7th June 2000 Lucca
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2000
1
42
81
Trip End
Aug 09, 2000
Lucca,
Italy
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Overcast and warm.
Mary had warned that the weather reports indicated wild weather around Europe and northern Africa, which could mean unsettled weather for us. The day turned out to be warm but overcast and finished with a thunder storm that cleared overnight.
Dropped in to Collodi to buy postcards for Luke, and then on to Lucca. Why weren't we warned? David Dale had written that he now dislike Florence, and that his favourite town is Lucca in winter. David! Lucca any time of the year must be sensational, but in early summer, it is out of this world. For a start it is a uniformly beautiful town. Within massive wide walls (I read somewhere, that just the bricks on the face of the walls amount to 8 million.), the streets are layed out more or less in a grid. The buildings are beautifully designed and built, and yet each is an individually unique. The churches are quite different to anywhere else we have seen yet. Stone walls, terracotta tiles, and marble and stone facades, with pillars and columns a mixture of plain, twisted, mosaic, cosmatin. Campaniles with plants growing in the cracks between blocks. The streets are a little wider than most towns, a beautiful river running through the middle, the sides bricked to give the appearance of a canal, and the shops cater for shoppers not tourists. Cars are restricted to local residents, and most people use bicycles. Vespas are few and far between, thank every deity. Th streets are relatively clean and most building well maintained. I ad forgotten to bring my camera and video, but we had already decided that this was only to be a visit to get our bearings anyway (Cheryl's main priority being to identify all available toilets, public or otherwise.). We planned two later visits; one just to walk the walls, and another to visit the main sights. We spent a couple of hours doing just this, and then went to Trattoria Leo, one of Mary's recommendations. Great atmosphere with a mixture of locals and tourists. They don't appear to compromise on their cooking. Two huge tables of elderly Americans were so well behaved that w e didn't even know they were Americans till very late in the meal when their young tour guide began to distribute glasses of Vin Santo.
Just to set the record straight, there are many tourists of a variety of nationalities that we come across in restaurants and various tourist attractions. Most are unassuming, well behaved, quiet and generally just your everyday normal human being. Unfortunately, the only ones we have come upon in restaurants, who are loud, noisy, and sometimes plain objectionable, have been Americans. The only ones on public transport who fit the same category have been Americans and the odd Australian. When it comes to pain in the arse large bus tour groups, massing around a flag on a pole waving tour guide, that sweep into a venue, overwhelm everyone else, and move through the building like a tidal wave are the Germans by a country mile, followed by the Japanese and French (often figuratively and literally). Me, I'm the supercilious, smug, snob that makes note of such things, but I hope I am quiet about it all, and pass by without offending anyone.
So, back to lunch. It was fine in most respects, although we feel the chef has a thing about salt. Everything was just a tad too salty. Ches had Porcini risotto and rabbit and olives. I had Penne and rabbit ragu, and two mains. What happened was that I couldn't decide between the Trippa, and a roast pork spareribs dish. I was only trying to enquire how each was prepared/served, and which one the waitress recommended. She misunderstood, and thought that I didn't know what either of them were. Her solution was to offer to serve me a half serve of each. Fine. The Trippa was excellent, but a little salty. The roast pork, a disaster of fatty pork and soggy potatoes. The atmosphere was great. Really friendly and helpful staff, locals enjoying their lunch, the owners dog strolling through the tables and the "matrone" who was Flo, resetting the tables. The decor was imitation "bell epoch", painted flowers on the windows and doors, the walls painted with Doric columns and squares to "frame" a mixture of pictures-some black and white photographs and Lutrec style prints.
We completed the visit with a trip to the internet cafe, where we took over an hour just to check and respond to mail. Italian keyboards and a staff just a little indifferent to helping anyone. We also strolled around the Roman Theatre. In reality, the central arena, where the gladiators fought to the death, remains as an oval piazza clad in blue stone. Where the seating used to be, and in fact using the foundations of the stands, is a perfect ring of medieval houses, some of which incorporate the columns that flanked the gates to the stadium. Inside, half the buildings, at least the downstairs sections, are cafe and snack bars. Very much like the new "Italian Forum" in Leichhardt. Tables and chairs spill out into the piazza from each cafe, restaurant and bar. Above are the residences, fitted with shutters, open on the shades side and closed against the heat of the sun on the sunny side. As we were leaving Lucca at around 5.30, we finally came across the ceramic tile house numbers we . have been looking for. They are a dark blue on white with a decorative border. We wanted something for our front wall, as a constant reminder of our holiday. I have also decided to pave our side passage with cobble stones, and put up planter boxes for palegoniums etc. Not to mention completely reflooring inside and the courtyard in terracotta pavers. Fennel, tomato and Norcia sausage pasta for dinner.
