Because this week is going to be mainly routine, I will use my blog entries to list my top ten favorite reasons for coming to Italy. I will not include in the list the fact that my dad was an FBI man (full blooded Italian) and so I have built-in Italian pride. The reasons I have chosen could apply to any person of any ethnic background. We’ll start at the bottom and add addition reasons throughout the week.
Number 10: Markets. You walk through nearly any medium to large Italian cities and find a traveling market set up in a piazza. It might be for vegetables and fruit, house wares, clothing, antiques, flowers, CDs and DVDs, books, artwork, or any combination of the above. One time we saw a man selling live chickens. Prices are decent, and people who live in the city know when the
markets are coming and can plan their shopping. We are learning when and where the markets are here, but we may visit another city or a different section of Lucca and be surprised to find a market spread out in some piazza. Even if we are not looking to buy anything, markets are colorful and entertaining. I like to buy comic books in Italian to improve my reading skills, and we recently bought some used movies that we can watch with Italian dialog and English or Italian subtitles.
Number 9: Public transportation. We live in a city about the size of Purdy, but we can catch a train that will take us to most medium-sized or large cities in Europe. Italian cities that aren’t on the train line can all be reached by blue bus. Once inside a city, there are bus stops all around the town and out into the suburbs. You can take your bike on the train, which extends your range even further. And you can get off the train in a city along the way, grab some food or do some exploring, and then hop on the next train to continue to your destination.
Click here to continue to reasons 8 through 6 . . .
Not to mention riding your bike will you guys in great shape!
ReplyDeleteCL