12th June 2000 Villa Torrigiani, Lucca
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Lucca,
Italy
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Monday 12th June 2000
It was a drizzly morning, so we decided on a late morning start, and set out to visit Villa Torrigiani. Again, the instructions in various guide books was suitably vague. It is a few kilometers off the Lucca-Pescia road, however, given that this road is always a constant stream of traffic, there isn't the luxury of much time to read the signposts, and anyway, as it eventuated, there is only on sign, so no warning or help in being guided there. As it turned out, I had tried a couple of roads off the main road, and we had pleasant drive through the countryside of primarily vinyards. Looking from a distance, the land appears to be relatively flat. It is only when you come to drive it, that you realise that it is broken up by little hills, around which are clustered houses and old stone walls-often 3 metres or more high. As the roads are very narrow and wind around these hills and walls, it is like being lost in a maze. After half an hour or so, we were heading from the base of the mountains back toward the Lucca-Pescia road, when we stumbled upon a beautiful medieval village on the flats. Just a long wall of cottages with a little chappel at the end of what appeared to be a dead end. This is what is known as a "court". In the late middle ages when all this swampland was reclaimed, the houses were built in a neat rows, rather than around a central piaza. We stopped to check the map, rolled forward an extra 3 metres to try to see a street sign, and lo and behold, we rolled accross the driveway to Villa Torrigiani. Ches suggested we drive into the gravel entrance, however a woman in the ticket box wagged her finger to set us straight.
Having parked outside, we paid and entered the garden. The Villa is privately owned, and therefore only the downstairs rooms are open for inspection, and then only buy a guided tour which begins at half past the hour. We strolled some beautiful formal gardens, including the rectangular gardens set 4 metres or so below the surrounding ground level, with niches for statues and cool rooms in which they originally had statues and fountains. Aparently the original owner liked to use the water sprays to direct his guests around the garden. He could sit up in the tower on the top floor of the villa and watch them. He would set off sprays of water to force them to follow the path he wanted. Eventually they would be forced into this supposed shelter, whereupon, he would set off the fountains inside, and they would all be soaked. What a "wag"!
The large rectangular pool along the side of the villa is rather run down, as are the paths that wander through the trees surrounding the villa. Immediatly surrounding the villa itself however, are vast lawns. Originally, the entrance to the villa was via a driveway through gates, on the mountain side of the estate. At some point several hundred years ago, they constructed the entrance via the small village where we had arrived. The owner at the time was the Lucchese ambassador to Versailes, and he built two formal fountains on this new front lawn as direct imitations of the Versailes fountains. This family still own the villa. The current owner is probably in his sixties; his mother having married into the family and living here till she died in her mid 90's only a few years ago. The relevance of this is that it is one of the very few villas still furnished with the original family furniture. Even more fortunate is the fact that the current owner has moved into the rooms upstairs (which used to be the guest rooms and servants quarters). This means that we were conducted through the ground floor- bedrooms, diningroom, lounges etc. Beautiful fresh and bright frescoes on all the walls and ceilings. They have only ever been cleaned, but never restored, and yet are in great condition. Perhaps indicative of the lifestyle, or at the very least, the summer lifstyle, of the titled, one of the rooms is entirely furnished in needlepoint fabrics (bed and chairs), crafted by one of the male heirs during the early part of last century. I noticed a drinks trolly, fully stocked, under a staircase, and assume that come evening when the villa gates are locked, the family moves back into some of the living rooms downstairs, and most definitely the old entrance verandah, which is now the back verandah. It too is covered in frescoes, and looks out over the lawns to the mountains.
