Vaughban Walls

Thursday Events: We had difficulty getting to sleep last night but a wakeup call and two separate alarms managed to get us up and moving before 8:30 a.m.

The skies were still leaden and raining intermittently, as Laura and I set out for to find some quick breakfast. We had to hurry because we were scheduled for a 10:00 appearance at the 'Game Olympics' opening ceremony -- an event of which our Killer Breakfast has somehow become a part.

We made our morning appearance, said a few words before the group with the help of our translator. Suddenly, I came to understand just what an uphill battle we would have with our Killer Breakfast using a translator ... everything will take twice as long and the comedic timing will be completely off. We can only hope for the best.

We signed books for a while in the Armenia booth -- our Italian Publisher. There were a number of people there who wanted to have our autograph even though we weren't scheduled for a signing. Our editor Allesandro seemed upset that there wasn't a huge turnout ... he blamed the rain. I thought everything was fabulous. Oh, and by the way, in case you didn't know ... just click on any of these pictures to get the full resolution picture.


We then came upon this sight -- apparently the need some very fast cars for the polizia in Italy. I have seen some pursuit vehicles in my time but NEVER a police Lamborghini before today!

Laura and I then had a rather terrible quick lunch and then left the convention for our hotel. Laura needed some bandaides for her feet -- the new boots need some breaking in -- and after a quick change we were out on the streets for our adventure on the walls of Lucca. The entire ancient, central city (which originated before Roman rule) is surrounded by a much later wall from the Republic period after the Vaughban style. The rain was now punctuated by wind but we soldiered on.

We were quickly rewarded. No sooner had the sun came out and we were rewarded with some stunning views of the walls and the town. The walls are thirty feet tall on the outside with various inlets and outlets to make attacking them impossible without entering into a crossfire. The entire two and a half mile perimeter of the town is surrounded by this wall. Before the World War I this wall was also fixed with mounted canons all around it perimeter. When the Austrians withdrew, however, they took all of the canons with them. Now the walls are planted as a city park where the citizens and visitors walk and jog. The old battlements are now fitted with playgrounds. There are some dungeons which still remain but the gamers find uses for them during the convention.

The breaking sun brought this wonderful sight of a double rainbow that arched down out of the sky onto the 'Duomo' -- the Lucca Cathedral. We saw many amazing sites from the wall and through the town ... the pictures tell you far better than my words can.

While we were on the wall, one of the Lamborghini Police cars was cruising on the road that runs atop the wall. Now, cars aren't allowed on the wall any more except official ones and this one looked like one of Grampa Hickman's perfect commercials ... it was framed under a canopy of trees with dappled sunlight. It was just too good a shot not to take. I pulled out my HD video camera and knelt down to get the low shot of the car. Laura was up ahead as the magnificent machine approached. They obviously saw me as they stopped next to Laura and turned on their flashing lights. Then they revved up that incredible engine -- that perfectly tuned machine whine that sounds more like a purr -- and then popped the clutch. The Lamborghini shot toward me at an incredible speed. Somewhere in my mind I thought, this shot is unbelievable and another part of my brain shouted 'Don't move!' The Police Lamborghini shot past me by inches but it was an incredible piece of footage. It was also such an adrenaline rush that it took me twenty minutes just to calm down. You have to see it to believe it.

We were unable to make the complete circuit of the wall as we were expected for our first official signing of the day, so we cut across the center of town and back to the hotel. A quick freshening and then off back to the gaming tent for our official signing. We had met Joe Dever that morning, a brilliant and charming Englishman who has a brilliant take on American politics and a far better grasp of us than I think we may have ourselves. It is a delight to talk with him.

That evening, we were invited to a special opening dinner and award ceremony that was going to be attended by the mayor of Lucca and pretty much all of the guests of the convention. It was held in an old church that the town had converted into a meeting hall. Armed with our invitation (nothing happens apparently without either a paper invitation or a ticket here) we were escorted to the church by our guide Nicola. We met up with Larry Elmore, Joe Dever and a number of other the guests of honor whom we have met and went into the long, narrow hall where they were to serve us dinner.

Here we first encountered what has been explained to us as being 'an Italian line.' By that, they mean no line at all. Long tables filled one side of the narrow hall ... far too narrow to allow anyone to pass and move further down ... and we presume that it was filled with food from one end to the other. Presume because none of us got a good look at it. One of the Italian artists clasped me on the shoulder and said, "it is an Italian line ... just push your way to the front and take courage!" A number of the guests had just come from a German show -- a place where lines are the first thing formed and inviolate -- so the idea of this rugby-style dining was all the more distressing. However, we banded together, formed a flying wedge and pushed me to the front where I proceeded to airlift plates, cutlery and food over my head to the rest of our group. Food was had but it came close to costing us our lives.

We were then herded from the dining hall (which we had renamed 'the trough') through a small set of doors into the main transcept of the church. It was a beautiful ancient church that was still being restored although it also had a huge stage at the front with a massive projection screen. The stage was surrounded by Plexiglas shielding. Hmm. All of the celebrities ... including Christopher Peterson who owns Fantasy Flight Games ... were hustled back behind the stage by the restored confessionals to prepare for our introductions. As they were an hour late in getting started, they decided to just hand us all our commemorative plaques in their red plush boxes and push us out onto the stage. The floor manager was urging us on; I told Laura to go ahead but she indicated there was no way in church she was going out on that stage first. So, no other celebrities leading the way, I stepped out on stage. Laura followed.

It was a strange feeling standing there above the pews filled to the back of the ancient church with cheering and applauding artists and professionals. A little uncomfortable.

We returned to our hotel late and managed at last to get to bed. A big day tomorrow with the majority of our events.

Musings: We understand the elections going on back home have reached a fever pitch. We are currently just as glad to have already voted and may now avoid the fever. It is true that we will be going home to a different America than the one we left ... but we can only hope that is for the best. Joe Dever tells us that the world is looking to this election for the coming world ... all I can think of is that we do not offer the world much ... or ourselves for that matter either.