Thursday, June 26
It helps that we got a new laptop this spring, with the help of Jennifer's brother, Mel, and a new digital camera, as well. Neither of us are complete Luddites, but there is a great deal to learn in using our new toys, I mean “tools.” With the plans to depart came news that there is an internet cafe near the festival headquarters, and that means email, news from back home, the supposed ability to send photos, etc. In truth, I haven't yet been able to get the photo of we three included in the blog, but I'm hopeful that it will work eventually. Shutterfly will soon have our photos in a viewable format online, if you are interested. Skype is great when it works, and thoroughly frustrating when the other person keeps asking if you can hear them (and you can!!) but they cannot hear you. I begin to have an inkling of how enraged the average deaf person feels at times.
You may already know some or all of this, but much of everyday expections for one's life are quite different in Italy. For instance, living within the city walls of Lucca, we have a lovely apartment with two bedrooms, bathroom, living room, and kitchen. There are no screens on the windows, but rather some shades that draw up and keep the sun out—a far more vital matter in this sunny clime. Italians expect sun every day, and lots of it. They do not mind or complain about heat or lots of bright light. They do not want to be chilled with air conditioning. They do not drink iced beverages, but rather chilled ones. Cups and containers are generally much smaller than in the US. I'm not just talking about super-sized fast food; the cups in the kitchen are more modestly proportioned than at our home or (probably) yours. It is expected to be willing to handwash clothes and hang them out to dry. It is also very natural to go for a walk every day to exercise, get fresh air, chat, see, and be seen. In Perugia and other Italian cities that seemed to be in various piazzas or main streets, but here there is the wall around the historic town center, a fortress that protected the people of Lucca from invasion in past centuries.
We had an uneventful air trip here, and haven't been in a car since the van dropped us off here in the town center. The streets are narrow, and everything is one-way, if not downright pedestrian only. There are many, many bicycles and mopeds, and cars tend to be small. The occasional SUV has trouble making the corners. Our little stroller is very handy getting Julia from place to place safely. We walk only shorter distances thus far...partly because her shorter steps take longer, and on crowded streets the pace is faster than hers.
I was going to write that our neighborhood was quiet, and it mostly is, but the night Italy lost to Spain in the World Soccer Cup was very rowdy, in that we could hear people cheering after every play. We went to bed without watching it all, but knew that Italy lost because we weren't waked up by cheering Italians. Earlier this evening there was some sort of incident down on Via del Toro (the alley-wide street that we can see from our bedroom window. ) Much screaming and some high-pitched carrying on...now quiet again. Julia is having to learn not to make as much noise as she possibly can in the early morning, later evening, and during the pausa from 1 to 3 in the afternoon when nearly everything closes down. In this Tuscan sun, it makes perfect sense to stop and rest, then stay up later, which they do.
The people seem pretty much powered on caffeine, tobacco, and sugar. If I tried a different flavor of gelato every day I don't think I'd get through them all (I'm not going to attempt it). What we've sampled was delizioso!!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Julia is having great excitement anticipating the thrilling experience of riding on a tour bus to Verona tomorrow.......she can hardly stop talking about it. This just goes to show that indeed, for a toddler, “There is no time like the present; in fact, there is no time BUT the present.” We've been talking about AIDA in Verona, telling her the story and looking at the Leontyne Price book about the opera, mentioning staying in a hotel, etc..
Somehow the all-important fact of riding on the bus wasn't seized upon as verity until this very day. Much carrying on ensued!! It's touching how much joy she gets out of merely talking about the prospect of being one of the people on the bus who “go up and down.” Wonder how we'll manage to keep her from singing it to the exasperation of our fellow festival passengers. .....
Allan is feeling a little bit better today after a nasty cold that hit him pretty hard. He has a big advantage over Julia, who had the cold first; namely, he can blow his nose. When will she get this particular skill mastered? I probably have my own rejoicings over small matters. For example, right now I'm ready to jump up and down with glee over the fact that 16 out of 22 pictures are being uploaded to Shutterfly right now. When that's done, I'll try to add these musings (and maybe even a photo or more) to the blog.
