. The only person in the world with a worse Italian accent than me (another reason that I love her!!) I laugh every time she tells me to enter a road in incomprehensible Italian.

So yesterday was gorgeous, we set off for Arezzo, a town I’ve been wanting to go to forever (since I saw “Life is Beautiful”). Arezzo is famed for a number of things but mostly the Piero della Francesco fresco cycle in the Capella Bacci, some other della Francesco’s dotted about, one beautiful one of Mary Magdelene in the Duomo, as well as lots of Della Robbia ceramic works of art. Also a really beautiful Piazza reminiscent of Siena with beautiful Renaissance buildings. It was heavily bombed during the war. A really lovely town all in all with more to keep us busy than we were able to fit in in the time allowed. That is to say we also had to fit in a delicious light lunch and a glass of wine.

From there we decided that there was nothing for it but to keep going to Sansepolcro about another hour east so significantly adding to our big day. This town is the birthplace of Piero della Francesco and here there are 3 truly magnificent works of his in the Museo Civico. They were honestly thrilling and so beautiful. We finally got back to Lucca around 9 pm, were thwarted in our efforts to get back to the apartment by the Los Lobos concert and desperately had to find some takeaway food, which we did but it was definitely sub standard.

The driving is dotted all along the way with fields and fields of Sunflowers…talk about under the Tuscan Sun!!

Today we set off to Volterra. A Tuscan town I’d never been to but had always thought I should. It is a gorgeous medieval town not dissimilar to San Gimignano. There were things to see including a beautiful fresco cycle in the Cappella Della Croce…by whom we didn’t know!! But mainly it was just walking the town and enjoying the beautiful streets, alleyways and buildings. Again a great place for a light lunch, more sunflowers to enchant us and tricky, challenging roads to traverse. But car back safely and me feeling particularly brave and pleased with myself.

Back in Lucca we finished off the bottle of Aperol at home and then went out for some dinner. All very pleasant really. Tomorrow Norjie goes off for the week to her course in the hills. She will be back next week for her last week. In the meantime do I or don’t I enrol in school for my last 2 weeks….p’raps I really should!!

Friday we started the day with a ride around the wall which was good. But then it was home to cool off. For lunch we went out for a light lunch, then went and bought Norjie a fan for her room because she wasn’t going to survive the nights of 25C without one. Then home to cool off, then out for a bit of a walk around then home ….you know how it goes. Then out to dinner for a delicious meal of lovely fish. A few big drops of rain even fell but that lasted about 2 seconds.

Then the weekend. A weekend of mooching around in the heat and adapting lifestyles to hot summer days. What this really means in a nutshell is exercise down to virtually nil. Eating and drinking unchanged. And anyone (even me) knows thats not a good thing. Saturday we were going to ride along the river for a lunch by the river but Norjie’s iphone told her it was going to be the magic 100 F (they still work in Fahrenheit !!) and that was a bit scary when it comes to riding a bike in the midday sun. So we did a lot of toing and froing about whether it was a good idea or not and ultimately decided that wisdom was firmly on the side of being more sedentary. So I went off for a shorter ride around the wall X2 and Norjie took off to walk around and orient herself to the streets of Lucca. I did some shopping to stock up on food and wine for the weekend. Then came home and flopped in front of the air con for a while. We then had an afternoon of doing much the same, a bit of a walk, stopped for an aperitivo then tea at home with the supplies purchased.

Sunday….I urgently had to laundromat and did that first thing in the morning, combining my usual coffee between putting the washing on and transferring it to the dryer. While I did that Norjie went off to Palazzo Pfanner for an explore and the opportunity to enjoy the gorgeous garden. We met back home for a cool off and some lunch at home. Then out for a bit of a walk this afternoon which included going to the booking office to see if there were any tickets for the Summer Festival worth buying (negative) and buying a gelato and sitting on the wall to eat it. Then home to cool off and dinner at home again.

We have booked a car for Tuesday and Wednesday to do a bit of exploring around the place. Again I have to take a very deep, brave breath and just hope all goes well. I think this is life in Italy in the height of summer, a decrease in activity which I shall have to work on going hand in hand with a decrease in food and wine and gelato….oh yeh!!

A new week starts tomorrow. Only 4 weeks left in Lucca and I really must take the plunge to get myself back to school for a final 2 weeks!!

Every day 37 and humid, so humid. How much I appreciate Melbourne’s weather where you can expect relief every few days. here it is months of the same. Not that I should be complaining I know. It is just a matter of adjusting to it and getting back into activity mode. Yesterday was a bit of a droop about kind of day. Norjie was out for the count most of the morning. I did check to ensure she was alive. I had a vision of post flight death from thrombosis and me not realising for days!!

So we then did wander a bit, have some lunch out and about, wandered a bit more then came home to sit out the heat of the afternoon with the inadequate cooler on. Then we went out again and explored the Duomo and went for a brief walk on the wall before going to the place next to the bike rental place for an aperitivo. Then home for another Spritz before we went out for a very ordinary meal. Then home again.

That was it!! I’m determined that I must get the bike out today, I think a bit of a ride around the wall to start with. I’m not at all in a “coping with the heat” sort of routine which is a different routine.

I’ll let you know how I go, now its time to go for a coffee.

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.

