Hey, James

Tomorrow marks the 2 month point of being in Italy. Halfway through, I have gotten a little homesick. Until last night when I was able to head back home for at least 2 hours or so at the James Taylor concert in Lucca.

Thanks to my dad, we were able to get 3 tickets to the concert to see his childhood friend and neighbor play on stage in front of hundreds of smiling faces, from all different parts of the world. It made me so happy to see excitement on every Italian's face I passed... he really has made an impact on the world. Songs like Copperline and Carolina in my Mind took me straight back to my grandparents house "half a mile down Morgan Creek" and slowly my homesickness was washed away. The concert was great and James even said a few italian words himself (with half of the audience soon correcting his mistakes). He played all of my favorites and even one of my favorite Beatles song, Yesterday (Paul McCartney recently asked him to cover the song at the Grammy's and it was treat to hear it live). Most of his band members were there as well as a recording of his backup singers on a 1977 recorder (I think... he explained the importance of the recorder in italian...so...).

He sang 3 encore songs and the audience wouldn't stop clapping a long. By this time, many were up out of their seats dancing to the music. When the concert was finally over the whole audience lined up for autographs and pictures. And of course, James sat on the stage with a smile on his face taking pictures and signing autographs and looking at pictures of children who listen to him "tutti i giorni" and so on. It then came to our turn and I went up to him telling him my name saying that I was "David's daughter". Obviously I really was taken back to North Carolina because in hindsight Who the hell is this David guy in Italy? He stared at me and apologized asking for the last name. Perlmutt... That's when it clicked and he got excited about hearing the name of his old neighbors and jumped up to give me a big hug. Did he know my last name, or did he really remember me? I'd like to think it was the latter... but it's always my dad catching up with James, and me sitting next to them awing over their conversations. This time, I was without my dad, so after a short catching up and "How's the family doing, I was in Charlotte a couple weeks ago with Michelle Obama", Mary, Julia, and I took a picture and went on our way. I'm incredibly impressed that he was even awake at the end of the long line of faithful fans and long concert. He was even able to keep a conversation going (in italian) with many of the fans.

This lovely night was after a day of train rides through the countryside, a wonderful bike ride on Lucca's city walls, a walk back up to the walls for the sunset and quick dinner of homemade pasta with bread an wine.

 On the way back from the concert at Teatro di Giglio, we did as tourists do and got lost. Luckily, when Julia went into a pizza place for a bottle of water and then came out with a group of Lucca(-ians?). $ of them were nice enough to walk us back to the street our hostel was on. On the way, we got a few lessons in italian and they got a few lessons in english. One of the guys asked us about American football and he even knew about the Carolina Panthers and Cam "Newman". I told him I had gone to a game before; he told me he was jealous. I asked him if he had be to a futbol game before, he said yes; I told him that I was jealous. They were so incredibly friendly and funny describing their awful distant relatives from Kentucky and tried to distinguish the difference from escape and landscape. We were finally back to the hostel and talked to our new friends for a little while longer before they made one last joke and asked one last question about America. We said our goodbyes and "nice to meet you's" and that was the end of our wonderful day in Lucca. I will have to visit one more time before I head home, the town was too sweet for just one visit.

This week we have the dreadful midterms followed by (a MUCH needed) Spring Break. I just need to get past these couple of days and I will be Sardegna and Cinque Terre bound! Ah! Ciao for now...

Firenze di Notte

Today was quite a long day; in class we had a quiz (that fortunately I don't think I failed contrary to my opinions last night). And unlike UNC, when we finished our quiz, we did not hand it in and walk out of the doors kissing the sorry test goodbye... no. we still had three and a half hours of class left. To get me through the second half I decided to try my first "italian espresso" let's be real though, it was from a vending machine and had less flavor than Ferris Bueller's teacher. (You know you liked that comparison...) Anywho, Kaitlin and I had smiles on our faces when Irene, our favorite teacher, walked into the room and said we were learning about cinema today rather than passato prossimo. We began to was La Vita E' Bella (Life is Beautiful) when of course the sound stopped working. Much to our surprise Irene continued to play the movie--- with us reading the sottotitoli. We had the assistant teacher stopping and playing the movie so we had enough time to even read what was being said.

Finally class was over, and I rushed back home to cook lunch and skype with my dad and then mom. It had been a few days since I had talked to them, so it was really nice to catch up! Afterwards it had already gotten to 3:00 pm...where did this day go? I journaled some and tried to plan more of my Spring Break and other weekend excursions. Not the greatest at planning, I decided to leave the train and airline websites behind to go watch the sunset at Palazzo Michelangelo. I was happy to see Anna at the door, and to hear she wanted to come too. We packed up our cameras and headed out trying to beat the sun there. We made it just in time and the setting sun allowed some incredible photographs to be taken even by an amateur like me. We ended up staying outside for almost two hours and when I got home I found that I had taken over 200 pictures! But it was worth it for the few gems that I found. It was really nice getting outside and exploring a little because classes and cultural activities didn't leave me much time to do it this week. As we were walking up to the Palazzo, we realized how warm it had become as the clouds were departing from the sky and the birds were chirping. It felt and sounded like spring was on its way! (I guess it's still January though...) Either way it made for a perfect evening.


The night just got better when we all went to a Pizzeria near the Ponte Vecchio. I went on a limb and ordered the ravioli stuffed with pear and cheese. Creamy or cheesy sauces are usually not my pastas of choice but I had to try it because of the pear. It was delicious! (And incredibly filling) But overall I was happy with my choice. And the bread we had there was the best I had tasted so far since I have gotten here. It felt like pound cake it was so soft. Using what we learned from Marco earlier in the week, my side of the table went with a white wine--- because we all had light colored meals. Match the color of your wine to the color of your food. Thanks Marco! We ended the meal with lots of laughs, and a few snorts as well... It was a great night filled with good food, good company, and great views.

Tomorrow the apartment is off to Pisa (and hopefully Lucca!!) I'm excited to finally get out to the beautiful countryside of Italy and for a little change of scenery! Until tomorrow, goodnight i miei amici!