taxi bus donkey

Reunion achieved on Sunday afternoon, hugs exchanged, european style now as we are in a country where it is ok for guys to actually touch occasionally. Sav, Effie and I climbed into the back of their suitably dark coloured car and whisked ourselves off to a bar. And yes, I will say, a very nice bar, and not too far from aforementioned prison, but local knowledge wasnt within my possession, anyway, greatful to receive sea breezes comfy chairs and the posibility of receiving vodka the way i like it… orally… the afternoon and tales of travels washed over us. (more…)

The flu whose seed I had sown in the storms of Bologna, the aching left foot I had souveniered after a week of 10km a day walks through Venice, the stabbing back I had twisted out shape in the air conditioned mirage of a hotel room in Firenze, and a sore throat aggravated by a night’s talking and laughing with friends in Lucca have joined forces and clouded my ability to experience.

My will to travel and experience was still strong, but the need to rest reflect and capture wayward thoughts was now speaking louder to compensate for its relative lack of importance. (more…)

It was still rather early in the evening so we took the opportunity to walk Lucca’s streets and attempt to achieve the “are we lost yet” heights of touristic utopia.

It was a postcard tour of about 2 hours duration, the amfiteatro, piazza napoleone, churches, puccini’s birthplace and even stumbling across the (its actually pretty big) aquaduct that supplies most of the town’s drinking water, and it seems most of the town’s empty beer bottles and other general refuse…. yeah but at least it was clean garbage, god bless italy.

We returned to trattoria gigi for another round of great food and bevvy, this time accompanied by good and varied conversation. (more…)

More positive tourist Karma at work with my fortunate choice of lodgings at Le Torre deep in da heart of Lucca. The owner Alfredo and his loveleeee wife are absolute characters. He spends most of the day sitting around Piazza del Carmine talking to the other locals, making smalltalk with the tenants that he likes all the while sporting a rather well worn pair of black trousers, the government issue dark brown sandals and a shirt (please note the use of the singular) which he, like a skilled catwalk model or experienced seamstress, transforms into various “looks”When in idle mode (this is his default mode), the shirt would be draped over the back of his chair or similarly draped over one or occasionally two shoulders. In the one full afternoon I spent with him, testing my Italian as we watched the shadows lengthen across the piazza his establishment (more…)

The heat wave continues but the desire to feast upon the local food and bevvy is still strong. The other day i wandered into the bizzarely named ”nu lounge bar’ which is right up there with the strange english names for businesses, My other favourite in this category is the ”PIZZA UP!” in Urbania but the winnder has to be Italian mobile phone company called ”WIND” thats wind like the breeze not like the clock, they have large banners around the place which simply say ”avete wind?” translating, without need for massaging into ” do you have wind?”At the nu i dined on carpaccio with carciofi and rucola, its the second time i have had carpacio here and both times its more like a slab of raw meat that gets delivered to you rather than the thin shavings i had become accustomed to in australia, but accompanied by the local oil and cheese it went down an sbolute treat, knocked down a couple of glasses of (gasp) semillon and one of the local semifreddo with chocolate specialties and i was anyones. (more…)

OK so i am going to owe a lot of favors for this trip, and the karma meter i have been talking about is now so far in the red that i understand a small committee has been formed some place to try and find the most efficient way that my debt can be repayed and the just order of the universe restored. (more…)

Every monday night the school organises a film screening, last week it was the elephant man which i watched just to listen to the dubbing … this week was the film inseperable with jeremy irons… this is a painful film made even more so by the painful and hard to follow dialogue (italiano of course), not really interested in talking about the film. (more…)

Getting into the morning equals school - afternoon equals rest routine. God bless these crazy Europeans and the afternoon siesta, why the heck should people do anything between 12:30 and 3:00 anyway? What could you do during that time that cant wait until 3:30 or the next day, may it live forever I say. (more…)

My mum didn’t pack me a lunch and I didn’t cry when i was standing at the front door of the school waiting for the first day to begin, but the place has a bell that rings between classes,.. so i guess it’s flash back time. (more…)