Adventure #2: Pisa and Lucca

Last Saturday we took another adventure to Pisa and Lucca. Our journey started at the train station where like in all good train movies we ran to catch ours just as it was leaving.

(courtesy of John, short for Viet Triet)

The trip was about 50 minutes and once we got to Pisa we walked through the city (and through all the beautiful clothing shops) towards the leaning tower. It was a little weird when we got to the tower only because its something you always see photos of and for me it was something I never expected that I would actually see in person. But I did…which is cool, and now I can say I saw the “Leaning Tower”. I can also say, like every other person there and every person that every been to Pisa, that I took some very ridiculous pictures with the tower. The best one is the one with all of us kicking the tower…we’re NIJAS, and we made ninja noises the entire time we were taking the pictures, HIYA!!!!

(photo skills of some random guy with Gaby's camera)

After Leaning Tower pictures Gaby and I wandered off to find gelato…of course, and we found a lot of really cool buildings. My favorite was in the plaza with all the University buildings and it had grey with white pictures painted all over. There were paintings of women, which reminded me of the ladies that are always on the front of the ships.



(courtesy of Gaby)

Some more pictures from Pisa...







After exploring, we found the group and decided to take the train over to Lucca because it was still pretty early in the day. This train ride was a lot more scenic....there were all these cool towers and castle looking buildings in the hills.

The train station in Lucca drops you off right outside of the walls and you walk over a tiny little stream and though some tunnels and then up some stairs to the top of the surrounding walls where there is a walking path that is above the city. We arrived in early evening when everyone was taking their walk and biking around. It was really pretty. I know I say that all the time, but Lucca has been my favorite town so far, it really is beautiful. I actually didn’t take any pictures because it was too beautiful and I didn’t want to ruin it. Sometimes, a lot of the times, I feel like taking pictures ruins everything, because they are never as pretty as what I really see, so sorry guys you’ll just have to visit Lucca for yourself...but I will post a few pictures my friends took, just to tease you.

Our first stop was gelato…again***and after all that wonderfulness we realized that we came to Lucca on the perfect weekend. It was the third Saturday of the month and they were having their monthly antiques fair which was very interesting because different places have different meaning of “antiques”, but in general I think antiques are just fancy junk that can be sold for a lot more than just regular junk and in Italy, compared to America, their junk is usually a lot older.

All around Lucca there were benches with cute little old ladies gossiping like little girls. They were always squeezed on a little bench and while we were waiting for everyone at the antiques fair we sat like little old ladies on the bench. (another picture of John's)

After going through the antiques we realized that Lucca was also having a festival for the famed composer Puccini who was born in Lucca. I admit that I did not know who the heck Puccini was before this night but I will forever remember him because he will be associated with the best festival food I had ever had. So good that Sarah, John, and I got separated from the group because out of the corner of my eye I saw a cute little stand making doughnuts. As I got closer I realized that they weren’t just doughnuts but magic doughnuts dipped in Nutella! Now you have to understand something, I love Nutella (it is brown crack) and it had been banned from our house a week before because we had eaten so much. So seeing this wonderful creation, a doughnut dipped in Nutella, I was in heaven. It was a fresh, right out of the fryer dipped in sugar and then Nutella and passed out while still warm and creamy. It was beautiful mess, We all had Nutella all over our faces when I we were done but it was wonderful and tasty and hit the spot.

(courtesy of John)

Of course after Gelato and Nutella dipped doughnuts we decided that we should actually eat something other than sweets so we walked around a bit and then found somewhere to eat. Always interested in trying something new (and something other than pasta!) I ordered the guinea fowl with oil and grapes. It was very tasty....and a perfect end to our adventure in Pisa and Lucca.

One more picture of the church in Lucca...
(courtesy of John)

***Rule of Gelato: Early on I decided that Gelato is glorious and in order to make the most of my time here I decided that I would try at least one different flavor of Gelato in each city I visited. I consider it a souvenir (an edible souvenir) of all the places in Italy that I go to. If I happen to go to two different towns in a day then according to the “Rule of Gelato” I must eat two gelatos. It’s a tough rule to live by, but it’s something that must be done.