It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Apparently here in Italy (much like in the US) they don’t realize that you don’t start decorating for Christmas till the day after Thanksgiving (I wonder why). So for the past week or so, the town has been getting spruced up for the holidays. Lights and greenery are hanging over the streets and the shops have started putting up Christmas displays in their windows. The only thing missing has been the Christmas music (I have been humming It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas for a few days now), then yesterday as I was sitting outside my apartment at a patio table, someone somewhere started playing I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas on a sax. It was a fairly terrible rendition, but it made me sentimental all the same.

In some ways Lucca reminds me a lot of Prescott, which is probably part of the reason I feel so comfortable here. Most weekends there is some kind of festival or event taking place. To me they seem random when I come across them, however if I could read Italian I would probably notice them advertised all over town. This past weekend I went to the usual Saturday market, and then to a special holiday market that featured artisans displaying the foods and such typical of Lucca, which was quite interesting. I had no idea, but the best olive oil in the region comes from the province of Lucca (not this town necessarily but within the county).

Sunday as I was taking my typical walk around the city walls, I happened upon a bike race that was laid out over the green on the other side of the wall, as well as up and down the wall itself. It was pretty interesting to stop and watch for a while and I happened to have my camera with me, so I took some pictures as well. There were participants of all ages, teenagers to elderly, and the course looked fairly challenging, there were a few places where most participants got off their bikes to get through an obstacle.
All in all, for a quiet town fairly free of tourist attractions, there seems to be plenty to do around here.