A week to be thankful for!

It's been an eventful week of travel for us, but in a completely different way than many of you back home! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We love you and miss you all! We are so thankful to have your support, encouragement, and prayers while we're away!

Okay, back to our week. It started off with our usual field trip, and this time we decided to stay close to home and check out Devil's Bridge in the nearby town of Borga a Mozzana. A very cute little town only 20 min away by train. There were several churches, a stream winding it's way through town under buildings, roads, and between homes, as well as some well hidden feline creatures.

A walk of about a half a mile from our train stop brought us to the bridge. The bridge is known as 'Devil's Bridge' because of a legend: a brick layer began to build the bridge, but soon he realized that he would not be able to finish it in time, so he asked the devil for help. The devil accepted, swapping his construction with the builder's soul. The bridge was finished, but the brick layer felt so guilty that he confessed everything to a priest, who suggested to him to make a pig cross the bridge first. The devil was defeated and vanished in the Serchio river water. 

At home, the kids each created their own interpretation of the bridge. One in colored pencil, the other in paint. Both equally creative. Notice how Ashley put herself on the top of the bridge, and how Arya added cars driving down the road. Makes my heart happy.

Now on to Siena! We were so blessed to have our friends, the Sells, here this week. This was a 20th wedding anniversary trip for them, planned long before we told them about our plans for a sabbatical, so all the sweeter to have them here during our American Thanksgiving week! I am so thankful for the hugs, laughter, and joy they brought with them!

We met up for an afternoon in Siena, starting at the Torre del Mangia. Yes, the tower of food! This is a great spot to look out at rooftops and countryside. I just can't get enough of these views.

 These crazy kids just getting started. It's good to have companions when 

your parents are dragging you around to see really old stuff :-)

My new favorite photo. 

After walking around the Piazza del Campo, we meandered up through the ston steps of this pedestrian center to the Siena Cathedral (the Duomo). Built in the 13th century, the church, full of stunning works by Donatello, Michelangelo, Pisano, & Bernini, is still in great shape. My favorite details were the striped interior walls & columns, the ceiling in the library (unrestored), and the mosaic flooring.

So much more could be told about that and our other outing with the Sells to check out the famous leaning tower in Pisa, not to mention bringing them to our apartment as our first official guests and getting to show them around Lucca. However, I would like to get this posted for everyone to see before leaving tomorrow morning for our next big trip: Germany and Austria! More about that upon our return. For now, I leave you with a few shots from Pisa including a view from the top, a look down the spiral steps of the tower, Ashley (and her amazing hair style) in front of the baptistry in Pisa, and of course the girls fighting over control for the tower itself.

Mangi Amiamoci

Every Saturday Ashley and I go to Mangi Amiamoci. Mangi Amiamoci is a cooking class for kids.

We ride our bikes to our classes because we don't have a car. It's about 3 miles. The first time we went we made fresh pasta. We had to use only our hands, no mixers, or whisks. It was a green pasta. Instead of stripping it down on something, we cut it with a plastic knife in squares, and squeezed some spinach juice onto it. Our teachers speak English and Italian, but the other kids in class with us don't speak English. They only speak Italian. We also did a little bit of art and we played outside too. I had lots of fun.

The next Saturday it was supposed to rain so we took a taxi, but it ended up not raining. We made chestnut cupcakes the second week. You make them with chestnut flour, water, rosemary, clementine peels, and a little bit of oil. They had to bake when we were done. They are not sweet at all. While they were baking, we did a nature walk. We went by the aqueduct and a little creek. It was kind of muddy and wet.

We each made three chestnut cupcakes. We made two big ones and one small one. Here are the ones Mom hasn't eaten yet.

My class is fun!

An Evening Stroll

Today was going to be an outing day. We had a planned to go to a nearby town on a river and just hang out to see what we could see. Turns out there's a strike right now and all public transportation is shut down on Fridays for the next month. Ugh.

We ended up staying in town and enjoying a free day. As part of that free day we needed to take a walk to the local electronics store which is just outside the wall (yes, there are actual electronics stores here.). During the walk, I had a moment during which I remembered where I was and how amazing it is. I was inspired enough to take some pictures of it all to share with you, our loyal readers.

This gives you a taste of how beautiful and varied the scenery is here. All of these were taken on a normal walk. Nothing planned or posed, nor did we go out of our way to get a "really great shot". These are the places we walk by every day. Welcome to life in Lucca.

Rain, Puddles, and the Nottolini Aqueduct

Rain is falling again. It drizzles then stops. Then pours. There’s lightning, there’s thunder, and it’s wonderful. It has rained here every day and night this week. The stoned streets are puddled, our rain jackets wet, and we are warm and safe in our lovely Tuscan flat. My seven year old has finished her 4th book in the last two days. Boy, has life taken a turn. My girls hardly know what to think, coming from a drought ridden California. It has honestly rained here more in the last week than it has in the last year for us. We have been praying for rain for so long, that we are truly just tickled to open the windows and marvel at the sights and sounds. Well I am at least. The rain is loud on the rooftop, and we have employed earplugs to help the girls sleep.

After a wet week, we took a Friday field trip. We decided to stay close to home and explore greater Lucca on our bikes. We made a quick stop to pick up lunch on our way outside the city walls and we were off. Dave had done a bit of research and served as tour guide for the day. In keeping with our wet week, we decided to ride to the Nottolini Aqueduct and follow the trail to the cistern. A round trip of approximately 8 miles. It was an overcast day, and we were glad to be out of the house!

We crossed a few busy streets before we arrived at the trail and found it had suffered the effects of a week's worth of rain. After a quick family meeting, we decided to press on, but not without anxiety! Thankfully this entrance was the muddiest, and our whole day was not quite so treacherous. AND the girls eventually got braver and rode right through the puddles. Yay! Another adventure! I love watching these two girls tackle challenges. 

Along the way we stopped and ate our lunch, Arya claiming the one dry spot. While we ate we took in the countryside around us. We were among plowed fields, brambles of berries, and Tuscan farmhouses with chicken coops and gardens. Bisecting it all was this 160 year old aqueduct. After 28 years of construction the idea of getting fresh water from several springs on Mount Pisano all the way to Lucca was realized in 1851. No, this was not an ancient roman structure.

Finishing lunch, we followed our muddy path alongside the 400 arches towards the neoclassical cistern at the base of the mountain in Guamo. We parked our bikes and everyone explored. Because the aqueduct is no longer in operation, we were able to climb around what is left. Inside the cistern, there is a basin divided in two parts, where water was channelled into 3250 meters of brick and masonry all the way to a little temple cistern in San Concordio. The larger cistern we were exploring was moss and vine covered, stained from weather and erosion, but nonetheless stunning. We all enjoyed singing and yelling into the abandoned structure and hearing the reverberation of our own voices!

We walked past the cistern to check out the surrounding area and got a true taste of country living, complete with a "Buongiorno!" from two elderly women and a not so ferocious dog protecting his domain.

On our way home we decided on a different path so that we could stop for groceries, and got a little lost. Or misdirected? Perhaps we just misinterpreted directions from a very sweet old man that we rode past. All ended well. Just a few more marshy paths, a dead rat, and the pushing of our bikes over an overpass. Groceries in baskets, we arrived home before dark and settled in for what looks to be another week filled with rain!