Anyway, let’s go backwards: we came back yesterday in the evening, straigth from Florence. It’s always a wonderful city, majestic, wherever you look you find something to gaze upon in awe. It’s a little bit pricy, an chaotic, even if finally the center is forbidden to cars. But after all, it’s Florence.
Saturday we went to Lucca, we fell in love with this town: it’s still surrounded by walls, and you can have a walk on those walls! Again a town filled with squares, churches, and monumental buildings to be left breathless, moreover it’s clean, quiet… saturday there was a vintage market, all around town, so many wonderful things! And most of all we’ve already decided that we are going to go back for Lucca Comics and Games!
Friday it was Prato and Pistoia, I’m sorry for any Prato lovers, but to me that’s a city to forget, ok, we’ve met John Malkovich (he had a show in Prato that night), but there is nothing I found remarkable about that town. On the other hand Pistoia is little, cute, there was a fair that night, so it was quite pleasant to walk around! Sadly Piazza del Duomo was inaccessible due to the concert…

But hey! The concert! Thursday night, after Faun picked me up in Parma, we went to the Pistoia Blues Festival, so we could see Piazza del Duomo and also we’ve attended a wonderful show.
I knew two bands out of four, but they’ve all been great, the sounds were almost always perfect, a screaming and enthusiast crowd (a collaborative one too: two giants in front of me, who kept moving just when I was about to snap a picture, kindly stopped and apologized after I shouted “holy s**t!”), unbelievable heat at the beginning, but luckily we had a little wind, after… and gallons of water drank non-stop. And I accidentally poked Fabio Lione with my elbow, but he was walking through the crowd, it happens!
I have to say that Labyrinth isn’t my favourite kind of music, but I can assume that any fan had a realy great time. Didn’t know Hammerfall either, but I’m definately checking out some albums when I can!
Then it was Gamma Ray time, wonderful lights (that let me take some good pictures, if I may say so myself!) and songs sung along with everybody out loud, to finish with Queensryche, who stayed onstage for an hour and a half… what can I say… I closed my eyes and felt like I was listening to a record, then I opened my eyes and they where some length in front of me.
Plus mr Tate has such a nice voice to listen to, whether he’s singing or speaking, he should narrate some dramatic fantasy movie!

Honourary mention goes to our B&B, Ruri Est, they opened circa three years ago, in a home they clearly restored to new life, in a small village very near to anything we wanted to see (15 minutes to Pistoia and Prato, 20 to Lucca, and a bit more than half an hour to Florence… perfect!), it was surrounded by a nice planted garden, we had breakfast in the patio, filled with vintage photos, looking at that garden (oh, and the breakfast, was a sweet galore: cakes, cookies, croissants, jam, fruit juice, fresh fruit, you name it, you have it!), everything was clean, fresh, the rooms where comfortables and with modern furniture, they had a free wifi connection (but we didn’t use it, we were on vacation!) and a bookshelf filled with maps, plans, guides and books on the surroundings, if you wanted to plot some visits.
In the end they gave me and handmade bath-rubbing-glove-thingy, how thoughtful!
Of course, in October, we will go back there for Lucca Comics and Games!

Ok, here are some pictures of the concerts, a small selection of the best ones!
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