Lucca, Italy is one of those towns in the Tuscan region that you probably never heard of, and no words can adequately describe. This is an extremely old city built behind 20′ (or so) walls that make a lovely walking tour or morning bicycle ride. The top of the wall hosts trees to provide ample shade on the hottest of days, a foot path, sidewalks, stairs down into the city (or out of) and benches along the way if you get tired.

How we ended up there was nothing short of a blessing! We really had no idea what we were in for when we booked the cheapest room in the cheapest hostel there.

Remember now, that we are two females – a mother and daughter – on our own in a country whose language neither one of us have heard before…

And yet as we stayed there, as we walked around the city streets at night, as we slept in our room in the big, nearly empty school dorm, we did not once worry about our safety. And trust me, I was cautious and ready for trouble, having come from years of life in Toronto where anything can happen to unsuspecting females.

We fell in love with Lucca. So much so, in fact, that we often talk today about returning for a month. So much so, that Veronica dreams of moving there one day. So much so, that even though we were less than an hour’s travel away from such tourist traps as the leaning tower of Pisa, etc. – we didn’t want to leave the magic we found in little Lucca.

Even when it was time to return to Rome to catch our flight home, we dragged our feet and changed our train travel to the very last moment…

Our ship was scheduled to port in Casablanca and I have to say I was more than a little excited to be visiting this culture-rich city. I had told Veronica all about it before we left for our trip and even considered renting the old Bogart movie.

A week before we were scheduled to arrive political bombers had attacked the Embassy region of Casablanca so our cruise line decided it was in everyone’s best interest to cancel the port destination. You’d think that since this was just an attack on the Embassies that the tourist areas we were headed to would be safe, but it was the one year anniversary of another bombing attack that took place in Casablanca in 2006 – so Celebrity Cruises thought it was in everyone’s best interest to cancel.

Since we were on such a wild and wonderful adventure I didn’t get upset. I heard many other people on the ship bitching though.

Casablanca is a strange and wonderful place that I hope to introduce my daughter to at a later date.

The markets (souks) are rich with culture and gorgeous fabrics and the buskers (sellers, performers) are diverse. Be careful however with your digital camera – if they catch you taking a photograph of them they’ll work hard to get your money for the priviledge!

Let’s try this again…

I had originally set up this website in February 2007, but due to many other website projects, it hasn’t been updated since June. Then, the host I originally set this up on, somehow magically lost/erased/deleted my MySQL database that held my text and links to my photos.

For the record, let me state that if you have a website idea and you need to get a good host, at a great price, there is no better than my favorite found over from clicking on InstantInstaller – best website host recommendation.

Over the next few months I’ll be re-instating my content, and including the original photos I had at www.laurajchilds.com so stay tuned!