Author: susan

My god, I’ve just got rid of my drunken friends who came back to my place for drinks after dinner. I thought they’d never leave. Tales of amazing Quentin Tarantino parties, of meeting samuel jackson and George Clooney etc etc. Amazing and quite beyond my comprehension.

But I am digressing. I need to return to yesterday which was a quieter day all round. Classes in the morning and then I decided not to go to cooking class and to do my own thing…I think I was a bit overwhelmed all in all with classes and activities. So I went home for a couple of hours to try to digest some of the learning. Then I decided to take myself off for a ride around the wall. I did 3.5 times around which I reckon to be around 15 km. I had rung Bec Lang in the morning to say how sad I was about David’s death and I was feeling a little bit off centre. I had tea at home and focussed on more Italian homework as I am very behind from so much activity.

This morning was another day. I chatted with Rose about David’s funeral and I have to say that it has made me very sad, I guess another chapter closes and I move up the ladder, as it were!! Then just before I set off for school I got an email from Susana to say she wasn’t coming to school because she wasn’t well. We had a new teacher for the day as our teacher had to go to a course in Rome. So it was me and a teacher I didn’t know…oh shit!! But as it turns out Laura and I got on well and although it was an intense 3 hrs it was good because she just forced me to talk…hopeless but good to have to do it!

At school friend from another class, Carolina, said she wanted to meet up for the afternoon so I arranged to meet her in Piazza Antiteatro mid afternoon. I told Susana that this was what I was doing and she also came along to (sick??????). We wandered around town for a bit then decided an Aperol Spritz was the way to go. So we sat outside and had a (couple of ) Spritz. We wandered some more, meeting people from school all over the place who diverted us and walked with us for a while. Carolina decided she was starving so we went in search of a place for early (6.30) tea. We went to the place Rose and I had gone (outside with internal courtyard) and had a yummy bean soup…specialty of Lucca and, of course, a litre of wine between the 3 of us. We cruised on to a shop that specialises in chocolate and had a yoghurt withe chocolate sauce!!

Then we bought some wine and came over to my place to drink the bottle. I have just farewelled them giggling off down the street to meet again in the morning for coffee before we head off to Viareggio for a little day trip. It’s all go here with so many people from school all over the place and all treat you like long lost friends.

I’m exhausted and have to organise myself a domani !!

Oh my god…just home (10 pm) after a huge day and I must admit to having had quite a lot to drink!!
So…off to school this morning. And again a very intense day but with so much to be learnt. Now I am actually vaguely able to use the past tense. Susana and I were sent out to the market with a list of questions we had to ask the store holders and come back with the answers. I am always in awe of the patience and kindness of the Italians. They are just an awesome people and who just love that you are trying to learn their language.

After class it was race home for a brief drop off of books before having to head back to go on our excursion. But there was an email from Buds telling me David Lang had died. This is such sad news for me. He was so close to our family for so long. But not much time to contemplate too much as I had to race back to get into the van that took us to Livorno.

Honestly I have to say that the group of people learning Italian at my school are just fantastic. They are all so nice, none of them are in my class (except Susana) but it really is like a group of friends. Andrew Broad and Desiree were there again and many others I had never met before, or met a couple of times but without exception they are just lovely. It is such a nice feeling.

Anyway it was another great trip. We got to Livorno and then went on this boat around the canals, around a Medici Palace from the 1500s (the Medici’s ruled Livorno) and down to the port where the cruise ships sit. I learnt a lot about Livorno which was extensively bombed during WW!!. 85% of the city was destroyed (it was a major port). When we got off the boat we went down to the waterfront with its fine esplanade and walked along the beachfront. It was warm and just a lovely little passeggiata. We then went to a bar for a wee aperitivo!

On return to Lucca Susana and a new friend, Carolina and I went out for dinner. We went to a ‘new’ restaurant which was really terrific. We had a lovely meal, some lovely wine, desert and then they gave us complimentary limoncello!! When I left my NBFFs they were giggling off down the street wondering if they could find their way to their respective abodes. I like Susana more and more. She is 37, She is Mexican who is living and working in Colorado (have I said that before???).

So…no homework or revision today which isn’t good because I’ll get way behind, specially as there is a cooking class out in the country at a fattoria tomorrow night that I wasn’t going to go to but everyone was persuading me that I had to go so I’ll see tomorrow.
So, the week so far is really good. The bad thing (just because I can’t give up my role as pessimist extraordinaire) is that Susana leaves at the end of this week, as does Andrew and Desiree. I’ll stop classes for 2 weeks and then who knows what will await me!!

Anyway…off to bed. Lots and lots of love. I’m still excited about Ang and Kirst’s engagement, as well as having their visit to look forward to.

