Thank you for shaing this life changing event with me. Enjoy my Blog about my trip to Italy.
Wall of Lucca Italy
You know there was going to be something with bikes in this post. :-)
How can that be carved out of stone? David is perfect.
Italian trees.... it's like they "know".
Florence
Florence. I loved the river. It's so pretty.
Looking up at Riolo. My family's village. Artiemo and Severina Lucchesi.
Riolo
Riolo
You know I just had to take this picture. I know, everyone does it, but it's still funny.
Miles did a gret job of driving, and got us to Riolo.
Could this be the best place on earth?
Don't you just love Venice?
Our first day in Rome.
I have always wanted to see this. I feel lucky to have been right there touching it.
I have always wanted to go to Italy and I was not going to let my injured foot get in my way. I booked the flights and our apartment and off we went. We landed in Rome after the longest flight I have ever been on. I have also never been to Europe. I was excited and nervous. We took the train into Rome and found our little hotel room. It was very nice and the owners were very sweet. We had dinner right away and walked around a little.
The next day, Sunday, we explored Rome. We took the double-decker bus tour. It was really nice. Since walking was going to be a problem it was nice to be dropped off at most of the major sights in Rome. We also explored as the say went on. We saw the Colosseo. We went to the Vatican. We went to the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, and the Spanish Steps. The bus tour was enjoyable and explained a good deal. Later that day we were off to Florence to check into our apartment that I rented. It was really nice. We used it as a home base as we did day adventures all over Italy.
Monday we took the train to Venice. It was a long ride, but worth it. We just got lost in Venice. We walked for about 5 hours with no agenda and no place to be. It was wonderful. Each night we would return to Florence and would walk around Florence as much as we could. My goal was to eat Galato each night as we walked and enjoyed the people of Italy all around us. It was great.
On Tuesday we took a very long train ride to Cinque Terre. It was beautiful. It reminds me of Catalina in a way. I loved the coast town we visited. It was too bad that we did not stay there to enjoy the rest of the towns. Just not enough time in a day or days in our trip. Of course I had to get Galato there.
On Wednesday we had plans for the Lucca area. When going through my family history I copied an old letter than my great grandfather Artiemo Lucchesi sent to his bride to be Severina Lucchesi. It was a letter telling her how to meet him in America to start their lives together. It was sent from his statuary shop in Denver Colorado. This letter was stamped 1910. Just shy of 100 years later I had that copy of the letter and the will to find this town on m y trip to Italy. My plan was to rent a car in Italy and find this town somehow. There was no clear map on how to get there, but we were going to figure it out. Miles and I read in a book that we needed some papers that we did not have to drive. Also that there was very poor insurance coverage on a rental car and that it was going to cost way too much. We decided to take a train to Lucca from Florence for the day and see what would come of it. I hated to be so close yet so far away. Who knows when I will come back. We made it to Lucca which was wonderful. After a day of walking around Lucca we went across the street and rented a car. We had a poor map, but thought we would give it a try. The letter we had said, “ Severina Lucchesi. Bagni Di Lucca, Monti Di Villa, Riolo. Off we went. We found Bagni Di Lucca and kept going. It was beautiful. A wonderful river and trees were a sight to see. Then onto the small town of Monti Di Villa. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. Then we saw the sign pointing to Riolo! We were almost there. Then we noticed the road was blocked. There were no other signs. There happened to be a little lady in her yard watering flowers. I jumped out of the car and tried my very limited Italian. I said in Italian,” Mi scusi. Riolo?” She pointed and I said with excitement,” Grazie, grazie!!” Off we went. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We climb our way up the mountain side on this tiny little sharp twisty road. There it was, Riolo. We parked in the church parking lot where my Great grandmother said she met my great grandfather. I started to get teary eyed. I did not think we were going to be able to make the drive out to the village. Then I did not think we would find it with the poor map we had. I was wrong. There we were in a small village that seemed to be sitting with the Gods up upon the hill side. I feel so blessed to have had this life changing experience. A 100 year old letter that was written in Italian that was passed down from one generation to another led me here. The sounds, smells, and the view were amazing. Two little old ladies walked down to the bench in front of the church and talked for a while. I did not want to leave. I felt at peace. I can’t describe it. It was truly amazing. I will never forget it. I hope to go back there again.
Thursday Miles had book a reservation to take a tour of the Ducati factory. We headed to the factory for an hour and a half tour. It was really nice. Our tour guide was very nice and we exchanged info with her in case she wants to come out to California again and visit. The rest of the day we spent walking around Florence were we met this young leather shop owner. We sat and talked to him, Lucca, and his co-worker, Ana for hours. It was so much fun. We had wine and talked to them and the English speaking customers that would come it. It was like a little party. We finally left the shop and walked around Florence some more. I liked just walking around looking at everything. It’s so much fun. I even found a farmers market that was wonderful.
Friday was our reservations for the museums in Florence. We spent half the day going to the Galleria Dell’ Accademia and Uffizi. The rest of the day we walked and ate. We also took the double-decker bus tour in Florence. I liked that tour since it was good for 24 hours and it had two different bus lines to take. We went up the hill side to a small town. Wonderful views of homes and the hill side. The second line took us on the other side of Florence to the Michaelangelo Plaza for a wonderful view of Florence. Another nice dinner and more time spent walking around Florence ended our day.
Saturday we took the bus tour again since our tickets were still good and it was such a pretty drive. We shopped for our family members and walked all over Florence. We tried to soak in every last little bit we could. I did not want to leave. I loved that it was so easy to come back from a long day, get cleaned up and go out again. No one really sit at home. Everyone is just out and about. I really enjoyed that. Being my last day there I made sure to have two gelatos. I had to get my fix before coming home. I am not much for ice cream here in the US, so the gelato was a treat. Sunday was the long trip home. I hated to come back. I miss it.
The best parts of the trip…
I loved seeing things that were so old. How did they build that stuff? I know I always watch TV shows on how Rome was built and so on, but when you see it in person, I just don’t know how. I loved the food. I am a picky eater, but it was all good. I liked how everyone was nice. The people made the trip that much better. I liked that the trains can take you to so many great places. I loved the Colosseo. Amazing. I always know I am in a new place when I hear the birds sing. I liked the sounds of the birds there. I loved the smell of the pastries in the morning. I just had to get them for breakfast. I don’t drink coffee, but I did have two cappuccinos when I was there. I liked the smell of water in Venice. No, it did not stink. It reminded me of being on the dock at Bass Lake. I liked how Florence, Lucca, and Venice were all towns with narrow streets with one shop after another. I liked looking in the windows and see what’s going on inside. I liked that it looked like everyone in the restaurants were having a good time. I love how amazing the jewelry there is. All the wine I had taste better than I have had here. I loved hearing the bells of the churches ringing in the morning. Oh, how could I not mention the fact that I loved seeing so many people on scooters. I also liked all the little cars. I want one. I liked going out each night sitting on steps in a plaza enjoying everything around me. I can’t find words to say how wonderful it was to find my family village. The views were breath taking, with tons of trees and a giant river. Just wonderful. The gelato was great. Trying to speak Italian was fun, and makes me want to keep working on learning it. I just loved the whole trip. I am sure I will think of more things, but I will end for now. Enjoy some of the pictures from my trip.
For more pictures click here. Part two of my pictures added 7/7/09
