LUCCA AND THE MOTHER OF ALL FLEA MARKETS

We've been in Lucca, Italy for a few days now.  When we learned that our cruise ended during Holy Week we changed our earlier plans to go to Rome and headed north to Tuscany.  We have never been to Lucca, so why not?  It is situated between Pisa and Florence and still has the old walled city with small winding streets.

There are tons of tourists here but they are mostly Italians.  I have been asked twice, in Italian, for directions, which makes me feel great that I don't stand out as a foreigner.

Today we woke up to light rain and as we were wandering back from breakfast we noticed a market set up in the piazza ahead of us.  It's Saturday so this seemed normal.  As we got closer I said, "uh oh," to Jim, as it was obviously a Flea Market.

What we didn't know for quite awhile was that it was a REALLY BIG flea market.  We would finish one piazza and see a tantilizing stall set up in an alley on the way to the next piazza.

There was EVERYTHING at this flea market.  Bronze statues

Other great figures

Paintings

Vases

Coffee pots and grinders

Furniture

Odd things

And beautiful things.

Great people watching

And poodle watching

After 4+ hours even we had to give up.  We understand this amazing event of over 230 vendors is once a month on the "3rd Sunday and the Saturday before."  I wonder if this includes Easter Sunday?  We'll see.

Did we buy anything?  Yes we did.

Audrey

CARTAGENA, ROMAN RUINS AND CATS

Jim and I were fortunate to get to spend a little time in the wonderful southern Spain city of Cartagena during our transatlantic cruise.  Prior to this I knew next to nothing about this ancient city with Roman and Punic ruins which was called New Carthage around 100 BCE.  I also didn't know that Hannibal, of elephant and Alp fame left for his historic invasion of Italy from here.  In any case, it is today a lovely walkable city with very friendly people and lots to see.

Our ship docked right in town in front of a large marina with sail boats from all over.

Shortly we came to the main walking street which was guarded by this reminder of the Spanish Civil War.

It was early and the street was just waking up at 9 am which didn't matter to us because every few feet there was something interesting to see, whether it was architecture,

Light fixtures,

Or cats and Roman ruins.

These ruins were of a Roman house called Casa de la Fortuna, and Roman baths, with a side temple to the Goddess Isis.  I thought those early Romans chose an ideal spot to settle.

Later I went in the ruins of the Roman amphitheater, which are invisible from the street but accessed through this non-Roman looking museum.

I was not prepared for being totally blown away by these ruins which to me were more impressive than the Colosseum in Rome, mainly because you can't see them until you go through this hallway

And come out to this

 

These ruins were forgotten over the ages and not discovered until 1988 when a local bank wanted to expand.  I love that modern day folks can look over their apartment balcony into the ancient amphitheater.

We were sorry to have so little time in Cartagena but I know we'll be back.

Audrey

WINTER TIME IN SABINO CANYON

One of the things I love about living in Tucson is that people like to come visit us here and enjoy the desert with us.  Recently we were lucky to have a visit from brother Larry and sister-in-law Carolyn.  They were escaping a cold snap in the Pacific Northwest - the lake they live on had frozen over for the first time in 17 years.  Tucson was also having a cold snap and lots of rain.  We had a day between rain storms and decided to go to Sabino Canyon which is a lovely riparian area in the northeastern part of Tucson, worlds away from city life.  Sabino Canyon is located in the Santa Catalina Mountains in the Coronado National Forest. Once in the park you can hike up the canyon on one of numerous trails, or you can take the tram.  We chose the tram because the driver narrates all the way up the canyon telling everything from historical tidbits to biological facts. 

Any visitor to the Tucson area expects to see Saguaro Cactus, and they are not disappointed at Sabino Canyon.

However, deciduous trees are scarce in Tucson but plentiful in the Canyon.

Our area had so much rain that nearly every bridge the tram crossed had water coursing over it.  This made our trip fairly exciting.

I was fascinated by all the textures in the rushing water.

Here you can see that it was a typically sunny (but cool) Sonoran Desert day. 

I never get tired of the Saguaro Cactus.  They don't get "arms" until they are 50-100 years old!

It sounds funny to most people, but it is exciting to see a river with water in it.  We have several rivers in Tucson which only have water in the monsoon.  Sabino Creek has water year round.

Once you reach the top of the canyon, you can ride the tram back down, or get off and walk at different stops.  Since there was water over most of the bridges, we chose to walk between the only two stops where the bridges were dry.  Here is our group - my brother-in-law Frank Odgen, sister Carol Ogden, brother Larry Watson and sister-in-law Carolyn Watson. 

Note how copper-colored the creek is.  This is from tannins leeched from fallen leaves.

A lovely winter day.  In a few more months I'd like to go back to see the wildflowers bloom.

Fall colors, even though it is January.

A "head" stone.

One last look at the rushing waters of the creek. 



Our guide said that the week before they had seen big horn sheep near this part of the canyon but we were not so lucky.  Still, it was an exciting day with the swollen creek and a lovely winter outing.

Audrey