School was much better today. Bruce was moved to beginners (this is the first time I realised I wasn’t in beginners but I’m with the bigger kids in intermediate), anyway that left just Susana and I and it was FULL ON…conversation +++++ and getting about 50% of it if I was lucky but it is good and very challenging. I’m exhausted!! I then had lunch with Susana…she always likes to go for lunch so I sort of have to go along too but my poor soup is languishing badly. Rose would have thrown it out by now, but not me!!!
Susana is wanting to travel some more around Italy from next week on so she is trying to get as much information as possible from me about where to go etc. Anyway, it was a very long lunch and I eventually got back home much later having done a little shopping on the way.

Then there’s revision/writing up/ trying to understand what the hell happened in class…this takes me hours every afternoon. So it was a no exercise day today! But that was OK because it was 28 deg. and very sticky. Tomorrow after school there is a BIG excursion to Livorno (on the coast below Pisa) where we go on a boat trip down canals or something…not sure but it sounds big!! Both Susana and I are going on this one.

More tomorrow night.

Another weekend has come and gone. Yesterday was rainy for most of the day. So it was mundane chores for the morning. I did the laundromat thingo and had my coffee all in the one little outing. I lugged my washing home and then did some cooking. I made some Pumpkin soup to see me through the coming week. I cooked up some beautiful white asparagus to accompany my meals and while all this was happening I wrote up Thursdays Italian lesson and tried to absorb some of it.

After lunch the day started to clear up so I thought I should get a bit of exercise in and walked around the wall. It is quite a tiring exercise walking around the wall…I think I’ve said …5kms…but who’s counting?? I had one of my technological crises when my phone refused to connect to the internet. This crisis carried over until today when I finally made it forget the network and started all over again and it decided to connect…stupid really.

Today was better…no rain but the Lucca Marathon meant that everything was closed down for the morning so I didn’t rush. A very happy Skype with Ang and Kirst started the day and set me off on a planning/ exploring session for my time with A&K in Aug/ Sept. That always keeps me looking forward with excitement. Then a Skype to Rose which was also lovely. So by the time I got myself out it was 11am and my coffee shop was open.

After coffee I decided to go for a ride. The wall was all clogged up with those mad people who run marathons so I went outside the wall around Lucca. I have posed the problem to Ang that if the wall is 4.3 km and the path around the perimeter is about 150M further out from the wall how far did I ride when I went around twice. Surely it’s more than 10km…much more!!

After that ride I went home and had my pumpkin soup for lunch…delicious. Then I went out walking. There was a massive parade and competition of people in medieval costumes playing their music and flag throwing. So I wandered around after that for a while. Then I met some people from school who told me that the Black Christ…the Volto Santo…was dressed in the gold crown and jewel laden gown only twice a year and today was one of those days. So off I went to the Duomo and it really was very impressive, very opulent and people parading past in their droves. By this time my legs had had it so home I came to resume my research into San Sebastian/ Barcelona etc!!

I’m looking forward to my white asparagus for tea with some chicken!! Back to school tomorrow with a new class and a new teacher so who knows how that will turn out. Susana will be with me for another week so that’s nice.

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.

Off to school again this morning. It was the last day for this week so most of the class were moving on. Only Susana and I go back next week in this class. I have really enjoyed my week of lessons, it’s not that I am making great progress but I don’t feel like quite such an idiot. The class was much much better suited to my level which gave me greater confidence. It is also a much longer lesson and I felt as if I was making a little bit of progress albeit still not able to speak!!

After lessons today Susana and I went to a restaurant I wish, wish we’d known about when H, A & R were here, you would have loved it. It is a special project to give employment to disabled people with both intellectual and physical disabilities. Most had intellectual disabilities including Downs Syndrome and other. They were fantastic and it was uplifting. The menu is adapted with pictures and numbers which taught us all about the different pastas etc. The pads they took the order on was adapted to use numbers. The food was fantastic and unbelievably cheap. We were joined there by 2 other woman from ‘school’ who walked in and all up, for the 4 of us it cost 36 EU. We had a pasta each, a salad, a bottle of wine and a shared desert. The people who joined us from America and another woman from France. We had a lovely lunch and a lively discussion. The restaurant is called ‘Pecora Nera’ – Black Sheep!!

After lunch Susana, the American woman and I headed off to find a wine shop someone had told us about. We found it but the price range was way outside our schema of things but we had some tastes and enjoyed that. We also got all sorts of information about a visit to the Fubbiano Winery which we may well do next week but have to work out some transportation!! It was a shopping day today as everything (literally) is closed tomorrow. The other 2 women came with me to some of the places I shop because they wanted to know some good places to go. Then we parted and I came home ladened with food shopping.

I haven’t got plans for the long weekend unlike most people who are heading off to the obvious places, Florence, Pisa, Siena etc. Tomorrow will be closed wherever you go so I will potter around Lucca doing my homework/ revision. Then saturday…well who knows.

It has been a much brighter week and once again school has been a very good addition to my life.