Tuscany Welcomes You.

Here we go! Carla, Fede and I caught the 7:30am train last Tuesday morning to Lucca. If you haven’t heard of it, don’t feel sorry. I hadn’t either and I’m the one pretending to be Italian. Lucca is a little lovely city in the Toscan region around since 180BC. It’s decently small and beautifully calm. What’s great about Lucca is you can’t get too lost before you find yourself right back where you started but it’s easy to find an old church that looks like the one you saw five minutes ago. They all have the same theme and building style, described by Carla and Fede as beautiful and boring (you can imagine whose response was whose).

What’s unique about Lucca is its wall securing the perimeter have remained intact as the city expanded and modernized (unusual for cities in the region), it has the only circular piazza in the world (coolest ariel view ever), and it has the worst nightlife I’ve ever seen in Italy. By the time we finished most of our exploring, around 9:30, the streets were empty. I wish I was exaggerating but really, there was barely anyone! These streets were packed just hours ago... Where did everybody go? What do they do at night? Even Carla thought it was strange, though she did explain to me how lucky we were - with the colleges and the Bolognese style of living, Bologna is known for it’s great nightlife. Looks like I hit the jackpot :) 

We ended our night by ice skating a bit before getting pizzas. I’ve ice skated about... once before in my life. You can imagine how well it went as Fede is doing axels and twists and twirls around me.

We slept in a little apartment-for-rent-by-night kind of place; it was sweet. Federico turned into quite the sassy little princess once Carla informed him of the hour at which we needed to be up and about tomorrow. "Uhmmm excuse me, are you forreal woman? You expect me to wake up at 7:30AM to catch a 9:00AM train?! WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE. Where am I? Why are we doing this? Ok goodnight, love you both." What a kid, best brother ever (sorry Emily). 

The drama queen lived and we caught our train the next morning in time. Timeout, let's talk about the train (I'm the one making the rules here anyway). Every time I get settled into my little booth, I take my jacket off, cross my legs, stick my headphones in and wait for the wheels to get rollin'. Oh geeze I love it so much. Sometimes I don't even care where I'm going or how I'm getting back; I could happily waste a day on those Italian tracks. I love seeing a little bit of the lives of the people out there. There were two dogs running after their owner going for a ride on his bike. There were a group of kids playing basketball. There were beautiful mountains. There were ugly and rundown buildings. There was Italy! Right outside my window. 

Just tourists being tourists...

Oh look, here we are. Hellooooo Pisa, you better be as beautiful as everyone says you are. My expectations are high so don't disappoint me. In the end, it was just as beautiful as everyone imagines. Buying new Converse right before this trip made the wandering from one side of the city to the other seem forever long but once I saw that tilted little sucker, BAM I was impressed. If you stand at the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa makes the world seem tilted, not you. Hey but isn't that how it goes, we never think we're the messed up ones - it's always everyone else! The tower view was beautiful but Fede just couldn't appreciate it. I've climbed enough towers with him to know how it goes - he starts off counting steps (all pumped up and ready to go), gets a little giggly and giddy towards the top and by the time we've reached our point he is crawling on the ground begging to get back, whining and giggling the whole time. I literally cannot help but laugh at him every time. He's pathetic. We get back to solid ground and he's so happy he's kissing it. What a guy; it's like this every time.

After making the touristic round and taking the touristic pictures, we made our way slowly back to the train station. Stops at cafes, rivers and restaurants are enjoyed and welcomed and encouraged. We took a little break down by the river, away from all the bustle and noise, to let the little monster run wild and regroup.

Once we got back to Bologna, we were standing in the train station and Carla asks me, "Natty, how do you think we should get home?" WHOA look who's wearing the captain hat now! My school is about 2 feet away from the train station so I know the bus routes in this area like quite the champion by now. Don't worry guys, we made it back in a record 24 minutes (just like nearly every school day of my life) thanks to me. No need to pat me on the back for taking charge, I'm doing that enough myself.

Favorite People :) 

Anywhoo, now I'm home and happy and have officially seen Tuscany. How beautiful, really. What cracks me up is the differences in accent and the little culture differences between the regions. I guess it's the same if you take a trip down to Tennessee from Connecticut but it's still so cool to see in another country. I became the stupid foreigner all over again as it took me twice as long to understand the Tuscan accent. Our hard "c" sounds like their soft "shh," changing so many words and causing me a grand confusion! Fede asked for grated cheese to put over his pasta and the waiter looked at him like he was crazy. Oh, sorry kids, it's a Bologna thing. It's nice to be a part of a region, part of a culture, part of a family, etc. that isn't originally yours. Well that's all for now, folks. Stay patient, I'll flaunt all my pictures from Christmas break once I get home (going to enjoy some mountains for the end of vacation).

You are constantly surrounded by beautiful things. You don’t need someone to put it in a frame for you and say “Look, this is beautiful.” You just need to pay attention.