FULL DAY IN LUCCA

We all have fallen in love with Lucca!! It's so small, historic, 100 churches in a 2 sq. mi. radius. Our apartment isn't quite as nice but a good location. No wi-fi which is a pain! So we have to go out. I'm at a pizza place down the street at 9 p.m. on Saturday night writing this. But we all had a great night's sleep and were ready to go at 9:30 a.m.

I heard church bells so went out early and went around the corner to an 12th century Romanesque church. There was a beautiful side altar and I bought a candle to bring home to George!! It was very peaceful!

Then I waited for the bike guy to open as we planned to rent this 4 person 4 wheeled vehicle/bike to ride up on the wide gorgeous city wall!! There was a ramp right near us to get up on it. He talked us into a 2 passenger one with one of us squeezed in between, and only two of us peddling, only one of us steering and controlling the brake!! What a hoot! We circle the entire thing, having a bit of a tough time where there was some construction. It was a gorgeous view of the mountains surrounding Lucca and the roofs of the city interior.

We learned later this was the 3rd iteration of a city wall. The first was a big four-square by the Romans with two cross streets from end to end. Then in Medieval times it was expanded when there were issues with their neighbor Pisa and the Medicis in Florence. And finally 500 years ago(1513)  they expanded to the present 35 Ft. high, 19 ft. wide wall. It was never used for defense. However, recently it kept the water, with barricades at the portes, out of the city when a nearby river flooded! We had a great time circling the old city!

I had randomly gone on TripAdviser yesterday and email "Wanda" about a possible tour today. She was available and met Angie and I at 11 after our ride (Cathy went for a regular bike ride and did other things). We had a wonderful, informative 3 hour walking tour. She is a native of Lucca, with a family here for centuries! And she seemed to know someone on every street as we walked along. She even knew, and we ran into on the street, the soprano opera singer who performed at the Puccini recital. She hugged Wanda and they chatted about something and went off! Wish I'd been quick enough to take a picture!! Wanda gives Puccini tours and says she knows him so well, "even down to the holes in his socks." She took us by a statue of him near the house where he was born.

Wanda emphasized how thrifty, hard working, and dominant Lucca people had been over the centuries. Apparently silk was brought back from the crusades in medieval times and Lucca became a grower and producer, and wealthy from, the silk trade! This was BEFORE Marco Polo!! When they were trading all over Europe, they also became bankers (she showed us HER bank, with a small metal door in the wall (it was closed on Saturday) that she said was the FIRST bank, still functioning as a bank, in the world!! But the silk trade died out around 1936, I'm guessing somehow related to Mussolini and WWII. Lucca became a business European power back then. Their secret weapon was MONEY! They used it to buy off states, princes, etc. who threatened Lucca's sovereignty (it's one of 20 Italian provinces and covers a chunk of western Italy, not just this city.

Now, she said we'd never guess what their main product/industry was! TOILET PAPER, and other paper products! It's because of the water! she said. One of the paper companies puts in their ad that their paper is "soft as silk."  :) Up to the 90s, Lucca was not on the tourist trail! But recently city fathers have discovered the profitability of it. Now they are getting ready for a recurring huge MUSIC FESTIVAL in July with headliners, Tom Jones, and Van Morrison. Last year she said they had Bob Dylan.  In the fall they have a huge Comic (like ComiCon) convention here! It brings in the crowds! And every night of the year they have Puccini being performed in that church from last night!

Wanda was a walking encyclopedia of Luccan history and I thoroughly enjoyed all the information she shared! What a lucky find!

Outside the Roman walls was a 10,000 seat Roman amphitheater. They cannibalized the stone from that, filled in the center and added apartments/houses all around the outside. Now it's a big piazza with restaurants (mostly for the tourists) all around the outside. We had an evening snack there (at a wifi place!)

Bagpiper walked by playing "Amazing Grace" as we ate!

After our tour we met up with Cathy around 3 (we were starving by this time!) and had a wonderful dinner at a recommendation from Rick Steves' book! We did some shopping at a leather store recommended by Wanda and from a couple of street sellers nearby.

After our snack and wine, I rented a bike to use in the early a.m. and took a ride around the wall. On my way I stopped in St. Martin's Cathedral (we had seen the outside with Wanda but I wanted to see inside). Mass was going on so I stayed. It was being said by the Cardinal. After mass he processed down the aisle and stopped to shake hands with parishioners, including me!!

Cathy helped me carry the bike into the apartment on the second floor when I got home in the rain! Tomorrow I'll take an early ride before we leave Lucca!! Sadly!!

