It's a pitiful rain falling this afternoon, but I love being here at the laundromat. It's a relaxing thing, washing clothes. Especially when you don't have to rush off. Not to mention, it's my second time here in 6 days so it's the closest thing I have to routine.

My body is slowly adjusting to the permanently icy extremities feeling so much that I don't outwardly swear upon sprinting out of bed over to the window, where my three piles of clothing are stacked. (I normally am not that kind of girl - shrieking obscenitites - but you'd be surprised at what bleeps through clenched teeth when it feels like a matter of mental survival.)

In the past 6 days, I've gone on these long 1.5 to 3 hour runs along the main drag that connects Borgonuovo (the suburb-like region where the Villa is located) to Lucca. But I've also ended up on some dirt roads that wind around the country. Exploring is the best. The barns here are almost completely dilapidated. The handmade fences doing nothing to protect the occasional passerby from the chubby brittany spaniels (yes, all three I've met are of the same breed) that gleefully chase you for a half mile past their tiny, melon-painted stone villas. And a dog never goes unpet, that would be unthinkable. I long for a dog all the time, and ever so clearly, I actually hear them speaking to me in thick Italian accents. I will self-diagnose this as post-Disney effect syndrome.

Some big news that I've held onto... we are leaving for France tomorrow morning!
The team has a 205km/ one day race somewhere in the region of Brittany (fancy that, maybe I'll take home a spaniel). It's 15 hours away. After the race, we will go stay at his friend Frank's house in Normandy for one month - they'll train for 2 weeks, then race some longer, multi-stage races at the end of April. That said, we're leaving Italy for an entire month just when I was mastering the whole Spanish-Italian-nonverbal communication thing, we'll throw in some French for fun - a language I can't pretend to pronounce like the hyperphonetical Italian.

Ahhh, the glorious dinging! My laundry needs drying.