November 3rd, Lucca - Moving to a New Place

This a.m., we moved over to our new digs at Affitacamere Primavera inside the walls of Lucca. We stayed there a couple weeks ago and liked it. We will be here until November 19th, when we return to Venice to pack our bike for our trip home on the 23rd. It looks like currently that we do not need to share the bathroom, kitchen and living room with anybody in our new accomodations, since it is off-season. We were also given the bigger bedroom. The kitchen has a ref, stove and we can now cook our meals with dignity....no more sleuth cooking on the camping stove.

After settling in, we went and picked up our bike at our previous hotel where it was being stored and road back to our new place. Rain was threatening, but we got all done in time. So we went shopping and just enjoyed our new digs the rest of the day. The owner also owns a video store next door, so he set us up with a DVD player and we can now rent movies to watch at night.

November 1st - Rain; November 2nd - A 56.k Ride

It rained off and on all day on All Saint's Day. So we talked with Carmine in the morning and then went out to explore the Comic and Games convention. The paper says there are over 50,000 people here now. Carmine had dinner plans tonight, so we came back and made a great barley and vegetable soup and read. We were going to go out and see more costumes at night, but got too tired reading and went to bed early.

On Sunday, November 2nd, we woke up to sunny skies. After breakfast and socializing with Carmine around the table, we walked to get our bike where it is stored in our last affitacamere and took it on a nice ride west of the city. There were throngs of bicyclists out, about 10 groups were seen with about 50 bikers in each group. The ride took us through rows and rows of olive trees being harvested. We have lovely pictures of the white, orange and green nets that are placed under the trees to collect the fallen olives. Carmine told us that there was great concern about all the rain destroying the olives that fall. His father has an olive orchard and makes olive oil.

Our destination was a large lake of which we got a great vista. We came upon another hill town and had our lunch there, before heading toward Lucca. On the outskirts of Lucca, we followed a river trail that took us toward town. The river was peaking. We found a lovely raised caffe trail side and stopped for our afternoon coffee. After putting the bike back in storage, we walked on the grass surrounding the walls of Lucca for a change, and enjoyed the scenes of humanity as well as all the comic characters from the convention.

Carmine went to a retreat in Florence, so we had dinner alone at his place, read and went to bed. It has been wonderful staying with him. He is a very warm man with a great sense of humor and genorosity. Allowing us to use his kitchen to cook (with real pots and pans and dishes) has been a great treat as well. We are looking forward to spending more time with him in the next couple of weeks, as he is just around the corner from the apartment we are taking. He wants us to be involved with our arts in some of his workshops with his clients. Should be interesting.

Friday - October 31, 2008 - Lucca - More Rain

18,000 people are expected to attend the Comic and Game convention. In fact people are starting to pour into town despite the bad weather. Tonight Mauny and Elaine celebrate their wedding anniversary. The plan was to go out, but Carmine suggested having dinner with friends at his charming apartment. We, of course accepted. We went to buy veggies, and a tasty cheese cake. We spent a wonderful evening that lasted into the wee hours. Carmine fixed a finger-licking good rissotto. He actually took the time to show Elaine and Mauny how it is prepared the Italian way. We hope to remember, and be able to make it back home. His friends were also charming, and they brought more fine dishes, and wine. We had slices of cheese with a walnut sitting on top of each slice. You put honey on it just before eating it. It is highly recommended! We went to sleep after midnight to the sound of rain outside.

October 28th-30th, Socked in in Lucca

The last couple days have given us horrific and extremely moody weather...with thunderstorms, winds, then a tease of sun, and a return to sudden downpours. We have tried to wander out when we get a small break to get some exercise, go for coffee, the internet and coffee. On the 30th, we checked out of our digs, stored the bike there for 4 days, and met our Servas host, Carmine Parella. ...a psychologist and a dear. He works alot with his patients with art and drama therapy, including Playback Theater, which Elaine was first exposed to at the Healing and Storytelling Conference in Minneapolis a couple years ago. He met us at his place at 2, within the city walls, we talked, he showed us around his place, and gave us the key to make ourselves comfortable. We offered to cook that night and he was happy to have us do so. Elaine made her pasta and artichoke dish and we sat up until midnight talking. Fortunatley, he offered us to stay here for 4 days until we check into our next and FINAL flat on Monday, which is very nearby. We have been blessed, especially given the weather situaion. We were unable to find room in Lucca for these 4 days, due to a huge Comics and Games convention here...everything is booked solid.

