Groupon fun

This morning we woke up to the sounds of the rain and the birds. Hope it is not going to rain all day. Check the weather and it is not calling for much today and we can see small patches of blue outside.

Not many people on the wall this morning. Us, some joggers we see everyday, a few people walking their dogs, a few kids hanging out before school starts. Must be the light drizzle but no rain, so we were good even thou we were prepared. Wendy had her rain jacket on and I had out small umbrella in my back pocket.

Made French toast for breakfast as there was a stale baguette that was going to go to waste anyway. Warmed up some strawberries and drizzle everything with honey. Did not see any maple syrup at the grocery stores here in Italy so Honey you get honey.

Finish the milk with our morning coffees and teas, so I will be doing a grocery run later today. Won't buy much as we are leaving tomorrow for the weekend to Bologna. Will clean out the fridge tonight for supper and make supper with whatever is in there..

Spent a good part of the morning on the internet looking for Groupon restaurant deals for Bologna, Venice, Rome and Naples. May have found one in Bologna but it is all in Italian as I am on Groupon.it. and not Groupon.ca So I copy some of the test into bing.com/Translator and see what it says. Wendy tried to use her Canadian account and password but it would not work, Will need to create an Italian account, I guess.

Finish picking the photos from yesterday and completed the blog and posted.

We went for a walk before lunch as neither one of us was hungry. We were on the hunt for a place that makes focaccia bread and sell it by the kilo. It was recommended by Stephanie last night. It was supposed to be near a street back of a church that we knew. We found a place and ordered a piece. We also picked up 2 small timbits like for dessert. We eat the bread walking back home. It was delicious, a tad on the salty and oily but we are not complaining. Not sure if it was the right place, we'll confirm with Stephanie next time we see her.

Not sure what this is for on a side of a building, maybe for horses at one time?

Where we found the focaccia

I guess if you on it do not have the right bags you put  a sticker

The door was open.  Quick picture

A few homes have these where important people lived.

We tried to clean up the fridge as much as we could and make a large green salad each for lunch.

After lunch I headed to a coin museum on the wall that Wendy has no interest in seeing. As I was leaving the ambulance was here for someone across the hallway from us. Hope they are ok. Go to the museum and it was not open. I spent a good part of the afternoon just wandering the street and looking at the shops. Nothing too exciting but interesting to see what they have for sale.

I also stopped by the information center to see if they had anything on cooking schools. I may end up doing something during my last week here. I also asked if the were any recital at churches that are free or almost free but since we are only in town Sunday night to Thursday, nothing. We may take in a classical night on a Thursday. This is where Puccini was born so they always have something going on.

At one point I came across a church that the side door was open. Invitation for me to check it out. There was a lady inside talking to a group of women. I just wandered around the church. It was the most decorated church I have seen in Lucca so far. All the ceilings were painted with scenes. Lots of paintings and statues everywhere. The alter was fabulous. I did not ask if I could take pictures as I was not sure I was even supposed to be here in the first place. The outside of the church looks a bit run down so I was very surprised when I walked in. It is not too far from here, so if I see it open again, I will come and get Wendy to see it.

Hope all is well

Thru the fence doors at the coin museum

Info center

Ahhhh, I was going to put a Euro to find out if I lost weight.

Around the corner from the scale.  Maybe the scale is a requirement

Some type of market / restaurant/ bar reopening this week

Chocolate/pastry shop.  The had some nice stuff there

I don't think she was happy I took her picture.  I guess big glasses are in style

Local liquors at this store

Tiny supermarket has more cheeses and stuff than we do at home

I love open doors.

I made a lasagna for supper with fresh noodles that are made in a factory like we can get at home. I pretty much clean up the fridge (mushroom, eggplant, ricotta cheese, spinach). I turn out bigger than expected and we ended up freezing it for next week for when Marc and Mary-Sue are here. After the first round of dishes were done we headed out for a walk into town. Nothing special going on. We checked out the amphitheater. Almost all the restaurants are setup now as compared to only 2 when we first got here. Our new best friend, and the one and only,Stephanie from Tripadvisor says that March 1^st is when the places that are not open in the winter starts to open up again.

We did see a place that was selling stamps. So we asked for 4 international stamps for Canada. Almost died when she said 10 Euros but I guess it is what is is. Now you know why people do not send postcards anymore.

For supper we had some leftover lasagna noodles so I turned those into tagliatelle with pesto sauce that I had bought earlier in the week. Turned out pretty good with a bit of the new unfiltered olive oil I bought today at the grocery store. A good bottle of red wine did not hurt the meal either. Dessert was fresh fruit with mascarpone cheese, not sure if that was our favourite. Wendy dug out some dark chocolate to finish  off the meal.

While I was making supper, Wendy checked out the price of mail to Canada on Google. Tyrns out it is .85 Euro and not 2.50. The stamps we bought are some type of gimmick that you can see where you postcard is and you can attach a video to it as well so that the person receiving it gets to see the video as well. I beleive Wendy is going to try to return the stamps tomorrow if she has a chance. If not someone may get a SPECIAL postcard from us.

Wendy and been working all night with a couple of customers. 5-10 minutes here and there. Answers one question and 30 minutes here email beeps again.

We booked a Groupon for a restaurant this weekend in Bologna. When Wendy try to make a reservation for either Friday or Saturday, there was no availability. So now the challenge was to use Groupon in Italian to cancelled something we purchased.   Wendy would copy and paste text into Google translate. She finally managed to cancel our purchase after about 30 minutes.

Not sure how much of the blog will be done this weekend as we will be in Bologna with Marc & Mary-Sue.  Maybe next week before any updates are done.