Buongiorno,

Il Cielo è blu e fa bel tempo.  (The sky is blue and it is good weather.)  Abbiamo camminato le mura. (We walked the wall.) Stiamo molto contenti. (We are very happy).

Abbiamo mangiato il pranzo al Osteria VispaTeresa. (We ate lunch at Osteria VispaTeresa.) Dow had tripe and pasta and I had spaghetti. La pasta è stata semplice ma saporita. (The pasta was simple but tasty.) The second course Dow had steak tartare and I had meatloaf. I just had to try it out of curiosity. It had different wonderful flavors and no sauce. Steak tartare had 4 wonderful sauces with it. Even though the waitress could speak English she spoke Italian, as she knew we wanted to speak the language. I even had a chance to complement the chef, who only knew Italian. He was happy that we liked the meal.

Did some walking in the afternoon.  At night we met a family we have been visiting when we are in Lucca for the past 6 years. Katia Salvadori was a student in Boston of a fellow teacher/friend of ours (Bonnie Seaburn).  Katia was born in Boston when her Italian parents moved there for work. Later they moved back to Lucca. Katia is married to Andrea and they have two great children, Letizia and Niccolò.  Due to family schedules we couldn't find a date to have dinner at their home so we met at a restaurant. Letizia goes to University of Bologna and is in her second year studying languages (English, Arabic, & German) and Niccolò will be going to Pisa to study engineering. Their English is very good. (Katia and her German partner own a translation business.)  Andrea has been traveling back and forth to Germany on business. Great family and we have enjoyed watching the kids grow up. Katia, Letizia and Niccolò have dual citizenship so they voted in the U.S. elections.

La famiglia è forte. (The family is strong.)

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September 21