St. Martin, a monk originally from Hungary, performing miracles

12 apostles

lower - months of the year, on the right January-June. details on St. Martin's

So  now I'm off to bed.

Good thoughts going my way to my family in Shelton dealing with really difficult issues! I love you all!

Ciao!

ON TO LUCCA

I didn’t sleep too well last night, thinking about Judy, Kerry and all that’s going on in CT. Cathy and I had gone out late, around 9:30 to go back to Georgia’s (the wine bar we had gone to on arrival) but it was closed!! I settled for chocolate and pistachio gelato for dinner!!! :) 

I tried to go to sleep after Angie and I fought over hot water for our showers - me downstairs and her upstairs!! We should have planned and staggered our efforts!! I couldn’t sleep so brought my pillow and quilt upstairs so I could turn on the light and read. I got a text from Kerry that she was there alone with Judy and I could call so I did. We talked for awhile and she was doing fine! Everyone had gone home and she was going later to a Sheraton nearby. 

I read for awhile and couldn’t get comfortable on the two seater sofa so by 2:30 a.m. gave up and went downstairs. Unfortunately, Angie is a light sleeper so she would wake up with my coming and going. Anyhow, I got up at 6:30 before my alarm and had breakfast (Cathy fixed me the night before a cup of oatmeal, milk and strawberries that I just heated in the microwave! - great new idea for traveling next time - a bag of oatmeal, nuts, etc.) I went outside to see if the little fruit market around the corner was opened (NOT) or the church nearby so I could light some candles (NOT OPEN). 

By 8 everyone was putting their suitcases by the door and cleaning up to leave. David had shown Angie how to text the taxi company for them to pick us up. It didn’t work; finally she tried actually phoning and that didn’t work either! Fortunately David called and called a taxi for us and we made it to the station an hour before departure. We had already purchased our ticket to Prato and Lucca yesterday when we got our tickets for Ravenna! Now we are on the train and should arrive in Lucca around 1:30 p.m. Looking forward to biking on top of the city wall that surrounds the 2 sq. mi. old town!

I LOVE Lucca!! It’s more small town - completely encircled by city wall (we will bike on it tomorrow. There’s a 4 person bike that we will get Angie on (she doesn’t bike!) for an hour or so. Then she and I have a walking tour around town. Our apartment (we took a taxi there) and he kindly called our airbnb host who had the cleaning lady (Sabrina) let us in. It’s not as elegant as Bologna but it will do. 

Angie waiting with our luggage for our train.

A typical Italian train

We headed off down the main street to pick up our tickets for the Puccini recital tonight which I had ordered on line. There is a performance EVERY night of the year in the church/basilica where Puccini was baptized and often performed as an organist. He was born in 1858 here into a musical family. He soon decided he wanted to be a composer, after seeing Verdi’s Aida. He studied at the Milan Conservatory. He wrote 12 operas in all and is the most performed opera composer. 

Silvana Froli, Gabriele Spina - amazing!!

Plus Diego Fiorini on pianoforte

The performers are professional opera singers and pianists. They were amazing!! We heard excerpts from La Boheme, Edgar, Turandot, Tosca, Gianni Schicchi, Madama Butterfly and La Fanciulla Del West. Their amazing voices gave me chills!!!

Puccini was kind of a rebel! He made himself unpopular in Lucca by taking up with Elvira Bonturi, married to a very influential and well known merchant in Lucca; AND had a son by her! She left the husband and lived (IN SIN!) with Puccini and had to leave town. When her husband died, they were free to marry and she lived with him until his death in 1924 in Brussels. 

I took some videos but I don’t think I can put them on the blog (Michelle, can I do that? I’ll send you one and see if you can figure it out! :)

On our way home we came across a HUGE crowd of 20/30 somethings outside drinking and our street looks like a huge parking lot!! It’s Friday night; we’re in BettyBlue Cafe (we don’t have internet in the apartment) drinking Chianti and eating all the “tapas” (I don’t know what they call it in Italian - peanuts, breads/sauce, little snacks). Great jazz/blues American music and Stevia (great waitress!) to keep bringing the Chianti!!! 

So more Lucca tomorrow! Ciao!!!

RAVENNA DAY TRIP

David came over last night and cooked gnocchi (I think it's potato/pasta balls!) with sauce and we had some wonderful red wine that he had brought. Angie had gluten-free gnocchi prepared for her! We had fun chatting!

