A little shopping, a little eating, a little resting, a little writing, and a little reading, all followed by dinner at the apartment and a choral performance in the evening. Now that we are on our last day in Lucca, we can confirm that the apartment where we spent the week worked very well. We all felt comfortable with its two bedrooms, two bathrooms, living/dining room, enclosed patio, small yet functional kitchen, and washing machine. And the wifi works great, so there was little to complain about. We are located near Lucca’s famous wall, and would use said wall to walk to dinner or post-dinner performances. Free parking wasn’t far away and although we were not allowed to park within the city’s walls, we wouldn’t have wanted to anyway. Our “small” car was not small enough for some of the so-called two way roads in the old city.
Usually around this point of a vacation, and by that I mean a time when one activity is coming to an end, my mom focuses on the highlights of the last activity. This, of course, was before Charlotte. In Italy especially, it is probably inappropriate to redefine BC as Before Charlotte, but luckily BCE, a more neutral term, can also apply when taking into account the baby’s whole name. Ever since the family transition from BCE to CE, the mode of thinking, the topics of conversation, and the usage of online video chat have all undergone substantial changes. And they are changes for the better! Back to the topic of missing our week end’s debriefing, we are mostly focused on tomorrow’s plan to get to Rome, find the apartment, return the car, and meet up with the rest of the family. There are some logistics to take care of; however, we are all excited to be entering phase two of Italian Family Vacation.