#20 Lucca and Train Trouble
Destination #9 Lucca, Italy
As soon as I exited the train to Lucca, I was filled with the same homeland feeling that I get whenever I am within the country of Switzerland. My father’s side of the family originated from Lucca and the first American member of my family moved from Lucca to San Francisco a little over a century ago. It’s a little different of a feeling when you see your own history versus other places notable to world, your nation’s, or ethnic history.
I first walked towards the historical district of the town which was surrounded by a fifty foot tall medieval wall at its perimeter. For the month of the September, the city opened the interior of the walls to the public. I walked inside and I saw some exhibits of medieval weapons and early cannon designs. I then walked around the top of the wall which has now become a park popular to local joggers. I then went down the wall to enter the interior of the town. On the way I tripped over a rock a twisted my ankle for the third time on my travels. The first time was hiking in Switzerland and it happened again on Friday when I tripped on a loose rock at the cobblestone at my school. I think since I have flat shoes and crooked feet, whenever I am on uneven ground, I am likely to injure myself.
Inside the town resembled a compact version of Florence including several old churches shops that have been in business since the 19th century and monuments. The town was also celebrating the 150th anniversary of one its famous residents, opera librettist Giacomo Puccini. I spent a few hours just exploring the town and eating another one of my favorite Tuscan deserts (waffle/ice cream combo I had in Florence). I also bought my father some Luccan wine as a Christmas gift. When it got close to my train time I walked through the mazy town to get to the wall. I walked along the wall towards where I thought I enter the town to get back. I stopped and asked for directions, and the person responded by telling me I was going the wrong way and the train was on the other side of town. I responded by running as fast as I could along the wall to reach the station (as a poor runner, I did have to stop every few hundred meters to catch my breath). I got there right when the train was supposed to get there, but it ended up being delayed for five minutes.
After I caught the first train, I exited in a town called Viareggio. With some sketchy logic about trains going to different places than they say, I accidentally walked on the wrong train that went to La Spezia. I was sitting on the train listening to the PA announcement, I did not hear a mention of Milan. In a panicked frenzy, I asked some other passengers about it, and they either did not understand my Italian or told me I was on the wrong train. I then asked the conductor about the situation and told me I could catch my train when I arrived at La Spezia.
Destination #10 La Spezia, Italy
I was in La Spezia for about an hour, I walked around the town and waited for my train. That’s it.
I then got on my train to Milan. Since I had only about two hours of sleep over the past two days, my tiredness prevented me from doing any reading. I felt incredibly relieved that I was still able to get back to Milan. I would have been totally screwed if I ended going the wrong direction on that other train. When I returned to Milan, I took the metro and went straight back to my room. After checking my e-mail, I went to sleep to try to pull of a whole day of sleeping.
Despite my pitch black room, I failed to complete my full day of sleeping. I coincidently had a dream last night that I had slept a full day and my family got mad at me for it. However, I did sleep for fourteen hours and woke up around one in the afternoon. All I have done today is clean up my room, find out the grocery store is closed, and write three blog posts. After this I will plan the rest of the this week.
Again feel free to give some feedback. If my story abroad is interesting enough and my writing is high quality, I am going to try to make a more descriptive version of these adventures into a book, so your input can help me on that quest.
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