This morning we headed out to the train station, and as we walked, found the right bus to hop to get us to the station. It saved SOME walking (Angie has a FitBit and we did 13,000 steps yesterday; today so far we were up to 15,000!!! Oh, my aching feet!). We bought round trip tickets, learned how to use the billette machine, with the attendant right there helping us! and rode the 1 hour trip to Ravenna which is only 6 miles from the Adriatic coast! It used to be ON the coast and was controlled earlier by Venice! It's a tourist place because of the 1,500 year old churches, decorated with the best-in-the-West Byzantine mosaics. They date back to AD 400-600 when Ravenna was the center of Western civilization, transitioning from Roman to barbarian to Byzantine to medieval. The Roman emperor moved his capital to Ravenna around 402 when the barbarians were zeroing in on Rome. It was a port with close connections to Constantinople or Byzantium (Istanbul). The Goths conquered Ravenna in 476 and ruled from there, keeping much of the Roman infrastructure.

In 540 Justinian, ruling form Byzantium, conquered the Goths and turned Ravenna into a pinnacle of civilization. It remained a flickering light in Europe's Dark Ages for 200 years until the Lombards from Germany kicked out the Byzantines in 751. It then melted into the backwaters of medieval Italy for the next thousand years (info from Rick Steves' Italy).

Amazing window display of CHOCOLATES!

Gold and more gold!!!

We enjoyed our stroll from the station down a grass/tree-lined avenue to the Piazza de Popolo in the center of town, created by the Venetian rulers in the 15th century. Dante is a famous son - he died here of malaria, after being exiled from Florence for his political beliefs. His bones were hidden in the walls of a monastery in 1519 to protect them from the Florentines who were trying to steal them back.

The big site is the Basilica di San Vitale with sparkling gold flecked mosaics. Here Justinian is up above the altar with a crown AND a halo, representing both leader of Church and State. On the grounds was the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, again beautifully decorated, much smaller in the shape of a cross, with alabaster windows letting in a bit of light. Noone is buried in the sarcophaguses there, though. These are the oldest original mosaics! Gorgeous! Another church, a museum and a Baptistry where adults became Christians were highlights.

We had a lovely dinner in a place recommended by Rick with 15 foot hight wine shelves! The red wines have been amazing!! We headed back to the train station and were back in Bologna around 3. We had a mishap getting on the right bus in the wrong direction. And had to do a lot of walking to get back to the apartment.

I spent most of the rest of the day with my feet UP and texting and Facetiming to my family - Doug in Spain and Kerry at a hospital in Bridgeport, CT. My sister-in-law had a massive stroke on the golf course yesterday, and Kerry went down to be with Uncle George and sister Linda, while Geoff and Aripita and Bud are working their way there! Things do not look good. No surgery or other helpful things could be done. Doug just began to set up for retreats in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona but he feels he needs to be in CT. So he will probably head there, once decisions are made and we know what's what. I have done all the scheduling, reservations, etc. for this trip so my leaving would definitely leave Angie and Cathy in the lurch. We are heading to Lucca tomorrow. I also feel I wouldn't be as useful as Doug and Kerry will be to the family. It was a VERY emotional day here!!

Ended the day at 9:30 p.m. with a gelato and off to bed! Keep good thoughts in your head for the Gamble/Bachman/Whiting families! Especially for Judy!!

DAY IN BOLOGNA

We really needed a rest so we slept late!! I was awake from 3 to 6 a.m. working on the last blog and then fell asleep. I was the last one up at 11:30!!!!! So we started off walking to the main Piazza! Apparently a lot of Bologna was damaged in WWII as it was the last line of defense for the Germans before they retreated! But you wouldn't know it! The buildings all look from medieval times and beautiful!

The streets are very narrow and shady. The weather here is beautiful, in the 60s and sunny! The main piazza has a huge basilica that was intended to be the largest in the world! When the Pope found out, he cut off funding and it was never finished; hence, the lower part is covered in marble but the upper is the underlayer of brick!! It stayed that way for several hundred years!! David said there was a terrorist incident inside (armed guards are everywhere at sites here in Italy!) as there apparently is a painting of Mohammed (Muslims don't have pictures in any of their temples; and certainly not of Mohammed!) so an attempt was made to blow it up!  Muslim terrorists tried to destroy the Basilica but were thwarted by Italian police. The terrorists claimed that a 15th-century fresco inside was insulting to Islam. The fresco, painted by Giovanni da Modena, depicts Muhammad in Hell being devoured by demons. I didn't see the fresco as it must have been covered up! 

