Lucca

I feel like I keep overloading my blog posts with pictures, but I can't help but want to show them all! I went to Lucca yesterday with NYU. The entire (ancient) city is surrounded by a wall. We got on the bus at 9:00 am and ate Mcdonald's breakfast sandwiches. The Mcdonalds here sell pieces of parmesan cheese! Once in Lucca we had a tour of the city that lasted about two hours. I couldn't help but tune out after a while, especially once hunger took over and clouded my mind. We went to several churches on the tour, but my favorite thing is the amphitheater that has been converted into houses and stores. The amphitheater was built outside the original walls of the city, but has now become the center. We went to lunch at a place that was recommended to us by a friend who had gone to Lucca the day before, called Trattoria da Leo. I was feeling a little sick (one of my roommates just got over a cold) so I got a salad and tortellini in brodo (chicken broth). It soothed my throat and warmed my heart. 

Looking how we all felt during the tour

Outside of the amphitheater 

Inside of the amphitheater 

The tower I climbed

Tortellini in brodo

This cat was posing so hard

After lunch we rented bicycles. Olivia and I decided that we needed to ride a tandem bicycle and got very excited when we found them. We quickly realized our mistake when we tried to ride away and lost balance. Tandem bicycles are deceptively difficult! I started out in front, but quickly switched to the back when I realized how horrible I was at steering. It took us a while to find our groove, but once we got it, it was so much fun! I was crying from laughter almost the entire time. For at least the first twenty minutes we could only turn left because right was difficult to do (still not exactly sure why). We lost half of our group and eventually all because it was nearly impossible to stop. We also didn't have a bell, so Olivia would just yell "beep beep beep!" if we were coming up behind pedestrians. My favorite part was when we found a smooth path the circumscribed the city through the trees. We ended up getting a little lost and made it back with mere seconds to spare on our hour time limit. 

Distressed

After our adventure on the tandem bike we got gelato and then climbed a tower over looking the city. I had such a nice time, but I'm happy our trip wasn't any longer! I was extremely exhausted from two days of traveling and couldn't wait to be cozy in my bed!

My two roommates, Kodia and Chloe