Our love story: Part 15

I woke up Wednesday morning excited; we were going to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa! But first, I had to figure out why my left eye felt so weird. I could barely open it.

I got out of bed and made my way to our restroom. I looked in the tiny mirror and the female version of Quasimodo looked back. The top of my left eyelid was so swollen, that eye could barely open. What had happened?!

At first I thought I was dying. But then I realized my only symptom was a swollen eyelid. Maybe I was allergic to something? Gosh, I hoped the swelling wouldn't continue. I was going out in public, after all, with boys.

Oh gosh. The boys. Marco and Toby were going to see my it-looks-like-someone-punched-me face.

Liz heard my groans and came over to the bathroom.

"What the heck? What happened to you?" she asked.

"I have no idea. I just woke up like this."

Liz is very even-tempered and a great person to have during an emergency. And man, I was freaking out kind of a lot. She looked at it more closely and prodded my eyelid a bit. "Does it hurt?"

"Well, it kind of hurts when I try to open my eye because it's so swollen. But that's it," I said.

Then we heard it. A buzzing from the other side of the room. We both saw it at the same time. A mosquito had survived last night's insect carnage.

"Well that's what happened. A mosquito must have bit you last night!" Liz started laughing now that she knew I wasn't seriously injured. "Man, are you allergic to mosquitoes or something? I've never seen a bite swell up so large before!"

I started dousing my face with cold water and then, when I realized it wasn't helping, I gave up and took a shower. How long would the swelling last? How could I do my makeup? I had to try. After all, if the swelling went down while we were out touristing around, I'd want to look normal. And having eye makeup on one eye and not the other wasn't normal.

While Liz took her turn in the shower I tried to do my makeup. It was hard. And yeah, 1st world problems, I know.

By the time we met the boys for our hotel-provided breakfast, my eyelid hadn't decreased in size at all. It still looked like I was trying to hide a walnut above my left eye.

Marco and Toby weren't diplomatic about my appearance at all. So much for traveling with mature returned missionaries.

"Is that really Liz?" "What happened to you?" "I guess that'll teach you to leave your shutters open." Toby especially kept cracking up every time he looked at me.

Looking around was painful. My right eye tried to make up for the left and the left eye kept trying to open. Vertigo was setting in and it wasn't fun. I tried not to look at Marco. Dang, just when I was starting to have hope that the guy liked me, I had to look as unattractive as possible. I was pretty sure my chances with him had just decreased. A lot.

I decided to focus on the travels of the day. Our first stop was Lucca.

We boarded a train and took the hour ride to Lucca. And gosh, that ride was gorgeous. I couldn't get enough of looking out the windows and gazing at all the Italian towns we passed. But I also couldn't get over the fact that I was riding on a train; an actual train. As in, all the trains in Italy were just like the ones I saw in the 1930s and 1940s movies (I know I've expressed my excitement over this fact before. But I got excited about that every single time I boarded a train. So there ya go). And filled with authentic Italians! Okay, so I couldn't understand a word anyone was saying, but I loved hearing them say it. I know some people prefer the sound of French, but I love hearing Italian.

I was still put out that we were going to Lucca first. But I decided to withhold my feelings from the group. After all, I would eventually get to see Pisa and, after probing my still swollen eyelid, I really didn't want to bring Marco's attention to myself anymore than I had to.

Liz, Marco, and me under one of Lucca's archways

When we arrived at Lucca, Marco and Toby pointed out the wall; the huge gigantic wall. Wow, now I was impressed. One of the amazing things about Lucca is its ancient city wall is intact. And that wall is tall and thick. As in, thick enough for a two-lane road to be built on top of it. We went through the massive archways into the city. Marco and Toby kept exclaiming over the cannon holes in the walls (I'm pretty sure there's a better name for the cannon holes in ancient fortresses, but I have no idea what it is. Sorry) but I wanted to get inside.

Finally we did. After a few minutes of walking around and taking in the sites, I fell in love. With the city of Lucca. I'm sure most of my www friends have seen those calendars/pins on pinterest of doors. You know the doors I'm talking about. The cute doors with flower pots or old bicycles next to them. Well I think it must be some kind of city ordinance or something for every door, every single door, in Lucca to be calendar-worthy.

See what I mean? Isn't Lucca adorable? These two photos are actually from our family trip to Italy last year. I actually thought about posting all my Lucca photos but I would probably break google if I tried to.

Walking around, I could hardly believe people lived in such a cute city. Every corner we turned made me want to see more.

Pretty soon, I kept hearing stuff like this, "Liz, come on already. We only have half a day here. Don't you want to get to the tower? At this rate it'll take us all day to get to the end of the block."

No thanks. I just wanted to live and die in Lucca.

Then Liz, Marco, or Toby would come back, take my arm, and pull me along to catch up.

Finally, we made it to the city tower. Marco told us we were going up to the top. That didn't seem to hard. The bell tower hadn't looked that tall from the ground.

We started up the stairs. The first four or five flights were actually fun and it didn't seem like we were in a narrow building at all. Each landing was painted with scenes from medieval times and it felt like we were walking up stairs in a regular building.

Then I started paying attention to the people coming down the stairs. They were covered in sweat and breathing hard. Many of them took breaks.

Gosh, those sea-level people were pansies.

We left the gorgeous stairs and entered a room that was different from the others. I saw a short flight of narrow stairs. Those must be the steps leading to the top of the tower.

Hahahahaha. Not at all.

After those steps, we entered a totally different room. We were in a narrow room with walls several stories tall. The walls of the room were covered in stairs, hundreds of iron railing steep stairs. I could see a square exit at the true top of the tower. Oh boy.

We started climbing. Now we took breaks. Everything was so narrow. We often had to stand to the side, our backs pressing up against the ancient brick wall behind us, so people could pass us on their way down.

Liz, me, and Toby on top of Lucca's tower

Finally we made it to the top and all my inner-complaints were over. The view was breathtaking. I had a 360 degree view of Lucca, one of the most beautiful Italian towns ever, with its tiled roofs and cobblestone streets. Then I noticed what was on the tower with us. Trees. Yeah, trees grown on the tops of Lucca's bell tower.

Finally it was time to leave. We climbed back down all the flights of stairs and made our way to the train station. We had a train to catch. We were on our way to Pisa.

In the train bathroom I took a look at my face. The swelling had gone down and was almost unnoticeable. Phew.

Part 16