There are 4 huge towers left, built for defense with slits in the sides. Angie and I decided to climb the 498 steps up almost 92 meters to the top. There were very narrow, wood stairs, fortunately with railings on both sides but we had to stop when people were coming down the other way! I can't believe I made it to the top and down! Thanks, Dr. Fitz for the new knees last year!! I never could have done it! And without pain!

One of us had a tooth issue so we found a pharmacy where she could get antibiotics, no prescription needed! We were hungry by now so found a wonderful restaurant in a narrow alleyway and had a great meal! David joined us and showed us the original building of the University of Bologna, the earliest university in Europe where people like Copernicus studied!! 

He also showed us his favorite church where 7 churches have all been added on, each in different styles, over the centuries. It is now a monastery and I bought a Bologna book in the gift shop from one of the monks.

Entrance to our loft!

After the climb and I'm still standing! Amazing!

Mom and David!

Angie on the way up.

Elegant store.

Bought my curling iron here! Had to take the pict of the name!

Loved this Happiness store! Those are sweatpants in the window.

Looking down from 1/2 way up the tower

Looking down at the lower tower.

My delicious meal - pork, potatoes, salad, seltzer!

Oldest University in Europe!

Selfie from the top of tower

Looking up; still to climb!

Overlooking Bologna

Unfinished basilica

After my daily gelato (David treated!!) we headed back to our flat. David and Angie went off for coffee, with Angie getting lost on the way back. She WhatsApped me to get the address and then we struggled with the keys, big old fashioned skeleton keys that we'd had difficulty with! Cathy and I were rested up and Cathy soon went to bed. David came over and prepared a wonderful pasta/and sauce meal with wonderful Chianti and great conversation! He has another two weeks of study before he has exams and heads home! He will start an internship for the summer and then his second year at Johns Hopkins! When Angie had him 23 years ago, I filled in for her at Pomperaug as the Library Media Specialist until she came back. I then went on to a new job in Bethel! He is delightful!! And so helpful! 

Tomorrow a day trip to Ravenna by train!

OFF AGAIN! ITALY AND FRANCE!

TRIP OVER AND FIRST DAY IN ITALY

I''m at Angie's in Southbury, CT, and Cathy just arrived. Angie's husband Barry is driving us to JFK. We're starting to get in a tizzy and will calm down once we are sitting waiting at the gate!! I'd much rather be early. 

So it's 6:30 a.m. and we are waiting in Dublin to load on our Aer Linghus flight to Milan! So far all is well. Not sure if I slept any but I tried! Hopefully, we'll have energy to store our luggage and sight-see a bit in Milan before training to Bologna and meeting up with David, Angie's son who is working on his masters there. He speaks fluent Italian so that will be helpful. On my list for Milan are the Duomo (I didn't go inside when I was there 3 years ago traveling with the monks), the Galleria, a wonderful covered shopping arcade, through to La Scala - I'm hoping to get in the museum so I can just see the stage/theatre. Don't think there is a hope of seeing the Last Supper. On line, all tours and tickets were sold out. But they told me that when I was there before; I went to the gate and they gave me a ticket for noon. So I did the Hop on/Hop off bus and came back later. And got my 15 minutes in with DaVinci's beautiful mural. 

Cathy and Angie collected our luggage while I went out to check out how we get downtown. I found the place to get the bus tickets and did that - the bus would take us to Milan Centrale station where we left our luggage and went off with light backpacks. They decided they didn't want to bother with a taxi to try and get tickets for the Last Supper. So we headed on the metro to Il Duomo. A lovely TALL Italian gendarme (I forget the Italian word!) told us not to wait in this long line but pointed to another office by the Duomo Museum where we could buy tickets to get inside AND to ride the elevator to the top of the spires. 

The Duomo was constructed between 1386 and 1810!! It was built to hold 40,000 worshippers, the population of Milan at the time construction began. It's the 4th largest church, after the Vatican, London and Sevilla. 2000 statues decorate the inside, along with 52 100 ft. pillars representing the weeks of the year and the liturgical calendar. Another 1000 statues are on the outside. The dukes of Milan thought the Gothic style, with so many pointed arches and spires, would be more impressive to outsiders and make a name for Milan! Pink marbles was rafted in from about 60 miles away on Lake Maggiore and down a canal to the cathedral. 

The brilliant and expensive stained glass is from the 15th century. Some more modern painted glass replaces windows damaged during WWII. 

The grotesque statue of St. Bartholomeo, a 1st century martyr who was flayed alive, wrapped in his skin like a mantle, was carved by a Da Vinci student who had studied human anatomy by dissection, forbidden by the Church at that time.