October 21st, Lucca by foot

Today we hiiked the long acquaduct that extends out 2 or more k from the Lucca train station. It called for rain, so we took our rain gear with us, plus lunch. En route, we saw people in their backgrounds tending to their gardens, people driving up in their cars to get water from the fresh spring taps en route. At the end, we saw a path that led beyond it and at night Mauny connected the dots, and saw that it was part of another trail, called something like Via della Acqua, which we had seen on a bike ride a few days . We made note to do the trail, of about 20k, on our next nice day in Lucca. It was beginning to rain, so we had our lunch under one of the aquaduct arches. By the time we returned in the afternoon it was pouring buckets. We stopped at the local supermarket and had dinner back in our room.

October 26th, Lucca to Pisa and back, 67.8

We woke up to not a cloud in the sky and very mild temps. By 10 a.m., we were headed south on S12 business. We rode flat through vineyards, villas, and a street lined with straight trees. We did a mild climb, and went through a tunnel, before doing a serpentine down to the outskirts of Pisa. Pisa is only about 25 k from Lucca and with easy access by bike. The Leaning Tower suddenly appeared and we navigated the streets toward it. We hung out at its plazza that also included a cathedral and cemetery and lots of tourists getting snapped pretending like they are pushing the tower over.

We then went toward the Arno river, and then back up an old shopping street, had some kebob at a Turkish restaurant, and then began our ride back. This time we were coming back on the old road toward Lucca. Mauny had found a side climb for us to do. When we were looking for it, he noticed that we had a flat. So he finally changed the rim tape and fixed the flat, and we found our road up. It was over 7.5 k straight up from the road we left and seemed to go on and on. En route, we saw lots of cars parked to the side, and families out in the woods looking for mushrooms to take home to cook. En route, Elaine and Mauny both got rather exasperated, due to lack of good fueling for such a climb, and had to stop to rest. But we were not deterred and went on. At the top, we thought we were going to find a village, but instead found a restaurant. For those of you in the Ventura area, this Sunday trip was like going to Cold Springs Tavern on a Sunday afternoon. Everyone was there. We rested for a moment there, turned around and made an 18 minute descent down the mountain, with seemingly constant oncoming cars. It was a white knuckle ride for Elaine.

We had a beautful finish to our ride into Lucca and went for some nutella crepes, that were well-deserved. We went home and changed shoes and went back out for groceries. Not a supermarket or bar was open, except for a small pizza joint in our neighborhood, where we had to eat. We did have something new to eat...a pizza like concotion made from chick peas. We went home, showered, read and went to bed with aching legs. A wonderful day!

October 25th, Lucca

Today we walked to the Lucca Saturday market to buy shoes, as we know that we are tempting weather fate with our Teva sandals. Mauny forgot his money belt, so Elaine waited for him inside the city walls. While there, she heard bagpipes and then a man in full Scottish garb approaching. He and his mate were promoting an upcoming concert by a Scottish military band. Elaine told him about her high school band and majorettes from her hometown of Scottdale, PA, which had its own bagpipe brigade and majorettes who did their own Scottish fling at footbal halftimes. They parted company and as he walked down the streets of Lucca, he flung his bagpipe up under his arm, and played the tune that Elaine had mentioned her school bagpipe brigade played upon entering the field. It brough at tear to her eye.

Mauny returned and on they went to the market. Mauny found running shoes, and Elaine a shawl and pair of new slacks to look more presentable for upcoming social evenings out. Mauny went back to our affitacamere and did his first run of 5k since September. Elaine went to wash her very dirty rain jacket, which took about 3 hours, as she had to wait for the stores to open at 3:30 just to buy detergent. So in the interim, she walked the shopping streets to find her shoes. After buying detergent, she went to the laundromat, only to learn that detergent was automatically included in the wash.

Elaine had also bought some Lucchese soup and took it back to the room. After dinner in the room, Elaine and Mauny went to a free concert. Puccini was born in Lucca and they are having a 150 year celebration of his life. Most of concerts are at charge, but the one tonight was free, and was excellent. The very talented jazz trio, took Puccini operas and set them to jazz. Later in the program, they also brought out an operatic singer who sang opera to jazz. It was a unique concept and very well done.