The
streak has officially ended—at one.
While it fell just short of matching Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting
streak (which ironically ended on this date 73 years ago), we watched it with
interest and anticipation night after night.
The
streak involved Shelley’s attempt to pay for dinner each night using our Discover
credit card. Discover has been the card
of choice because, unlike other credit cards, there isn’t a surcharge for using
it, whereas VISA charges 3% each time. So every night after dinner Shelley
pulls out the Discover, and with the exception of a couple of times right after
we arrived, the response every night after the server runs it through the
machine is that the restaurant doesn’t take Discover. When Shelley called
customer service after it was denied the first time, the service rep made it
sound like there must be something wrong with the restaurant, but subsequent
calls turned up the truth-- Discover is trying to break into the market in
Italy (or maybe Europe). Anyway, the
other night we were pleased that Discover went through no questions asked at
the restaurant where we were dining, but the streak has ended.
We
leave Lucca in less than a week, which is hard to believe, and have company
coming later today for the weekend, so I’m using the cheap trick journalists
use when they have nothing to write about.
I’m using this post to empty my notebook with some random things I’ve
noticed on the streets of Lucca.
--Among the stores on Via Fillungo
are a couple that might be found in any suburban American mall, FootLocker and
GameStop.
--Another store on the same street
pays homage to American culture. It is
the Generale Lee, named for the car from The Dukes of Hazzard. Bo, Luke, Cousin Daisy, and Boss Hogg were apparently
mainstays of Italian television at one point, because I’ve also seen a Dukes of
Hazzard t-shirt in a souvenir store.
It’s good to know that much of the world gets its information about what
America is really like through our cultural exports.
--The most famous shop on Via
Fillungo appears to be closed. Di Café Simo was the long-time hangout for
Lucca’s intellectual and artistic elite, and the place where Puccini went for
his daily coffee.
--The most interesting place on Via
Fillungo is right around the corner from our apartment, and is not a
store. It’s the Museo della Tortura, the Museum of Torture. I thought about going in so I could write a
blog post about it, but we’ve walked past it numerous times, seen only a couple
of people go in—and no one coming out.
I’ll put it on the to-do list for our next trip.
--When we were in Rome I wrote about
the street musicians. In Lucca there was
a street musician the other day playing cello.
--The other evening, we passed the
Lucca centurion who poses for pictures with tourists (the one painted in white,
not the one in Rome talking on his cell phone).
He was engaged in conversation with a guy who looked like he might be
homeless, but was taking off his helmet and apparently calling it a day without
regard for the fact that he was standing in the middle of Piazza San Michele,
at the busiest intersection in town.
--The same evening we saw a new
twist on bicycling in the streets of Lucca, a new variation on the tandem
bike. Twice we saw someone riding one
bike and steering another bike at the same time. I'm hoping they were returning two bikes
to a bike rental place.
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