Guinigi Tower- the Lucca landmark

The hostel where I stayed is to the right of the church in the back middle

I love Lucca

Tree on top of the tower

More pictures of Lucca

Hotel Universo- Where I worked in the Piazza Giglio

Sara, Patti and I- the great women I worked with :)

The Alimentari- best sandwich shop I have ever been to in my life

Laura and I- my friend from the Villa watching the Norah Jones concert

Group listening to the Elton John concert- before we got crazy and danced to Crocodile Rock

Goodbye Lucca

Today I say goodbye to Lucca, and that saddens me deeply. I have had a wonderful summer full of new experiences. I will never forget my time here and will miss the Lucchese people and culture so much. The opera was performed this week and it was absolutely beautiful, but it has been very sad to say goodbye to many people I have grown close with.

I am headed to Paris tomorrow morning to travel around with Sarah so that should be loads of fun. We are probably going to Brussels and Amsterdam later in the week, so I might try to do some alone traveling on Mon-Wednesday.

Hopefully I will be able to update some more photos from my travels. I will be back in the US on the 23rd and I look forward to seeing many of you. Thanks for reading my blog this summer.

Love, Kaye

Tuscan Villa

On Sunday the brass choir was invited to a Villa outside Lucca to perform. I was invited to travel with them and experience the Villa. This villa is owned by the sweetest family and they have dedicated their life to educating young people about the Mediterranean diet, so needless to say there was an amazing meal at the end of the concert. All the food was grown on the property as well.

Back side of the main house

So beautiful!

Patti and I inside the main house

Robin and I after dinner

Robin and Travis near the pool where we took a late night swim!

More pictures

Karl playing at Bar Astra

Marie joining in and sounding amazing

The Dome from the inside

Karl took a fun picture in the Piazza in front of San Croce

Statue in the Uffizi courtyard

Other pictures

Brian got his clothes after three weeks of waiting

Nathan and I coming back from the beach

Kathleen, Dan, Karl and I

Karl and I

The Brass Choir, post concert

Top of the Duomo

Friday I traveled with my friend Karl to the top of the duomo in Florence. It was an incredible view. Here are some of the pictures from the top.

Update

Well another week has flown by here in Lucca. I got pretty sick last week so I spent a great deal of the week napping and trying to feel better. However, I got antibiotics for 10 euro with no prescription from the Farmacia- who needs insurance right?
On Saturday Brian, Anthony, Nathan and I traveled to the nearby beach to soak up some sun and swim in the Mediterranean. The free beach is really crowded so we only stayed a few hours but it was nice to relax and swim a bit.
Sunday I spent the day recuperating and taking a nice long nap in the middle of the day. I am almost back to 100% now, so that makes me very happy.
Last Friday I did get the opportunity to have the best meal I have had this far on the trip. The two women I work with and some other faculty went to a seven course vegetarian meal at a wonderful restaurant. It started off with fried sage leaves, polenta with cheese, rissoto with gorgonzola, and fried eggplant...I cannot remember the rest, but every course was delicious! I really love Patti and Sara in the office, they are making this experience so nice and easy for me. I could not ask for better people to work with.
Overall I am learning a lot about scheduling and my Italian is getting a little better every day, although it is still pretty poor. I had a job interview last week with the Chicago Symphony on the phone, and I hopefully will have another interview lined up soon with Music of the Baroque. If anyone hears of good jobs in Chicago please pass the info my way.
Miss you all, Happy Birthday Dad, I love you :)

More pictures

Where the opera will be performed

Lucca at night

Duomo- Siena

Amazing street performers in Siena

Italian class

More Montepulciano

Vineyard

The Boys

Montepulciano, great view

Snuck down to the vineyard

Andrew and I enjoying dinner

Montepulciano

Tuscan Landscape

Andrew, Nathan, Michael, Anthony and I

Wine cellar

Lots of wine :)

Down in the depths, the whole gang

Wine country

This weekend was the best so far in Italy. I traveled with Anthony, Nathan, Andrew and Michael to the Chianti region of Italy. We rented a little Italian car and hopped on the road to a small town called Montepulciano. After about a little over an hour we arrived there and it was a very small town with lots of hills overlooking many many vineyards (around 65 within a few kilometers of the town).
We walked around and got a great lunch and fit in a little shopping before the tastings began. After lunch we visited about 5 or 6 shops that give free wine and cheese tastings, and it was unbelievable. Many of these shops had intricate wine cellars that we got to tour as well. We also learned a lot about the wine of this particular region.
After we had basically tasted at all the shops within the town we decided to venture out into the vineyards. We visited two different vineyards that were absolutely beautiful and tasted some more wine. Then we finished off our time in Montepulciano with a wonderful dinner overlooking the town and the beautiful Tuscan landscape. I could not have asked for a more perfect day.
After dinner we headed to the town of Siena (where I had been once before when I was younger). We checked into a nice hostel and then walked around the town a bit before we came back to the hostel to play spades until late in the evening.
The next morning we saw the Duomo and main piazza of Siena. We also went to Mass which was lovely, although the singing was pretty mediocre, just once I want to hear a great choir...
After Mass we stumbled upon two street musicians both playing the accordion. I believe that they were the best street performers I have ever heard. They were playing intricate classical music repertoire flawlessly.
After that we hopped back into the car and made our way back to Lucca. Overall it was a wonderful weekend. I am so glad that I have made such great friends with these brass boys. They are really nice guys, and I have had so much fun traveling around with them.
I will post pictures soon!
Miss you all, love Kaye

Pictures around Lucca

Cinque terra

This weekend was incredible. Saturday morning Anthony, Michael and I headed on a trip to Cinque terra, Rick Steve's fav destination in Italia.

Cinque terra is a group of five coastal cities that you can hike through and the three of us decided to hike them all, a total of 9 km. While 9km is not much of a hike, the uphill and downhill trek was much more difficult than we had anticipated, but still so much fun.

Vernazza was my favorite town on the left.




I wish we had time to swim, but unfortunately only my feet got a taste of the Mediterranean. After a long day of hiking we hopped back on the train home.

Anthony and Michael with their beers on the train :)