The floor was an amazing pattern of inlaid marble: black and very hard from Lake Como - you could tell is was less worn; white from Lake Maggiore, and pink from Verona. 

Down a few steps was the crypt of St. Charles Borromeo 1538-1584, bishop of Milan and the economic power behind the church.

The rooftop is the most memorable part of a Duomo visit. I hadn't gone up there before, probably  because of the long lines. But it didn't take us long to get into the elevator. There were still many steps to climb after that, wending our way around between the spires. 

By this time we were starving! I hadn't eaten the dinner on the plane as was trying to sleep! We found a Food Court and we all were sated for a while. I had a refreshing beer and flatbread sandwich with proscuitto and cheese! Before we left, we had a bit of a comedy finding a restroom (which was beautiful!! and very modern!) and discovering we had to pay E.50 to use it!! One of us tried to climb under the turnstile entrance and got caught by the attendant!! Very funny!! No names mentioned!! :)

Now we strolled through the Galleria, a 4 story high covered shopping mall with really high end shops with amazing window displays. This iron and glass structure, built during the age of Eiffel and the heady days of Italian unification in mid-19th century, was the first building in town to have electric lighting. 

At the Piazza della Scala in front of the opera house there is a huge statue of Leonardo who spent his best 20 years here where he was the brainy darling of the Sforza family (who dominated Milan as the Medicis did in Florence). Leonardo reengineered the canals of Milan so it became one of Italy's major ports, until the 1920s,  with connections to the Po River and Lake Maggiore, through a system of locks. 

La Scala is not too impressive from the outside, but Angie and I went into the Museum, and were lucky enough to get a peek at the huge, magnificent theater where they were rehearsing a scene from the current opera!! Full orchestra and all! The rooms surrounding the theater contained paintings of previous conductors, composers and performers, including Maria Callas. Also many antique musical instruments and memorablie from the likes of Verdi, Puccini, Rossini and Toscannini, as well as magnificent costumes on display. Well worth the E5 senior admission!!

By this time we were all fading! So we headed to the Metro station and back to Centrale to pick up our luggage and get tickets for the 4:30 train to Bologna. We are having lots of difficulty with wifi and were unable to connect with WhatsApp with David to tell him we were coming a bit early. He was going to get the keys to our apartment and meet us at the train station around 6:30. But we arrived at 5:30! We did a lot of wandering and walking, trying to find a wifi place. We stopped at this little bar/cafe and tried to get the guy working there to call David. Finally, Francesca, a lovely Italian young woman walking by took over and called a taxi for us and waited to help give him directions. Angie finally heard from David who was in a class and had our keys. Francesca got hugs from us when the cab arrived and off we went. We had a little drama when one of us lost an essential cell phone (she was sitting on it!!) and there was emotions all around, as we tried calling the number to locate the phone!! The taxi driver was incredibly patient with 3 tired, emotionally wrought American retired teachers!!! He took us to David's class building and Angie ran into get the keys. He then took us to our lovely airbnb Loft on a very tiny street in a great neighborhood! Three floors, some kind of renovated building like the lofts in SoHo in NY city! 

Angie stayed put and waited for David to come around 8. Cathy and I decided to explore the neighborhood and found a cute little wine shop with quite a few locals inside. We went in to have our first glass of Italian wine!! Georgia the delightful waitress, recommended a local Merlot and prepared a delicious plate of mortadella (for which Bologna is famous!), a kind of pepperoni, proscuitto, and several cheeses, with some bread. This became my dinner (Cathy doesn't eat much meat so just had a little cheese, which was delicious!! After two glasses of wine, and a promise to come back on our 3 day visit here, we headed back, with me asking directions and scarfing down my second gelato of the day!! 

David arrived shortly thereafter and went off with Angie to a market and I think some dinner. Cathy and I headed to bed, after a great shower, for me, in this deep tub like open shower!! It's now 5:45 a.m. and I've been awake since 3 and couldn't sleep any more. So I'm upstairs doing my blog. I think we're going to take a "lazy day" and wander the city, meeting up with David in the afternoon. He is 23, in his first year of a Masters program in International Studies from Johns Hopkins, and speaks fluent Italian. This is his 3rd stint of studying in Italy, one in Parma, one in Florence when he was an undergrad at Boston College. Angie did great with her Italian with the taxi driver! We definitely got his number to call him, probably when we leave here to get us back to Bologna Centrale!

Ciao!! from Bologna!