As we were leaving, we discovered an open door into a cellar. We and a German family ventured down and had a wander. Vast wine cellars, primarily barrels, and all the old winemaking equipment. I made a fool of myself in declairing that I had discovered a small marble bath set into the floor in one room. Kind of like a modern spar pool, with a ledge around the inside to sit on while down in the bath/pool/spa. The German girl later came up to me and said that her father had been impressed with it. Very classy to have a vat for "treading" the grapes, with a seat so that the workers didn't have to stand while crushing the grapes. Oops! She also told us that they had visited the gardens at Villa Garzoni, and that it was a great place to take a picnic lunch and a bottle of wine. I hadn't been particularly impressed with what I could see of the Villa when we visited Collodi, and we had pretty well decided not to bother. Looks like we should think again.
We arrived in Lucca mid-afternoon, and discovered that Ristornate Bargo Gianotti closes on Mondays. We had lunch at a bar just up the street. Only locals. Peter Mac lookalike had the best idea, but we didn't realise it till too late. A salad, a whole Mozarella, bread and a bottle of mineral water. Looked very civilised. We had bits and pieces we had selected out of the cabinet, heated up in microwave. Not particularly memorable. The young lass who served us was probably the owners daughter, and now on school holidays. She tried out her English on us, with not too much success. When she established that we were from Australia, she probably explained that for holidays, she and her family went away to their holiday home. She was very helpful in serving us, but not sufficient English to quite get the message through.
We moved the car around to the Via Elisa entrance, where we had parked on the first day we had visited Lucca, and walked down Via Elisa, took Ches's photograph with Puccini on the way ,and we located the internet caffe we hadn't used last week. After two major screw-ups, we decided to use this one instead. Five minutes later it wiped all my keying, so I gave up and Ches took over. An hour later, we think she was successful. We walked up the southern side of the town. The Palazzo Ducal looks like an impressive building, but unfortunately the entire Piazza Napoleone was a building site so we couldn't appreciate what it all looks like. From photographs I have seen though, it is normally a car park anyway, so probably never realy a great vista. Similarly, when we walked through the next street to Piazza San Martino, a crane was parked in front of the Duomo. Bugger! It is built in the Pisa style, meaning the facade tends to be a vast expanse of white and green marble, with many tiers of colums; each on different. Some plain, others twisted, others with scenes carved into them. Many of the churches in Lucca and Pisa are similar in this respect. Three arches lead into the cathedral, each a different size, and the columns and above the doorways all carved marble. The other major difference to other cathedrals around Italy, is that the main body of the church is roofed in terracotta tiles and shaped like a regular pitched roof. The Campanile, built into the side of the cathedral, consists of a regular stone tower for two thirds of its height (1060) and then a marble section with tiers of columns (1261). The cathedral itself was built from the 11th century till the 15th century. Hard to imagine that many buildings throughout this region evolved over a 200 to 400 year period. Take off a bit here, add a bit there, expand out this side, build on top of that section etc. Considering that we just knock them down and start again, they had a sense of continuity.
Inside is the Tempietto, an octagonal marble tabernacle sculpted by Matteo Civitali (1435-1501). He was a barber till his mid-30's. This tabernacle houses a cedar-wood crucifix, said to be a true portrait of Jesus, as carved by Nicodemus, an eyewitness to the crucifiction. The story goes that this carving was found drifting in a boat by a bishop, who was instructed by angels to put it in a cart drawn by two white oxen. Wherever the oxen finaly stopped, so was the crucifix to remain. They stopped at Lucca. The other highlight for us was the inlaid marble floor. Apparantly this is most often covered up. It wasn't when we were there, and I just hope the video does it justice.
We cut back to Via Elisa to leave the town, and for the first time, the penny dropped. The moat that ran along the outside of the original town wall, built centuries before the huge walls which now surround Lucca, cuts across the town about 400 metres from the end of Via Elisa. The original gates are still there, and the moat is now a canal, with streets on each side.
We headed back to Vellano via a gelato stop in Pescia. I made an Onion soup using the "Renaissance" receipe as a guide, and we fired up the BBQ for the Pork Chops, which we had with a vegetable ragout, asparagus and peas. We have decided that there is something special about Italian pigs. Whether "pen" or "wild", they have a flavour we haven't ever experience from pork at home.
