ITALY, Tuscany Region

Posted on by Cole

Lucca, Pisa, Lammari, & Florence

9/5/19

Today we took a train to Lucca,Italy a medieval walled city.  (That means Lucca is surrounded by a two and one half mile long, thirty foot high wall).  The train ride was three hours long. When we arrived, we were shown our apartment by a lady whose name was Cristina.  Our apartment was AMAZING. There was a big room with leather couches, a big T.V. and a glass chandelier. There were many pictures on the walls of people and places in Lucca. My bedroom had a king size bed and a fourteen foot ceiling! We loved that apartment!!!

Me and my dad on the wall. This picture was taken from our apartment on the third floor of a big building.

9/6/19

Today I woke up and did a test for school on math and reading.  After my test I did some more homeschooling and then some reading then I went to the grocery store with my mom.  We got a lot of things. Then we went to the park. Anna and I played there for a while. Then we got gelato. After that we went home and had dinner then went out again and got more gelato!!

Gelato!!!
Me swinging at the park in Lucca.

9/7/19

Today we woke up and had crepes with Nutella then walked around Lucca for 2 hours then we got lunch at a place called Trattoria Gigi that my mom read about.  After that we went to play at a park along the wall. Then we got ready for an opera we were going to that night. The opera was written by a guy named Puccini, who was born in Lucca. It sounded like screaming. It was sort of funny. I would like to see one again someday. After the opera we went home and had dinner.

This is Trattoria Gigi. Anna and I always bring our Kindles to restaurants because we are alway there for soooooo long.

9/8/19

Today we woke up had breakfast and did some homeschooling and after that we walked around the town for a while and went to the aqueduct fountain. That is a place with tubes that come out of the ground and walls where you can get fresh and good water right from the mountains and fill your waterbottles. It is free to anyone who wants water and is always available. There are a bunch of aqueduct fountains inside the walls in Lucca. Then we went to a pizza place that my mom read about in the New York Times called Da Francesco the pizza was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G we ate outside then it started raining lightly. Anna and I played in the rain until it stopped (3 minutes later).  After we finished lunch we went to the grocery store.  After that we went home.

One of the aqueduct fountains.
Right before the rain!!
This is called Lardo. It was pretty good. It’s fat from a pig and rosemary. Eeeew! My mom ordered it.
I ordered pasta and split it with Anna. She always orders roasted potatoes.
The pizza in Italy doesn’t always come cut. And adults drink beer when they eat pizza. I had Coke.

9/9/19

I felt very excited waking up this morning. Do you know why? Because my grandma was coming to visit us! First, went to the grocery store. The store had a high ceiling and all of the signs were in English below the Italian. It was surprisingly easy to find what we wanted.  The store was named Conad. After that we went home and had lunch and then went to the Pisa airport to pick up our grandma. We took a bus to get there. When we found her, we went to the LEANING TOWER OF PISA. The tower leans because when it was built the ground was soft.  It took two hundred years to build (1153-1352). Anna, Dad and I climbed to the top of the tower. It felt weird leaning to one side. It was an AWESOME view. Later we went down and got gelato. Then we went home and went to bed.

This was on the bus on the way to Pisa. We were so excited to see Granni!!!
Me before I climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
There we are at the top (almost the top, the very very top was closed)!!!!!

9/10/19

Today we woke up did some homeschooling and had breakfast and went for a walk on the wall.  After that we went home and my mom made lunch, pasta. Then we went out to get gelato. Then we went to Piazza San Michele and looked at the church. It has a dead body, a corpse, in glass in it.  It is of St. Davino an Armenian Saint. He died in 1050 and you can still see his body!!!! After that we went home, had dinner and went to bed.

My mom made some nice lunches in Lucca.
Kind of creepy but this is how they used to do it. They stopped showing the bodies after around that time because people thought it was too creepy. This was at the front of the church at the Church of San Michele in Lucca. I went there with my Grandma, mom, & Anna.
For those who want to read more about San Davino of Armenia.
This is the outside of the church where San Davino is. The churches here are very big and beautiful!! Anna is eating a doughnut.

9/11/19

Today my family woke up and Anna and I did some homeschooling then we went to breakfast.  I had a doughnut. After that my Grandma, Anna, mom and I took a bike ride in a 4 person bike around Lucca. We biked for a while then went home. Later we had lunch and I had pasta!!  Then we went to the grocery store and got some eggs.

More pasta!! Pasta overload!!!
Biking in a 4 person bike around the Lucca walls.

9/12/19

Today we woke up and did some homeschooling then we went for a walk on the wall.  Then we walked around Lucca where the people were preparing for a huge celebration for the next night. It was called Luminaria di Santa Croce. It is a big deal to the people of Lucca and we were so lucky to be here when it is happening!

This is the night of the Luminaria. See the candles around the windows? All of the buildings did this. I’m eating a special dessert that they make the night of this celebration. It’s called frati.
The people of Lucca dress in medieval costumes and have a really really long parade along the same route the the cross went along from Basilica San Frediano to Cathedral San Martino.
Granni and us walking the route. See the candles around the windows and doors??
Here is part of the parade. People carried huge lanterns and crosses.
This is the actual cross that was carried hundreds of years ago. The Volto Santo or Holy Face. It was sculpted by one of the men who moved Jesus’s body into his tomb. That’s why it’s such a big deal. Because this is probably what Jesus looked like. This is a picture we took in the San Martino church.

