Tuesday 8th April

We all woke fairly early today to the sounds of church bells tolling from down in the valley, different bird songs coming from the trees and the odd fox howling in the distance. Our first mission for the day was to exchange some money. We discovered the local markets were on in Ponte so we explored them and bought an umbrella as it had started raining. The local bank was opposite the little piazza, where the local markets are held every Tuesday morning.

Exchanging money turned out to be quite an ordeal…. Firstly just getting into the bank was problematic in that, firstly you step into a capsule that examines you for any metallic objects you might have on you, even too many clips on a handbag sets the alarm off!! While this is a normal everyday thing for a local….being a foreigner you have no idea and get locked in the capsule with what seems no way out. Lucky for Leon, I decided to stay in the street and watch the goings on in the Market. A lovely old dear who was standing next to me noticed what was happening to Leon….to our relief she could speak some English so she explained how to exit the capsule, stow his belongings into a locker, lock them in and take the key, and then try to re enter the bank. Leon was finally allowed into the bank, it took a lot of gesturing trying to make them understand about exchanging money…. they had no idea how to do it!!

We then drove into Lucca which is our closest main town. Unfortunately our GPS got us driving right into the old walled centre of town going up the wrong way, of one way lanes and coming to dead ends. I just wanted Leon to get us out of there quick smart*#@! But, it was easily said than done. So while my heart raced towards having a stroke Leon did some very cheeky and amazing driving to ultimately release us from the maze we had found ourselves in. In the end we found a car park outside the walls and walked into the old centre, but alas….it was now siesta time and all the banks were closed and only reopen for one hour after siesta. Siesta lasts for an average of three hours but luckily the restaurants and some of the bigger supermarkets stay open, so we enjoyed some lunch in Lucca and then did our grocery shopping and headed back home. The villa was freezing inside so Leon quickly chopped some wood to get the fire started. We had decided not to use the gas heating as it costs $19.00 euro a day*#@! Due to the fact there is no natural gas in Italy. I don’t think the fireplace had been used much since the villa had been renovated as all the wood was either wet or rotten and caused the house to completely fill up with smoke, we felt like we were camping! Cooked up a pot of spaghetti and flopped into bed.