Exciting excursions, mishaps and arrivals in this past week:

Shot lots of touristy videos in some of the most amazing locations I've ever been to for the Pucciniana project.
So Giacomo Puccini is not exactly a billionaire rock star / hearthrob actor, but damn he picked the most beautiful spots in NWestern Tuscany for his countryside retreats.

Sat 22/6
- The day started off badly with Claudio driving off to the East to Florence, instead of our intended destination of lakeside Torre del Lago in the West.

- Torre del Lago: lovely small village next to the Lago di Massaciuccoli. Lots of sun + palm trees. Went on a boat tour of the lake. It reminded me of Mai Po before Shenzhen became a haphazard blotch of skyscrapers and malls filled with counterfeit handbags. The lazy morning sun & the breeze made me feel right at home. Just like the boat rides my family did on Sundays, only on a lake instead of on the sea. The lake was bound by small hillside Tuscan towns, like little pieces of coral or amber embedded on hills behind overgrown rushweeds.

- Viarregio Beach: We played hookey and went to the beach before shooting another Puccini house. Strangely organised with rows of rainbow-hued sunbeds and beach brollies, where you have to pay to use. Beach OK. Huge waves. Got yelled at by Mr. Old Lifeguard who thinks I'm a subaverage-Asian-weakling who might drown if I swam 20 yards offshore. Got sunburnt too...am Miss Kogepan, yet again.
- Viarregio: Apparently a v. popular Tuscan seaside resort. A strange melange of Brighton + Miami (ie. looong seaside strip of palm trees, Beaux Art bldgs, Art Deco fonts, lots of overpriced Victorian hotels)
Puccini has a lovely Frank-Lloyd-Wrighty brick house bound by lush trees. I picked up a pinecone the size of my hand, and smelt amber for the first time. It was full of pinenuts! Had no idea pinenuts have shells too.

- Pineta: we drove off to the pine woods next by the beach to get a shot... supposedly Puccini's house was in the middle of pine woods but now it's swallowed up by urban Viarregio. The sun was setting and the woods looked golden, lush and glorious.
- Claudio unintentionally took the scenic route on the way back. The drive from Pisa to Lucca was simply the most memorable car journey in my short but wonderlust-y life. We went through poplar-shaded, winding small country roads. The drive up the Lucchese mountains made me speechless: the whole Pisan plain was bathed in the golden light from the sunset. Campo di Miracle stuck out in the orangey roofed town, amidst a lovely crisscross patchwork of hay and emerald fields.

I can't say enough how happy or grateful that I'm here. I do feel like the luckiest girl alive.