The Weekend

So last night, we did something a little different, which was lots of fun. Carla's mom is here visiting from the States, and once they got out of dinner everyone who was in Florence for the weekend (not Maggie Wright or Andrea) went to their hotel to hang out. They are staying in a beautiful hotel right on the Arno, called Hotel Orafi. Carla's mom was able to get us up on the terrace for drinks and snacks (which she had brought from the States). It was so funny because we couldn't just bring the drinks and snacks, even though they were ours. We had to give them to the waitstaff, and then have them served. So, Mrs. Katigbak gave them our Fritoes and Cheetoes and bottles of wine. 5 minutes later, they brought everything out on a silver platter. It was hilarious to see the junk food come out in its original bag on this silver platter. And the waiter was taking it sooooo seriously! We laughed about that for a while. The terrace was beautiful, of course. It had a great view of the Duomo and the Piazza della Signoria. We had a really nice time, but unfortunately, I ended up paying 15 euro for a cab ride home. I hate the taxis here.

This morning, we got to the train station around 9:30 to head to Lucca for a day trip. The trip took about 1.5 hours, so it really wasn't that bad. As soon as we arrived, we got lunch at a cute little place. We were even able to sit outside because the weather was picture-perfect! After lunch, we walked around for a few hours and climbed the famous tower "Guinigi" for an amazing view. We were amused by the fact that there were trees planted all the way on top of this tower. We spent about 20 minutes up there, just checking out the mountains and breathing in the fresh air.

When we came down, we decided to walk around the outskirts of Lucca, along the famous Renaissance wall. It was really nice because they had a bike path and there were no cars, so we thoroughly enjoyed the stroll. There was actually a lot of grass in Lucca! I have yet to find any in Florence. Around 3, we became really tired and decided to cut through the city to get to the other side of the wall where we had entered. We caught the train right away and now, here I am!

I'm so glad we decided to do a little day trip. Florence drives me crazy during the week, with the terrible bus system and crazy people. It felt good to get to a quaint, old-fashioned town where I didn't have to rush anywhere. I hate rushing. And Lucca was just so cultural and cute!

Anyway, we have a busy week ahead of us. We'll all be preparing for Barcelona on Friday and then when I return, Paul's coming! There's so much to look forward to, but I will have soooo much work to catch up on. Ugh.

Buona serata!