Lucca

Yesterday my mom and I took our bikes on the train to nearby Lucca, a small city surrounded by a wall. We rode around, stopped at a cafe then she left to go to a castle with everyone else but I had to stay. Lucca is pretty and the bike was so nice, so I rode around all afternoon exploring. Turns out my Italian is not too shabby though. Okay, well my Spanish sometimes passes for Italian anyways.

The day before we went to the small market in town and I got a stove-top espresso maker and an herb mincer, graduation gifts from my mama. Lela made one of the best lunches I've ever had. She has a way with spices, plus the vegetables here are like so ridiculously fresh and flavorful. It kills me! The tomatoes are actually red all the way through! Oh, and I'm totally filling my pack with olive oil and pine nuts before I head home. And cynar, haha. We had a dessert party for my parent's new friends and distant relatives which was pretty awesome, but by the end of it I was so tired I passed out in my clothes and slept for like 12 hours.

The day before that we explored some random hillside village and quite by accident met an ancient Spadoni named Rosa who will turn 100 in October. We were passing her house and while we paused at her mail slot which read Spadoni, her son invited us in for espresso.