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Our First Trip to Lucca - Lucca Comic 2012 Event


We decided to buy 2 tickets to Lucca on that rainy afternoon at Stazione Firenze S.M.N. The next day would be our first trip to explore another medieval town in Tuscany, Lucca.


That next morning of November 1st, 2012 we arrived at the station by bus and bumped into some Chinese tourists with their bulky cameras, a notebook sized of i-Pads and camera phones. Near them were two Italian girls, one of them dressed up in devilish Halloween costume; one of the Chinese man, laughed and tapped the girl with the costume on her shoulder, asked if he could take photos with her. The girl laughed and let all those Chinese tourists surrounded her, posed for them and enjoyed her moment being "a star" with “fans”.


We laughed and quickly ran to the platform to check the announcement board with all itinerary schedules. We finally got on the right train, only amazed to find the train was so full with young people, not only that, some of them looked extremely strange as they dressed up in Halloween costumes. Some even painted their faces into skeleton look. We thought, of course it’s Halloween and apparently it’s a big event in Italy. Young people proudly walked around in their weird devilish costumes celebrating Halloween, schools had some special events to celebrate it and encouraged their students to actively participate.




The train stopped at some stations, and at every stop, more people dressed in different variation of costumes. Some dressed up in cartoon characters I knew. The one I recognized the most were those dressed up like Dragon Ball or Sailor Moon. They ran around and pushed each other to get into the train, but somehow the train was fully loaded. Some stepped back down on the station platform looked disappointed, and some immediately burst with curse on the situation. Italians seemed to be very impatient and temperamental in many ways.


I asked a young man who was sitting next to me, “Are you all going to Lucca?” He said, ”Yes”. Jos asked, ”How come they all dressed up like that? Is there special event or they are just celebrating Halloween?” He said, “Because there’s Lucca Comics!” without any further explanation. He spoke English but very limited.


I turned my face to the window, began to think of fresh air. The cabin was so packed there’s no way any fresh air would enter. I bothered by some smells came from the breath of this guy who was sitting next to me, and body odors of some other boys who stood on the aisle and chat loudly. I thought, they must be haven’t gotten any time to brush their teeth or to shower before they left their houses this morning. My tummy began to crumble. I hoped the train would arrive in Lucca very soon.


Finally the train stopped at Lucca train station, it was the busy day! The platform was packed with people dressed up in different costumes of movie, comic, or cartoon characters. They were all luckily patient enough to walk slowly. Bunch of people who were already there immediately added with those who just arrived included the two of us. Slowly we got down the stairs and got out of the station to get a toilet, only to find such a long waiting line to fulfill our nature calls. However eventually we made it and got ourselves relieved.




We walked away from that busy station and walked toward the famous old wall, the fortress of Lucca. There we saw many walked around in their different interesting creative costumes. One family dressed up in superheroes costumes, the father was Batman and his kid was Captain America. Then I saw a young cute guy dressed in Japanese cartoon character and posed for a photo shoot. I took some photos of him too. I even got a chance to meet two "Captain Jack Sparrows" who amazingly looked similar to Johny Deep. From Spiderman to PSY-Gangnam, from Robin Hood to Optimus Prime, they all there!



 
It was Lucca Comics and Games 2012 event, where costume-play or shortened into cosplay took place. We were impressed to see how people came from different places, dressed up in different costumes, on their own costs, to happily participate and contribute to this event. Cordialli saluti e grazie mille a tutti 'cos-play' participants. This event was a bonus of our one day trip to Lucca, the town was beautiful, and at the same time we were also felt entertained with the event! It’s one way to attract people/tourists to visit your small town.


 more about Lucca Comics Games and CosPlay 2012


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