Hmm. I swear we posted something the other day from Lucca, but it doesn't seem to have appeared. Anyhow. We're in Italy. First, we went to Florence. Florence is a lovely English-speaking city in Japanese-controlled Italy. It is broiling hot and a nice place to be completely overwhelmed by museums and get blisters. We did both. We also bought Leah a very nice leather jacket. Would you believe that the guys gave us a special deal on it? It's true.

So we saw the David - still very big, though under renovation. Apparently they are colorizing the statue to make it more lifelike. Then we went to the Ufizzi. Much of the art there is either religious or large scenes of battle and hunting. We prefer things like mobiles and those Aboriginal spitting paintings, but we stuck it out through all 756 rooms. We saw the lady floating on the clamshell and then went home.

Two days of that, with a new pair of sneakers thrown in for blister management, and we were off for Lucca. Since it was Friday and the weather was nice, there was a train strike. We tried to get on one of the few trains leaving Florence, but the man just yelled at us and made us feel completely unvalidated. We took the bus, and it was only searing hot, not broiling.

In Lucca, the first thing we found out was that we had a ten minute walk with our luggage to the hotel. But the second thing we found out was that we had to walk past a gelateria to get there, and that made things better. The hotel room we had booked was a discount one, which we found out meant NO AIR CONDITIONING. We had recently learned in Florence that air conditioning is a thing that we will pay extra for in Italy in the summer, and so we upgraded and immediately fell asleep in front of the Italian broadcast of the Tour de France.

Lucca is a great walled city that is only roasting hot. Also, there is nothing there that you HAVE to see except for the wall, which surrounds the city and is about 50 feet thick. You can ride a bike on top of it, which lets you see everything and provides a nice breeze. After a few days in Florence, one needs a place with little to do, and so Lucca was perfect. Two days there and we had recuperated enough to hop a long, slow, hot train to Perugia, where our friends Matt and Vieve are for the summer. Vieve can only understand Greek, Latin, German, and French, and so she desperately needed to learn Italian, and quick. Hence, she goes to school and we putter around town.

Or, we sit by the POOL. PISCINA. Yes, a pool. Not hot at all. View of mountains, Umbria. Very nice. If you are silly enough to insist on visiting Italy in the summer, I suggest going somewhere with pools. Yesterday, our first full day here, we ate two two-course meals, swam twice, and drove to Deruta. Deruta is a big center for pottery (presents for you!), and we made the potter stay late to let us browse and ask, "Cuanto costa?" about every espresso cup and sugar bowl in the place. Next, we drove around some more and stumbled upon a tiny walled town called Castelleone. Castles and lions are very big in Europe, it seems. We gawked at big gardens full of basil and peeked in windows, then got Leah to drive through a tiny archway so we could escape. Pictures (I think) when we get home.