Talk and Walk - First day of School

It is our third time studying with Lucca Italian School and this time we enrolled in a one week course called “Parla e Cammina”. Which means we take afternoon excursions with our environmental / language instructor, Susana after our morning classroom session. The days will be full and exhausting (mentally for sure), starting at 9 am and ending about 7 or 8 pm. Today we took the train to the Bufalina Reserve and walked several ecosystems from urban residential farmlets, through a forest of pine, oak, plane and poplar trees along a canal to the sea. The area was swampland until the Medici’s built canals to drain the area and planted trees to successfully rid the area of the Malaria borne mosquitoes. Before reaching the beach and the sea, we passed the sand dunes ecosystem - we stayed on path to not disturb the fragile roots of the dune vegetation. The nesting area for a sea bird (plover) area was blocked off to not disturb the eggs. Our class is small and we are all retirees and we all are speaking Italian at a similar level. This is great language practice!!