I think 3 days have gone by and they can all be summed up with the same thing. A bit of a cycle, reading in my walled garden, pottering around the place, finding every reason in the book not to study my Italian (I have a masters in procrastination). Its warm and sunny interspersed by a quick sharp little storm. Humid is the word.

Today I head to London so am packing up and am very excited. I’m told to take a jumper and can’t wrap my head around that…I was more inclined to pack the bathers but no, not in dear old England.

Next missive should be more exciting. (not that I don’t love my quiet days in Lucca)

Saturday night’s meal was a great success. A really nice restaurant called Punto del Ufficio Gusto, fairly recently discovered after the recommendation of the teachers at school. Anyway it was very enjoyable.

This morning I got up to help Caroline to the station with her luggage. I saw her onto the train and did a bit of shopping on the way home. Then joy of joys, the weekly trip to the laundromat for my pleasure. Actually it does contain some pleasure as I go to a bar nearby and have coffee and read my book while the clothes are whirring around happily.

Then I came home. I’m in cleaning mode as I leave for London on Thursday and when I return to Lucca Norjie will be with me so my conscience decided I have to have the place looking schmick. I even mopped the floors…I know, I know it’s a bit too hard to believe but it is true!!!

That was my day and that was the weekend…gone in a proverbial blink. Now its back to Game of Thrones before bed.

Its back to last Thursday which was a lovely day. Caroline and I rode along the river, something I love doing. We rode to that restaurant I’ve been to a couple of times and really love, but alas it was closed!! But the disappointment turned into an opportunity when, after asking, we rode on a bit further to discover another really lovely restaurant with a garden to allow us to enjoy lunch under the trees. A delicious pasta and some wine later we were ready for the return ride back along the lovely river. Very enjoyable all in all. On arrival back in Lucca and returning caroline’s bike we enjoyed a Spritz and a conversation with some Australians at the next table. Then parted company.

Yesterday I did the basics, a bit of shopping, a bit of wandering, some reading and then decided I needed to pull myself together for a walk around the wall. This does me in every time so then it was home. I have bought series 5 of Game of Thrones but decided I needed to watch series 4 again as it’s been a year. So that is entertaining every night.

This morning after coffee and cornetto I met up with Caroline who wanted to ride around the wall. This was accomplished in very little time, we had a coffe up on the wall and then parted company again. I rode around the wall another couple of times, came off the wall to buy my bus ticket to Pisa Airport (yahoo) for next Thursday. I then came home and have been lazing around. I’m having a meal with Caroline tonight and she leaves Lucca in the morning. We’ve just had a short but very loud thunder storm…good thing I was at home. The sun is shining again now and I will cycle off to book a restaurant for tonight.

Tutto a domani

First a quick retrace to Tuesday to say that that night I went to a concert in Palazzo Bernardino which is just near me. It was really lovely in a room covered in beautiful frescoes. Any concert I’ve ever been to here has been in an amazing setting and this was no exception…. lovely. I went with Caroline and her Luchese friend Wanda, so that was a bit of a treat.

Yesterday I had a very quiet time. Found a place to do some printing for me, went exploring some more around town. I have a new guidebook I bought on Chris’ advice and it tells me about all these obscure churches and palazzos. I found a beautiful villa in the middle of town with a most lovely garden so spent some time there. you can’t get into the villa but wandering in the gardens is a major treat. I also bought another present for myself. This time the print of the city of Lucca I’ve had my eye on for a while. That’s it for me…no more spending. One or two more pays and then I’m income-less!!!

Today I am going on a bike ride with Caroline. Think I’ll take her up to the river for a bit of an explore.

Life certainly quietens down when I’m not going to school. The last couple of days have been most sedate. Yesterday I wandered about the town checking out a few things I wanted and going to a church of the lesser variety that nonetheless has some beautiful carvings. I have a problem (as always) with printing my tickets/ boarding passes so I went in search of somewhere to buy a USB so I can take stuff to a commercial place to print. Hows that for an exciting mission?? It rained on and off yesterday so that was my excuse not to do too much after I’d farewelled Chris.

Today I went and had my coffee etc, came home and did a bit of school revision and a tad of …OMG!!…ironing!! I got home to find I had left my kindle at the coffee shop so had to hot foot back to (fortunately) retrieve it. Then I went out to meet the friend of Angie Berry’s who’s in Lucca this week, Caroline. She remembers all you kids from picking grapes at the land. She remembers you all as fabulous kids!! We went to have a bowl of soup for lunch (and a glass of wine, I think I may have rather shocked her!!). She is a delight and it was lovely to have such pleasant company for lunch.

Then I wandered the town with her for a while going here and there, having a coffee, I show her my lovely walled garden and she showed me the best place to buy wine in town….excellent discovery for me. Then returning her to her B&B. I’m not sure how much we’ll see each other although she does want to go for a bike ride at some stage I think and will no doubt be in touch. While I was waiting to meet her before lunch I went a bit shopping mad (so unusual for me) and bought myself a leather handbag (bright red) and a leather computer case thing (bright red!!!). What can I say??? How much will I have to throw away to be able to accommodate them??

I think I’ll take a little trip to Prato one day but otherwise I’m going to enjoy a slow week and try to discipline myself to ensure I do a bit of Italian each day.

Ciao all….hi Tonga familyt!! I’m planning a visit to Fiji so standby!!