Lucca

Day thirty-seven, September 23, 2010

I sleep late today walking about 8:30. I have never the hours of the breakfast but most places it lasts until 10 so I decide to go on this assumption and I hang out in bed until 9:30. I put on my clothes and head downstairs. There are a few people still in the breakfast room so I am not too late. There is a big selection at this place, but no croissants, which is surprising. I am asked for my coffee order. I like this! And of course I get a cappuccino. I just get some yogurt, fruit salad and a whole wheat ( you never see this) roll to have with the coffee. This is my type of breakfast. I enjoy my little meal and then walk back up to the third floor. Since I am staying, I better do some washing. I will be so happy to using washing machine (and a dryer) when I get home. Doing laundry has never been one of my favorite tasks but this trip will make me appreciate the conveniences of doing it in Seattle ( I have to look at the positives). I turn on MTV and see a few videos and then a show comes on about bad dates that they video camera...it is interesting because they only have subtitles for the male although it appears both were speaking English before it was dubbed with Italian (another thing I don't get). I then a little watch CNN as I finish up the laundry duty.

This is good day for a run I decide...it is flat(although I run at hills at home) but there is good place to do it along the top ramparts of the walls of the old city. I wear decide to wear a new headband that I bought in Vernazza. I check my head near the beginning of the run and I have lost my headband….now I see why some cars were honking at more( I though perhaps it was comment on my nice thighs….silly me, they were just commenting that I was losing my head gear). I jog back hoping to find the bright yellow band of cloth and I do see it in the middle of closest lane near the hotel. I get a break in the busy traffic and rescue. It has a few black marks but it is not in too bad a shape for being pushed around by these Italian cars. I hold the headband now and start on my way. I get up to the ramparts in about ten minutes and then it takes me a little under forty to get around the whole thing so I jog on down below so I get in about a 55 minute workout. I then wander the town a little. Buy a fizzy water and cool down. I then start to walk back to the hotel. When I almost get back to the Napoleon, I decide to go down another road to see if this road could be used to get back to the train station versus going over the busy overpass. After a bit of wandering, I do find the train station. I check the train schedules and looks like I can get a train to the Pisa airport, which is my next stop on Sunday and it looks like it is only 2,40 euros(that is they was they do it here, they use a comma versus a period before the cents). I buy a lemon soda and now make my way back to hotel following this new route. I get back about 2:00. I take a shower and do more laundry( the sweaty jogging clothes). It is another sit down tub with the hand held shower method but at least the tub is more designed for full size human versus a munchkin. I go down and work on the internet and fill out my blog. I work until after five and now it is time to go! I go up and get a sweater for the evening and go out to meet my amica, Teresa.

On the way into town, I spot a bike shop that is featuring bike shirts so I go in. The manikin has on bike shorts so I decide to ask the shop worker if there are bike short for sale. I ask very nicely, “Parle inglese?” and he says “for sure”. After chatting with him, his English seems very good. After I find some shorts out of drawer and then try them on, he asks me where I am from. I tell him Seattle and his says, “ A fellow west coasters”. He is Matt from San Francisco here for six months doing the biking thing. He offers to give me a bike tour and I take his card if my other tour plans do not work out. I purchase the shorts, which are little pricey but I am sure my butt will appreciate this next week and will tell me it was worth the money. I then head off to meet Teresa at the designated spot. It is 5:50 and we were do to meet at 6 so she is early but that is great. It is nice to see here. She has had a fun time hanging out in Siena and Florence since we last met. We are both full of stories but I tell her to wait to tell me about her “death march” around Lucca and let’s do over a beer. We head over to the Piazza San Michael where there was some music playing last night. No music tonight but still lots of good people watching so we sit outside a gelateria and get a birra piccolo(small beer) each. We both talk a mile a minute and get caught up on our travels over the last five days( seems longer than that). We finish up the beers and decide to wander. We take a look at those machines making the chips and try a free sample. We decide it looks like a tortilla maker but the chips are like a thin fortune cookie with a slight anise flavor. I asked what they are called but now I forget but I wonder why they are specific to Lucca. Teresa wants to get something for her office mates. She considers these chip things but they would never make the trip home. She decides on some type of nougat that has nuts in it that the young girl says is very typical and good and Teresa goes for it even no taste is available. We decide it is for people at work “they eat everything”.

We are hungry but not sure where we want to go so we decide just to wander. There is shoe store having a grand opening. They have tables outside offering juice and prosecco in glass glasses. We get a sample and look over the shoes inside. I definitely want to get some boots but this will have to wait for the last stop of Florence. This are some very fancy shops in this town. We find the “amphitheater” that I thought I missed last night. Turns out is not an amphitheater anymore just a round space with buildings all around the circle where the amphitheater used to exist…..no wonder I thought I had missed it. Finally, we see a place off the main drag and decide we like the menu. They have a traditional pasta dish called tortelli and it is on the menu so this draws us in. They have a garden courtyard across the way and we sit here. It is very nice with luminary candles all around. We both decide on the same thing(this is like traveling with Debbie). We both get the tortelli (basically it is a type of ravioli) and it insalate miste ( a mixed salad). The waitress asks if we want the salad first, which we do because the Italians usually have it after the meal…..she gets a lot of tourists so she knows to ask us….very nice. And of course we get the house red wine. We have fine meal and fine chat. Teresa wants one more coffee for the road. I guess at her hostel in Florence that they fixed the eggs to order, gave you one free cappuccino (following ones only one euro). Teresa says she got four cappuccinos! (well guess this would be like getting a Venti latte at Starbucks). We decide to get the il conto (the bill) and find our cappuccino elsewhere. We wander back to the Piazza Napoleon and sit inside (we are little chilled) and get the cappuccini. Teresa gets a decaf and I get a “normal”. Teresa tells the waiter she is the one that is “not normal” but her joke is lost in translation. Teresa’s decaf is actually is from package but takes okay with the frothy steamed milk. We finish and say our goodbyes. “See you in Seattle!”

It is a little creepy at first to head outside the walls to get my hotel but then I am on the next to busy street so I feel better. I make it home about 10:30 pm. I head back to my room. I check my email on the Iphone…darn no wine and bike tours on Saturday. I think I will need to contact my little SF man Matt, I need to start getting my butt in shape and my bicycle legs in shape! I work on my blog and then I need to get to bed because my cooking class is at 10:00 AM tomorrow. I fall asleep to the peaceful sounds (hmmm) of a Pink Floyd biography on CNN.