We heard about it on the news on Thursday. I turned to Stefano, who still loves playing video-games whenever he has time, and said: “Would you like to go?”

12 hours later, I really regretted asking him that question.

This, by the way, is a three-day weekend in Italy. November 1 is All Saints’ Day (Ognissanti, in Italian), and today, November 2, is All Souls’ Day, or Tutti i Morti (literal translation: All the Dead). It’s a big Catholic weekend, with people going to the cemetery to “visit” their dead family members and so on…

For Stefano and yours truly, though, this three-day holiday means that we get to sleep more for three mornings in a row (if the cats don’t get too antsy, that is!), and spend an extra, fun-filled day together, which is grrrrreat… 

And so yesterday morning we set off for the small city of Lucca, about a 1.5 hour drive from our house. What we didn’t realize at the time was that we were NOT alone. Nope, another (at least!) 5 billion trillion gazillion nerds/families/people were also heading for Lucca…filling up all the parking lots with their cars…and filling up the small streets and squares of this lovely little city, too.

We ended up parking our car quite far from the city center, a good 20-minute walk (each way). But the worst were the immense crowds (see the photo, below, which I took from the city walls of the late afternoon crowd waiting to get in…You can click on some of the photos to make ’em bigger, btw) inside this huge, city-wide exhibit/fair. I’ve never seen so many people, not even at the supermarket the day before Xmas… 

Until we paid for our tickets and got “inside,” we hadn’t realized that the entire city center was devoted to Lucca Comics and Games 2013 (http://goo.gl/s5XPBO). No kidding. This meant that you couldn’t get inside the city walls if you didn’t have a Comics and Games ticket. So yes, this event was HUGE! 

Part of it was a lot of fun, I admit, because almost half the people there were all dressed up in costume, from fancy expensive costumes to clearly homemade and creative ones. People of all ages, not just children. Too bad my photos didn’t turn out too well…I guess I was too busy trying not to get pushed (!), especially down the narrow streets, where we were packed like sardines…not fun at all, that part! 

Another “not fun” part. Later that evening, after we’d finally gotten home, totally exhausted, Stefano discovered that Simon, of my favorite Simon’s Cat, is going to be in Lucca today and tomorrow. Noooooo! If we’d known, we would have gone there today!!! I’m so upset! (Oh well…) Click here for the article, which includes Simon Cat’s new video, “Scary Legs”: http://goo.gl/nwzN0H

By the way, you may have noticed that my blog looks a bit different. Well, it IS different. It has magically turned into a pumpk…I mean, into a proper WEBSITE! 🙂 Oh okay, I confess, no magic was involved. This website (and the blog that preceded it) was created by my friend and tech wiz administrator, Beth. What it means to have, er, “graduated” from a blog to a website, exactly, is still beyond my comprehension, since I can’t even figure out how to change the header photo (it’s a photo I took of a whale whacking its tail on the surface of the sea, near Provincetown, MA, this past summer). And the smiley face option doesn’t work, which is good news for those who hate them er, smilies! (= I’d have put a smiley face right here, but I can’t! Hehe.)

But eventually I’ll figure out what to do with this website…

(Maybe…!)

Update, Nov 4 2013: with the help of my wonderful tech wiz friend, I was able to figure out the smiley issue, so that’s fine now. As for the header photo, well, as you can see, I did manage to change it, so the whale’s tail turned into my Prezzemolo (a funny blog reader pointed that out to me, hehe). I will change the header photo from time to time…