I lucked out today. I had one all-expense paid trip to a beautiful little town called Lucca. Lucca's population is about 25,000 and is kept behind 35 ft walls. It is beautiful.
I boarded a bus with a group from Molly's school at 9am and accompanied them on a guided tour of the city. I touched stone that has been in place since the 1st century AD! Wow. After we walked through old churches, climbed to the top of a cathedral, and basked in the warmth of the tuscan sun, we boarded the bus and headed for a villa to eat lunch. This villa is on a beautiful estate in the countryside and dates back to at least the 1600s. We walked quickly through a small portion of the garden to get to the restaurant. This restaurant was once used solely to turn the local olives into olive oil and is now separate from the villa's estate. The meal was excellent. We had red wine, vegetable soup in a bread bowl, rice in fresh olive sauce, potatoes, (people who are not me had some meat), and delicious little chocolate tort, and a zucchini tort. Let me remind you: this was all free for Maggie. We then took a more in-depth tour of the estate. I hope pictures are to come.
Today was a beautiful day and Molly and I are now side-by-side in an internet cafe. We are going to go to dinner in a few minutes. I am still not sure if I will be hungry after that huge lunch. It is 20:00.
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I am so happy that I am not in the states right now. I can't believe all that has happened. Here, I am not constantly reminded of the growing atrocity. I hope that all of you back home are allowing yourselves time to step away from the news. I can't imagine that looking at those images or reading more about it can possibly help matters. Although I have missed the comfort of being close to ones I truly love, I would not go back in time and stay there. I am glad I am here.
I realize that my last entry was a little graphic about my ups and downs so far, but I thought it ended hopefully enough to counteract the negativity. Maybe I was wrong. I want all of you blog-stalkers out there to know that I am doing well. I think you already knew that. I just hope you all are doing well too.
So much Love. Baci
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3 comments:
dearest magdela, The olive sauce sounds fantastic. I had an idea, i'm going to bike across country in august. want to come with? love J
She's one of those
Who knows
That life is just a leap of faith.
Spread your arms, hold your breath,
and always trust your cape.
Julia - that sounds wonderful. We'll have to talk more about it when I'm back in the states. Love to you, sister!
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