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A night at the opera and rain!!

I had an amazing night last night. With one of my friends from school (Anita) I went off to Torre del Lago which is this beautiful lake just back from the coast at Viareggio where Puccini had his summer house and wrote most of his operas. There is this amazing open air theatre there and we had the privilege of watching a performance of Tosca. Amazing!! A perfect midsummer night, one of those times when you just know how privileged you are to be doing this.

We got a shuttle bus there, had a lovely meal on a terrace over-hanging the lake as the sun set with extraordinary pastel hews across the lake…hard to describe but amazing. We then went and watched the opera in fantastic seats. There is also something about watching an opera in Italy, firstly you start(just start) to understand the words but secondly the enthusiasm of the audience is fantastic. Half way through the second act the soprano sang the aria (no programme so don’t know who she was and can’t find it online) and the audience went mad and started screaming ‘Bis’ ‘Bis’ for an encore so lo and behold the whole opera freezes while they repeat the aria…never seen that happen before…and then when she finishes the other actors pick up where they left off.
It went for 3 hrs + and we got back to Lucca at 1.30am and the apartment at 2am. A very late night for this old girl.

Then a few hours later, fortunately all tucked up in bed, the lightning and thunder started to pound and it rained!! As I sit and write this the thunder is cracking, its dark and rain is spitting. It is so humid but for the first time I have opened all the windows and it is cooler (not that it’s cool!!), its lovely.

Lots of writing up to do of the last week of school, photos to label etc so an indoors type of day…sneaked my coffee in during a break in the rain!!

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Day in Viareggio

I think it’s a good thing that I’m having a break from school and that Susana is heading off on Monday morning…otherwise I might die of exhaustion. We all (Susana, Carolina and I ) woke up a bit seedy this morning but notwithstanding we met at 9 for coffee and then headed off on the train for Viareggio. It was a lovely day, we headed straight for the beach and it is a lovely beach that took me by surprise a bit. A long stretch of sandy waterfront and clear water. You have to pay to sit on the beach and to swim in the water, but there is a tiny postage stamp that is ‘free’ and packed with people. Just for the record it’s 15Eu to get a chair and umbrella. It is surprisingly lovely though you may not be able to imagine that, specially if you are bobbing around in Tonga!!

We walked along the beach paddling which felt good. For the first time I wore thongs and was able to walk along barefoot…funny what a nice feeling that is and how much we take it for granted. We wandered along the pier and then back to have some seafood for lunch. A delicious fritto misto which was mainly calamari with a couple of prawns thrown in. We walked up along the river and then through the township for the mandatory gelato!! It was a lovely sunny day but not too hot…about 24. Then back up to the train station and a 20 minute trip back to Lucca…too easy!!

Still a big day and I got home tired…refusing the suggestion of dinner to have a bit of ‘downtime’. Carolina particularly is a very loud American / Latino from Seattle. If I was just observing her I’d wonder what I’d struck but she is a lovely person and lots of fun. Nonetheless a bit of ‘away’ time is in order!!

Tomorrow it’s a later start. We are meeting at 11 to set off on another bike ride along the river, this time in the opposite direction toward another town we’ve been told about. Lunch in a village somewhere. Then tomorrow night I am dining with Andrew and Desiree Broad before they leave Lucca on Monday. Then Shamala and Alan arrive on Monday for a week. So it’s go,go,go!!