I said on my Facebook page that I would post today. However, it has been another busy, busy, busy day and I am just too tired to say much. Nonetheless, here is a start at the highlights of our trip here and our first few days.
Our trip from Whidbey Island was uneventful. There were multiple opportunities for things to go wrong but we were lucky. We started off taking the shuttle from Greenbank to SeaTac Airport where we caught the first of our three flights. From Seattle we went to Chicago and from there to London Heathrow. Because we opted for "cheap" over "easy" we had to go through immigration/customs, pick up our luggage and recheck it for our flight from Heathrow to Nice. We had three hours and it went so smoothly we had about an hour and a half to wait. The flight to Nice actually left almost an hour late but Dom and I just slept while waiting for take-off and then slept most of the two hour flight.
When we arrived in Nice we picked up our Renault lease car and drove to Diano Marina in Italy, about and hour and half away. At least it should have taken that long. Because Wednesday was a holiday in Italy and large trucks are not allowed on the roads on holidays, the big rigs were parked along the side of the Autoroute in France approaching the border which cause quite a long backup. It took us about an hour to get through the traffic jam. Because of the flight delay and the traffic, instead of arriving at our hotel about 7 pm we ended up arriving about 8:30 pm.
After finding our hotel we just dropped our bags in our room and then went to find something to eat. We had a nice dinner and some gelato and then went back to the hotel. Upon arriving there, I discovered I had left my purse in the restaurant. I was borderline panic stricken because in my purse were my wallet, both our passports, the lease papers for the car, and both my US and Italian cell phones. It was about 10:30 by this time and all I could think to do was ask the man at the hotel front desk to call the restaurant and see if anyone was still there. Luckily, someone was so we hopped in our car and dashed back there. The woman in the restaurant was so nice. She said she had tried to run after us but we had already disappeared. Thankfully, nothing in the purse had been touched so no harm, no foul.
Our hotel, Arc en Ciel, turned out to be just lovely. Our room faced the sea and we were up early enough to appreciate the gorgeous sunrise. Breakfast began at 7:30 and we were down there not long after that. The restaurant/breakfast room is situated almost on the rocky shore so we enjoyed more of the sea view with a delicious meal of jam-filled croissants, a little meat and cheese, some juice and coffee for Dom and tea for me. Afterwards we walked the seaside promenade for about forty-five minutes and then returned to the hotel and continued on our way.
The weather was partly sunny in Diano Marina but it got better and better as we drove south. By the time we got to Lucca it was just perfect--sunny and 70! We arrived in Capannori about 12:45 and made our way up to the door of our apartment. Lo and behold, we could not get the key we had with us to work. It was a copy we had made before we left the last time and, although I had carefully checked to be sure it worked, on Thursday we could not get it to open the door.
Our neighbor across the hall, Signora Daniela, arrived just then and was really helpful. First, she let me borrow her cell phone because mine needed to be "topped up" before it would work for outgoing calls. I called our friend Anna in Partigliano who I knew had a key that worked. She was just going home for lunch so we dashed up there to pick up her keys. Meanwhile, our neighbor let us leave our bags in her apartment while we retrieved the key. Much, much easier than hauling them back to the car and then hauling them back up again when we returned.
By 2:30 or so we were back in Capannori with Anna's key and in the apartment. Because we were both starving we went downstairs to the bar on the ground floor and had lunch. After that we began the task of unpacking, making beds, rearranging and taking inventory of what needed to be done in the apartment.
Well, jet lag is setting in and I am going to have to stop here. More tomorrow including pictures.
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