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!
more about Lucca Comics Games and CosPlay 2012
Awesome!
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