oh what a night....

Hey all! This is Elise reporting from Lucca, ITALY!! How cool is that? I’m not sure I’ve quite grasped the concept yet that I’m in Italy. I know I didn’t get it in France. This is such a surreal experience and I’m so grateful that I was able to go on this amazing European Tour. We arrived at our current hotel on May 13, 2011, yes I realize it was Friday the 13^th….anyways, we left the hotel around eight thirty in the morning I believe and we arrived at the hotel about nine thirty. We did a lot of driving today. I want to congratulate our drivers today! They did a great job. Casey, Will, and Ashley, thank you! French drivers were crazy at first but compared to Monaco and Italy they look entirely sane.

Our first stop of the day was a small American cemetery; The Rhone American Cemetery. They were so accommodating! The man in charge of the grounds was an American, and the woman, who took us on a guided tour, was English. Alison, I’m not sure that is how it is spelled, knew many stories of the boys, yes boys, they were only 18-22 years old, and told us romantic stories and stories of people fighting for what they believe in. I do believe that one of the most touching stories was the German Jew, Henry Wikins. His parents and him left Germany and fled to America, and Henry wished to prove to his new country his loyalty and appreciation. He fought for America in WWII. He was a parachuter and went he landed he broke his leg. The rest of his unit had to leave him behind and promised to get him help. By the time they returned to get him, he had been hung on a tree with rope by his broken leg and his……cut off and stuffed in his mouth. Many such stories were told, and I must admit, I cried. The stories were so touching and the groundskeeper so appreciative of us coming to the grounds. They even offered to let us use the sand they have imported from Normandy to rub into their names so they are highlighted. We planted Tennessee flags in front of all the Tennessee soldiers that died in WWII and highlighted others that touched our hearts. As soon as I make a youtube account, which means I’d have to internet to post this as well, I will upload some videos that I have shot, including rubbing sand on the grave in respect. While this stop at the cemetery was only supposed to take 15-20 minutes, we ended up staying close to 2 hours. Unexpected, but fantastic. After a quick bathroom stop and lunch in the parking lot, we were back on the road. Next stop, MONACO.   

Monaco was so pretty! Tres joli! Didn’t get a great view of the Prince’s castle but by the time we reached the city center we were all just ready to get the heck out of dodge. I hope other people got pictures of Monaco because my camera died. The streets of Monaco were crazy! Motorcycles and mopeds were weaving in and out of traffic and completely ignoring all stoplights and signs as far as I could tell. The views from the cliffs were absolutely gorgeous however. I must say something about out GPS unit. We have named her Vikki. Not sure how it came by the name… Because the streets in Monaco were so small and close together it was not receiving signals from the satellites correctly. At one point we were driving along the cliff with the cliff on the left side, and Vikki tells us to take a sharp left. Oh goodness, the van I was in could not stop laughing. Beautiful place, but we felt like if we even looked at an ice cream cone it would cost us ten euro. Talk about an expensive place! The people their looked like they were dressed for fashion week. We passed a motorcycle that had a Louis Vitton bag just sitting on the back end like it was nothing. Once we finally managed to leave Monaco, and believe me it was very difficult, we were back on the highway and paying tolls on the road. Talk about expensive tolls! Whew. Glad we’re not driving back that way, I’m not sure I could afford it! From the highway we were able to see the Swiss Alps that we will be crossing later…next week perhaps? There were beautiful sites to see just from the road. I’m looking forward to exploring it all.

One last thing about the driving and roads and I swear I’ll be done. I was in the van with Casey, the lead van, and we had entered into the fortified city walls. Talk about SMALL STREETS!! I’m not sure how I can even emphasize how narrow those streets were. I can see now why it is a walking city and people are expected to not drive in it. I’ll look through my pictures and see which one looks the best to upload.

In the morning, from when I’m writing this blog, we are going to….wait for it….PISA!!!!! I’m very excited about it. More later. J

I can’t even describe how great, awesome, wonderful, magnificent, gorgeous, outstanding, stupendous the leaning tower of Pisa is. I couldn’t believe that I was standing in front of it. What really surprised me was that the leaning tower was in the middle of the city. It’s always shown in the middle of a grassy field, and it is in a grassy field when you reach it…but you have to walk about twenty miles to get to it. It was probably one of the best places I have ever seen. I believe I took around….150-200 pictures of the tower.

This morning we were allowed to wander around Lucca and shop a bit. It was wonderful! Lucca is an amazing city. I heard people speaking, of course, Italian, and French, German, English(British), English(American), and English(Australian!). Bought some beautiful jewelry, such as earrings, a necklace, a charm for my charm bracelet, and postcards! I think that I have all of my souvenirs for Italy now. J

I am loving this trip! <3 It is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am so lucky to be here. Getting ready to head out to explore the city a bit more…so over and out!