9/5-9/19

Hi. Today I am in Lucca. We have a big wall around our house. Lucca is a walled city. The walls used to be for protection when there were a lot of battles over land and power, but now the are for people to walk or bike on. The walls are very high and make a big circle around the city. It is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo big we can take two hour walks on it. The path is so wide that there is a street on it with trees all along the sides. It is so beautiful!!

9/7

Today I went to an opera. I know most people think opera is beautiful, but  not me. For me it is mostly screaming. Every opera is really long. Just imagine it– just sitting and listening to screaming!!

We went to the opera in a church. I forgot to tell you what an ‘opera’ is.  It’s like a play with music played on instruments with people telling a story with singing. The instrument we listened to was a grand piano while a man and woman sang. The music was written by a composer (someone who creates and writes down their music) named Puccini. He is famous because many people love his music and still perform his operas. He was born here in Lucca in 1858. He started writing music when he was fourteen. He used to play the organ in this church where we saw the opera.

Pisa, ITALY

9/9 DAY TRIP

Today I woke up and I was so excited because I was going to pick up my Granni at the airport in Pisa.  It was so nice to see her!! She drove from Wisconsin to Chicago and then flew from Chicago to Rome to Pisa and only packed one backpack, just like us!!  

In Pisa we saw a tower that looked like it was about to fall called the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is a bell tower for the church next to it. When people started building it in 1173, they didn’t know the soil under it was soft. It probably started leaning then.  It took over 200 years to finish. My dad, brother and I climbed it. My mom and Granni watched us from the ground. There are 251 steps in the tower from the bottom to the top.  I felt brave climbing the tower. I waved to my mom and Granni from the very top!!!

9/12

Mom, Cole, Anni (my grandma, I call her Anni and Granni) and I rented a four person bike. We pedaled for two and one half miles around the wall of Lucca.  It was so fun. You don’t feel bad if you sit back and relax because you’ll get your turn to pedal. Hang onto your shoes because they can fall off if they get caught on the pedal!

Lammari, ITALY

9/13 DAY TRIP

We visited a fun farm outside of Lucca in a place called Lammari. It’s owned by a lady named Antonietta Masini. She is a professional chef and is going to teach us HOW TO MAKE PASTA!!!!! Antonietta only spoke Italian but a lady standing next to her told us what she said in English.  Antonietta had a horse, chickens, a dog, a hammock, a house and a barn. She taught us how to make fresh delicious organic pasta. First we mixed fresh eggs with special flour, salt, water and oil.  Cole and I got to collect the eggs for the pasta that Antonietta’s chickens had laid right in the chicken coop!! After we mixed everything together, we had to push the mixture many times to make dough. We rolled the dough into a ball and then cut the ball in half. Next, we straightened out the ball with a rolling pin. Then we cut the straight, flat piece of dough into squares. Antonietta cooked it and added tomato sauce, oil, salt and parmesan cheese. We ate it.  It tasted good!

Florence, ITALY

9/17 DAY TRIP
Today we all got up early and took a bus to Florence.  People in Italy call it Firenze. We saw a very large statue–17 feet tall–called David.  David is made of one piece of marble rock and was carved a long time ago by a man named Michelangelo during the Rennaisance (a time when art and writing became more important to Italy). It was supposed to go on the Duomo church, but it was too heavy so it went outside of a government building and then Florence made a building just for it called the Gallaria dell Accademia and that’s where we visited it. It had to be protected because it eventually would wear down from rain and people touching it and that can’t happen because it is the most important statue to the city of Florence. Even with it inside it did get damaged by a crazy man who smashed off some of the toes in the 90s.

After that ate pizza and visited a bridge with houses and shops on it. It’s called Ponte Vecchio.  It is over the skinniest part of the Arno River. It used to be all butcher shops but now it’s full of jewelry shops and souvenir shops. It has been destroyed a bunch of times by floods and rebuilt like the bridge at Avignon.

Then we saw the Duomo or Florence Cathedral. We also rubbed the snout of a bronze wild boar fountain. It’s called Porcellino and I put a coin in it’s mouth for good luck and the point is to hope it lands in the grate below. It took me three tries, but i finally got it. Rubbing it’s snout is a way to make sure you will come back to Florence some day. After that, I ate chocolate and lemon gelato. I fell asleep on the bus ride home. We ate pizza for dinner back in Lucca.

Hi. Today I am climbing a tower that I call the “tower with the trees on top”. It’s really called Guinigi Tower and it was built in the 1300s by a family in Lucca. It’s 232 steps. It is so pretty and I’ve been wanting to climb it for a week! We have to do it today because today is our last full day in Lucca.
My family and I, walked to the tower. When we got there, it was crowded!! When we finally got to the top, we were all sweating. But, it was worth it. There was a really cool view!!! We stayed there for about fifteen minutes (we needed to rest.) Then we went down and walked back to our airbnb apartment. 

9/19

Hi. Today I am leaving Lucca. I am going to Rome!!  I am excited to go to the Colosseum, go to the Sistine Chapel, and have fun!