Friends and family

Hi everyone again!

I would like to share my other trip in Italy with you. I went to Lucca to visit a friend of mine a few weeks ago. His name is Luca. I went to Lucca through Pisa. I arrived in Pisa by Bla Bla car. It was a nice and cheap trip. Then I went to Lucca by train. Lucca and Pisa are very close to each other, around 30 minutes by train. Lucca is a small and very pretty city. It has a church in its center. I would like to tell a secret that I learned from my friend. It is known by only people living in Lucca. At night, if you look the angel at the top of the church from a very specific position with a specific angle, you can see a ring at the hand of the angle which is shining impressively. It is really a specific position and an angle because if you move one more step, you will not probably realize the shining ring.

When I arrived in Lucca on Friday night, Luca met me at the train station. It had been three years since I had seen him. It was a pleasure for me to meet with him again. After leaving my stuff at his home, we went to a place to meet with his friends. Our chat continued throughout the night.

When we woke up the next day, Luca had prepared pasta with zucchini and fresh tomato. I confess that while he was cooking the pasta, I watched him carefully, memorized every trick and tried to cook it when I returned to Bologna. Even if there is still something missing in my trials, I will continue to cook pasta with different sauces. After we had a meal, Luca and me went to Pisa together. We visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the cathedral near the tower, and palaces near the river where aristocratic families live in. We went inside of the Blue Palace. Aristoctratic families lived in these palaces and were controlling the land given to them by the Kingdom.

After the sightseeing in Pisa, we went back to Lucca in the evening to attend a friend Luca’s birthday. We went to Pizzorne, which is a mountainous area located near Lucca, which reaches 1,026 meters above sea level . I definitely say it was one of the best places that I saw. Everywhere is green and full of wild animals such as pigs and deer. While we were returning, we saw even a deer crossing the way. At the top of Pizzorne, we went to a restaurant called Aldebaran. The restaurant was a place that makes the local food of Italy. Most of us ate pizza. Marta, Luca, and I ate pasta. My pasta consisted of deer meat (first time I ate dear meat, by the way) and nuts. Everyone that reads the post should visit Pizzorne and go to eat at the restaurant. They brought us white wine and beers. At the end of the dinner, some of us had desert. I suppose it was a kind of cheese-cake. I couldn’t eat it since I was really full. Luca was continued to eat, going so far as to try his friend’s remaining pizza for a taste! Then, we drank espresso with rum. It is called Caffè correcto which means correct the coffee in the sense of corrected. The restaurant was beautiful. Everyone was so kind and their chats were enjoyable. I learned a lot from them about Italy. Thanks!

When we wake up on Sunday, we had a short trip with Luca on the oldest intact wall in Europe. To tell the truth, I didn’t know anything about Lucca, I just came there to visit my friend. But I should say Lucca is one of the prettiest cities that I have ever seen. In the afternoon, it was time to return to Bologna. I would like to thank Luca. Because of him, I had great time.

I returned to Bologna with Bla Bla again. Luckily I found a ride directly from Lucca to Bologna. It was a quite cheap and enjoyable trip like my other trips with Bla Bla. I actually would like to share a memory that I am still laughing about. While we were returning to Bologna, the driver, Irene, told me her memory. She told me, she stayed in Istanbul for six days in her friend’s house. In the early morning, she shocked awake. There was a voice like an emergency announcement coming. She said ‘oh my god, what is happening?’ Is it a fire alarm, or an earthquake? Should we go out? Her friend told her calm down, it is normal. It is coming from the mosque. I am still laughing at her funny reaction.

On the 6th weekend, my family came to visit me and some cities in Italy. I had been missing them. We went to Florence, Pisa, and Rome with a rented car. A mistake happened during renting a car. We had a car which did not have enough place for six people. But we didn’t care, we laughed about our situation during the trip. We tried every possible combination to sit 4 people in the back of the car, but no way. Someone has to sacrifice from him/herself by sitting in a less comfortable way. In Florence, we saw the Florence cathedral, Arno river, and the tower. We couldn’t go to Uffizi Gallery and Leonarda Da Vinci Museum since we had limited time. Florence is famous for renaissance art. You can see many sculptures in the squares by renaissance artists. After Florence, we went to Pisa to see the tower of Pisa. When we come to Rome after a long trip because of the limited space in the car, we first went to our hotel. We did sightseeing at night. The sunday morning we decided to go to St. Peter’s Basilica. While we were going out of the basilica, we saw Pope Francis in a window of a building next to the basilica. Everyone gathered in St. Peter’s square and was so excited. Pope Francis made a speech. It was a nice memory for us! Then, we walked from Vatican into the old city by visiting the ancient buildings. We had a very, very great time that weekend. My family returned to Turkey on Monday morning.

In front of Pantheon