Love Me Some Lucca!!!

My dear readers, I have had a revelation.  Yes, I told you that I loved Rome.  And Florence, though smaller than Rome, is a beautiful thriving city that has many glorious offerings to the curious traveler.  But the true Italy, the heart and soul of the country, is found in the small towns of Italia.  Lucca, the small town I went to this weekend, showed me that.  Through delicious sandwiches and heavenly pastries.

Lovely Lucca, which I will officially refer to it as from here on out, sits about an hour and a half by train away from my current home Firenze.  The town, surrounded by a wall, seems intimidating at first.  Not to worry, dear readers, this town is just as welcoming and cute as ever! Everyone here smiles, NO JOKE. I saw way more people smiling here than in Florence.  Also, I saw just about as many bakeries as their are QuikTrips in Tulsa.   This is a beautiful thing.

We biked around the whole day, a real bargain actually.  It was warm enough to wear shorts (er, warm enough for me to wear shorts), and it seemed like everyone and their grandmother was outside enjoying the sunny Saturday.  I saw a little kid throw a tantrum, but it was just cute and not annoying.  Children whining in Italian does not sound nearly as irritating as children whining in English.  He was literally on the ground, whining "MAMAAAA. NOOO".  His mom encouraged him to get up because they had to go (I think?), and the small four year-old continued to army crawl all the way to his mother.  These old ladies on a bench were cheering him on.  This is the Italy that I love.  And then there was an older boy, who continued to ride his bike around us to show off.  He did handstands, cartwheels, and even walked on his hands! Skilled!!!! BRAVO BAMBINO! Except one time, he messed up. So he looked to see if we saw, and then continued to sulk on the curb for two minutes.  Can I bring back a child with me to the US? That's totally legal, right?!

Anywho, the bike lady thought I was French because of my name (Rachael, like Rachelle, and Rene, because that just sounds French).  I asked if we could all pay for our bike rentals seperately, and she looked at me as if to say "No, not on your American life".  Then, she looked at my last name, and asked if it was Reagan like the President, and I just said Yes.  She then let us pay individually. WIN WIN WIN.  ANCESTRY FOR THE WIN.

Anyway, Venice this weekend for Carnivale! WOOOOOOOOOOOOT! Should be a grand ol' time! I'm behind on pictures because our internet tells me it'll take 342 minutes to upload my sweet shots.  No way man, I do not have that time.    Pictures of my food from Lucca to come next post!

Buon appetito!
Rachael