9/13/19


Today my family and my grandma woke up got ready then went outside the wall to meet the two drivers.  Me and my dad went in one car. My mom, my grandma and my sister went in the other driver’s car. We drove into the mountains and hills in Tuscany.  Then we came to a house. We drove into the driveway. Can you guess where we were? We were at a COOKING CLASS!!!!! It Was On A  Farm!!!!  We got there a little early so our driver who worked at the place showed us the horse, the chickens and the dog.  We sat down at a table after that and waited for everybody to get there.  While we waited we had some delicious orange juice. When everybody was there, Anna and I followed the worker (that drove me and my dad here) to collect eggs right from the chicken coop.  We went back to where everybody was waiting and went inside to start the pasta making class.

Now I will teach you how to make the dough for pasta. Tip: if you don’t like getting your hands dirty then maybe you shouldn’t do it.   First you get a clean flat and some flour and put the flour on the clean flat surface in front of you. Then you have to make a mountain with the flour. Then you have to smooth out the top of the mountain of flour and dig out the flour in the middle to fit two eggs.  DO NOT DIG ANY FLOUR FROM THE SIDES OF YOUR MOUNTAIN AND MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO HOLES IN THE SIDE OF YOUR MOUNTAIN. Okay now it should look like a volcano. Now you get two eggs break them open and pour them in the middle hole where you dug. Then you do two small pours with some water then you do three small circles with some olive oil.  Tip: try not to spill the water and olive oil over the edge of your volcano. Then you get a fork and you whisk it but be careful not to spill any over the side of your volcano. When you are whisking keep adding more and more flour from the sides of your volcano. Finally when all the flour is gone you will be left with a very squishy dough ball. Now here is the messy part you need to shape the dough ball with your hand so that it is a little harder.  All you have to do is squish it for a bit and well your doing that it is okay to add a little more flour. After your done doing that you have your dough now you are free to do whatever you want with your dough. Don’t worry I am done telling you what to do now. 

This was a weird wrinkled egg in the coop.
This was the dog on the farm. I think his name was Book ( B-ooh-k) He was awesome.
We got to hang out with this horse. His name was Dock. He was very calm and liked us.
Granni is 1/8th Italian, so she was the best student. I am 1/32nd Italian, that’s why I love gelato so much!!
The orange juice also had lemon, ginger, and peach in it. It was the best ORANGE JUICE EVER!!!!!
The A+ student, Granni!!!!
Rollin’!! It looks like I have a bald spot on my head, but I don’t.
It was fun to play with the dough balls!
Antoinetta helped us knead. It’s harder than it looks!!
We didn’t do the stove cooking, so we just watched that part. The sauce was hot and bubbling.
The sauce.
This is the pasta that I made!!
Other yummy food that we ate!!
“buon appetito” is what you say in Italian before you eat.
After we ate our meal, Anna and I played on the hammock while the adults had wine and homeade Limoncello from Antoinetta’s sister.
Antoinetta and me after the day was over.
This is Antoinetta kissing my cheeks. Did I tell you that Italians love to kiss???!!!! They kiss when they say hello and they kiss when they say goodbye and they are always kissing. Everywhere you look in Italy, people are always KISSING!!!!!!!!! And they always pat my head and squeeze my cheeks and pat my back!! Ha ha ha ha!!!!!

9/17/19

Today we got up early with Anni and everyone and I went to the bus station we got on a bus and went to Florence.  The bus ride was an hour and 15 minutes. When we got to Florence, we went to a big dome museum called Accademia and went inside, there were a lot of paintings.  In the next room there was a long hallway with Michelangelo’s unfinished work- carved bodies in stone at the end of the hallway was the statue of David.  After that we went out of the dome and went to lunch. Next to the lunch place was a BIG church it is called Duomo which is dome in Italian.    Then we walked for a long time around Florence. On the bus ride back to Lucca, I got to sit by myself in the waaaaaaaaaaaay back middle seat looking all the way down the aisle.    Florence was pretty cool.

The second toe of David’s left foot was damaged by a deranged visitor with a hammer in 1991. It was restored.
Florence had awesome street artists. LOOK AT THIS!!!!! That’s the Mona Lisa and we didn’t go to Paris so I didn’t see the painting in person. But I saw THIS in person and it was AWESOME!!!
This is the front of the Duomo and the bell tower.
I got to sit here for the ride back to Lucca! We were pretty much the only people on the bus!!

9/18/19

The next day was our last day in Lucca. I was getting sad to leave, but excited for Rome. We climbed a tower with trees at the top of it and we were happy to see the views of the place that was our home for two weeks. We will always love Lucca.

Me and Anna resting at the top of the tree tower. I found a 2 cent Euro coin at the bottom of a tree at the top of the tower.
Here we are at the train station on 9/19/19 waiting to go to Rome. We always got to the stations so early and it was boring just sitting there. Haha.

One thought on “ITALY, Tuscany Region”

  1. Hi Cole! & Anna
    It looks like you are having an amazing time! Karma, Maya and Wilder are sooooo jealous — especially Wilder because he loves pasta. Thank you for writing such great updates. We miss you guys.

    Much love,
    The Williamsons

    Reply

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