European Adventure 2013

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With six people in the house and a small fridge, regular shopping is essential, so Ced & I set off this morning during a break in the rain to go to the Esselunga supermarket outside the walls. It is bigger, cheaper & has a much better range of products than the one close to our apartment. Picked up a good range of stuff so that we could have a tasty dinner in tonight. We’ve had some excellent meals (and some not so great) while we’ve been here but there’s nothing like a home-cooked meal. Sometimes you get caught out though…we bought a packet of something that looked like a complete rice meal but which needed a number of extra ingredients added to actually make it a meal! Jon returned the rental car he's had for 4 days and Mon & the girls went shopping while we were at the supermarket.

Lucca is the birthplace of Giacomo Puccini, the famous composer. It has a permanent festival dedicated to him so EVERY night of the week all year in the beautiful old church of San Giovanni, they have a concert of operatic arias by Puccini, Mozart, Verdi & others. We all attended tonight to be entertained by a lovely soprano, a bass-baritone & a brilliant pianist with arias and overtures from La Boheme, Don Giovanni, Tosca, Marriage of Figaro, Edgar & Manon Lescaut. A damp Mon night, a good crowd, a lovely setting…we felt very lucky to be here!

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Photos

Lucca
Program for the Puccini Festival

Lucca
Church of San Giovanni where the Puccini Festival is held every night of the week all year!