The Fortune of Slinging Outrageous Arrows

It's been a momentous fortnight here. We crossed another important threshold in the residence permit process and we successfully tracked down a few events held around town. And I feel like an inevitable cliché in typing this on our travel journal site, but I also just (self)published another illustrated book!

Catching Crossbows

A month or two ago, we heard about a crossbow competition somewhere along the Lucchese walls but we couldn't find it. We recently read that there would be a different crossbow competition (why so many crossbow events?) this past weekend and so we pressed our luck again. In the morning, we arrived at the indicated time at the supposed competition site and saw... an empty field. I giggled and Sam groaned "how could this happen again?" We decided to go for a walk since the weather was nice for a change. After a while, we looped back and we noticed a handful of costumed people setting up. They were doing this much later than the schedule indicated, but they were clothed like they just might know how to use renaissance era crossbows. We meandered over there and the two of us comprised the majority of the crowd for a good while. A couple of the participants came over and chatted with us (NOT a normal happenstance). I got to pick up one of the crossbows. Jeez it was heavy! And a nice young woman told us that their costumes were designed to replicate the second half of 14th century. This cleared up confusion because Sam noted sewing details more typical of the first half of the 14th century. I joke. We remain tickled and touched at how seriously the locals take these subtleties.

I returned in the afternoon to watch the finals. When I arrived, drummers and a guy playing a bagpipe-like instrument marched in the green-space between the crossbows and the teensy target so far away. After the musicians finished their percussive show, the crossbow competition began. I think about half of the competitors were women, which is probably not 14th century accurate but I was pleased to see this. Dueling competitors sat side by side while two more people held shields above the crossbows to block the sun from their eyes as they lined up their shots. Then they each shot their crossbows whenever they felt confident in their accuracy, which often required a leisurely amount of time--like enough for an Italian to order and drink an espresso at the bar. When all pairs finished shooting, they brought out an electric drill(!) and aluminum ladder to take down the target, which looked the size of a small bongo. They carried it around to show all of the spectators. All but a few of the arrows were embedded in this small target! More drumming took place while they determined who had struck closest to the bullseye. Then drums began again, awards and the winners got their medals. I've never been to a Renaissance Fair but on the walk home, I realized that, in a way, we're living in a Renaissance Fair.

Residence Permit Progress

In early February, we submitted our residence permit paperwork at the local post office, as one does. At the end of the process at the Post Office, we received automatically scheduled, mandatory appointments for the next step. Usually this appointment occurs between one and two months after the Post Office visit but the Italian government is backlogged with applications and our appointments were set for the end of May. Today was the eventful day! We arrived at the local police station for our appointments and had flashbacks to our chaotic experience doing this same step in Greece just last year. Just like at the Greek government office, we were part of a melting pot of world cultures, all waiting to take a significant step in altering our lives. We've heard horror stories about the scrum here, but the crowd was much smaller than the crowd in big city Thessaloniki. And the local police office has made a few pandemic era changes to be more orderly. Not long after my scheduled appointment time, a young guy in jeans and a jeans jacket opened the building door and called out my name.

We went inside together, and although we knew a few of the details, we didn't know exactly what would happen...nor did we know if we'd regret taking this on by ourselves, instead of hiring somebody to translate if needed. Despite my nervously misunderstanding the simple instructions, the first part went smoothly. The worker guy told me to wait outside the building and then he processed Sam's materials. She came out and we waited for an hour--wondering if we misunderstood something like whether we needed to stick around--before an immaculately stylish woman poked out from another door and called out our names. We followed her to the forensic science (yes, we could translate the label on the door!) part of the police station, where she measured our height and took our fingerprints. And with this done, she politely escorted us out. We should be able to pick up our plastic permits in about a month.

Bashful About Books

When we were in Rockland, Maine hiding out from the nasty virus, we both focused intensely on our hobbies. Sam designed and sewed an entire travel wardrobe and I drew and drew and drew. I ended up creating an illustrated travel book about Greece, as a way to imagine being there when we couldn't travel. I enjoyed the book creation process and we were still stuck in Maine, so I wrote and illustrated another book about not being able to travel. I self-published both of these on Amazon. I just finished a third book and just posted it on Amazon, too. My new book is also set in Greece, but combines my love of film noir and Greek island cats. I think of it as being a soft-boiled rather than a hard-boiled detective story. Other than sharing these books with very few friends and family, I haven't told people about this until now. I'm not intending to make fame or fortune with this. I can't figure out how to share them as attachments through this travel journal otherwise I'd just do that. If you want to see the new one (or the others) feel free to email me and I'll send you a PDF version. The books brought me joy in making them and maybe they'll bring you some cheer, too.

Summery Days

Sam's Italian class is wrapping up in the coming days, which are finally starting to feel like summer. She took a written test last week and has an oral test next week. She and an Albanian classmate have struck up a friendship during the class. They've enjoyed a coffee or two after class, even though the only shared language between them is rudimentary Italian. The other day, Sam came home from school with a gift from her new friend. She and her family have olive trees back home in Albania; they bring a carload of liter bottles back to Italy each year, and they gifted one of these to Sam. What's a more symbolic gift than that? We're in a new country that the history-loving locals share with us and other new emigres. Gifts abound.