Tomorrow we head for Florence from Forte dei Marmi.
• The mountains white not with snow but with marble.
• The impossibility of getting a bad meal.
• Very friendly, confident women and very argumentative insecure men.
• Cyclists who are defiant, rude, and dangerous.
• Streets built for chariots accommodating modern cars.
• Breathtaking countryside with cities build around churches and farms built around fortresses.
• The best food in the world.
• Truly remarkable red wine and passable white.
• Fun and cheerfulness and activities that defy any reports of a troubled economy.
• Dashing carabinieri who primp in the side view mirrors of parked cars.
• The most sophisticated, intelligent, automated highway toll collection system on earth, accepting credit cards, coins or bills, and sending you away with “Arrivederci!”
• Lamps older than America.
• Fleas markets with designer merchandise (not knock-offs).
• Women who look you in the eye and don’t stare at the ground.
• Indifferent airline service.
• A sometimes shocking personal body aroma from even lovely women.
• A happy marriage of old towns and news products.
• A joyousness in the mornings as people greet the new day.

Bread as gator in Lucca

One of 70 churches in Lucca

Delivering my sermon

The fabulous restaurant Buccadisanantonio

Fabulous facades on the churches
© Alan Weiss 2013
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