Dinner in Lucca

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 (Part 7)

We were in Lucca for only one night, and we decided to try out one of the restaurants

recommended by Rick Steves. [We have very much enjoyed our Rick Steves' guidebooks for both Rome and Italy. He has a great sense of humor, and he provides great practical information and a fair amount of history and descriptive information about the sights.]

One of the restaurants in Lucca recommended by Rick Steves is Osteria Via San Giorgio. We arrived too early (we were first there at 6:15 p.m.) and had to spend some time walking around and then returning for their reopening for dinner at 7:00 p.m. Needless to say, we were back at precisely 7:00 p.m. and we were the first patrons of the evening. Did I mention that we were hungry?

Included on the menu here was a local specialty - Tordelli. This is a homemade, meat filled ravioli served in a meat sauce. I had to try it. I am such a fan of pasta, and I was not disappointed. I loved it! This pasta dish transported me back 40 year to my Zia Chiara's kitchen. The meat sauce, in particular, tasted just like hers! I was in heaven. My only minor criticism was that the pasta was too thick, too heavy. But I would order it again (and again) if I had the chance.

As I write in my journal, I am struck by how much of our experiences in Italy revolve around food! From tordelli in Lucca to pesto in Cinque Terre to Parmeggiano with balsamic vinegar in Stradella to sumptuous butter-drenched prawns in Santa Marguerita, we feasted everywhere we went. And then, of course, there was our amazing meal at Il Convivio in Rome. Mangia!

Lucca Here We Come

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 (Part 6)

Our next destination after Pisa is the town of Lucca, and one of the reasons that we made the detour to Pisa is because the two towns are fairly close together. They are both in the western end of Tuscany. Tuscany is another one of those ancient Italian towns that has a preserved sections that contains buildings, walls and churches that date back hundreds and thousands of years.

Lucca is particularly unique because the "old town" section of the city is still surrounded by an ancient earthen wall. The wall is about 60 feet tall and very wide -- maybe several hundred feet wide on its flat top. Because of its unique shape and wide plateau top, 100 years or more ago, it the top of the wall was transformed into a tree-lined, pedestrian boulevard. Today, it is a major attraction and is very heavily used by walkers and bikers alike.

We made our way from Pisa to Lucca very easily and quickly found ourselves driving through the main entrance gate through the wall and into one end of town. We should have immediately parked, but we did not.

Instead, we started driving into the city and promptly got very lost. Worse than that, we ended up driving in a section of the old town that is forbidden to cars unless you have a resident's permit. We managed, by sheer luck, to get ourselves out of the maze of streets (many of

them one-way) and back to the main gate.

At this point, Dad parked the car and Katherine and I proceeded back into the town on foot to find our hotel. We located it easily and then went back to direct Dad to the hotel's parking lot several blocks from the main gate. We are staying in a lovely little hotel on the main pedestrian street (called Via Fillungo). The Hotel is called Palazzo Busdraghi and the rooms are quaintly decorated and very comfortable.

The Pisa Cathedral and Leaning Tower

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 (Part 5)

We continued our tour of the Field of Miracles by visiting first the Cathedral and then the leaning Tower. The Cathedral is very impressive and very beautiful. There are some wonderful frescoes that decorate the ceiling above the altar.

And the leaning

Tower is definitely leaning. We chose not to take the steps up the tower and decided instead to admire it from the ground.

On our way back to the car, we made one of our usual stops for gelato. What a great habit this is turning into!

Pisa's Field of Miracles

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 (Part 4)

I am very glad that we decided to stop in Pisa. It was a bit of a last minute decision for us. We drove from the southern end of the city to the Cathedral/Tower complex -- located in the "Field of Miracles" -- and this allowed us to get a good feel for

the city. The Arno River runs through the city and, like Florence, the city is built up on both sides of the river. It is a very

pretty scene.

The Cathedral complex is unique from that found in most other Italian cities because it is removed from the center of town and has a more open sense of space. And there are even grass fields surrounding the Baptistry and Cathedral and that is unique. Also, the exterior of the buildings are a gleaming white marble. They

just about sparkle in the sunlight and today was a very sunny day.

We went into the Baptistry first. The Baptistry, like most baptistries, is a very simple building. It is round in shape and has only an altar, pulpit and baptismal font/basin. This Baptistry is somewhat unique because sounds echo beautifully within the domed ceiling. While we were there, the guard demonstrated by singing a series of notes. They echoed for several long seconds as they bounced off the walls. It was pretty neat -- and it was something Dad felt compelled to copy! He sounded good too.

A Detour Through Pisa

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 (Part 3)

We were on the road, headed for Pisa, by about 11:30 a.m. It took us about 2-1/2 hours to get to Pisa. On the recommendation of the desk clerk at the Hotel Athena, we took the back roads and stayed off the autostrada, or highway. It was a good choice. The Tuscan countryside is beautiful. We passed many old towns perched on hilltops and cliff sides. We also saw a goodly number of flocks of sheep grazing and cypress trees lining the crests of hills. We also passed a lot of vineyards -- although the vines are still dormant and not very colorful at this time of year.

We were much aided in our travels today by our two GPS systems. Katherine has become our chief navigator and she has figured out how to use the GPS system on my iPhone to great effect. Unfortunately, after 2 hours, the battery ran out and we had to revert to Dad's system. It works relatively well too, and we rather easily found our way into and through Pisa and

found a parking spot very close to the Pisa Cathedral and Tower.

I should add here that Dad is doing a great job driving. The car we rented is a standard transmission, so Dad is the only one of us who knows how to drive it. The driving can be stressful at times as we regularly make a wrong turn here and there. But Dad is steady as a rock. He takes it all in stride, and I am very impressed (and grateful).

Il Palazzo Publico

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 (Part 2)

Immediately next door to Il Torre del Mangia is the Palazzo Publico, or City Hall. Inside the Palazzo Publico is a series of well preserved meetings rooms from medieval times. These rooms are covered on the walls and ceilings with frescoes, and they are beautiful. Sadly, we were prohibited from taking any photos. Also sadly, they had no good books in the souvenir shop that contained a good set of photos of the frescoes.

Most of these frescoes are amazingly well preserved. Some are not. For those that are, the colors are incredibly bright and vibrant.

And although a number of these frescoes have the usual religious themes, many of them are historical and allegorical, and that makes them a bit more unique and interesting. One of the most well known frescoes is of a heavily armored Sienese soldier traveling on horseback across the Sienese countryside. In another room, there is a series of frescoes depicting life under the rule of a "good" king (on one wall) and life under the rule of a "bad" king (on the opposing wall). Each kind presides over a respectively blessed and troubled community. There were also frescoes of very detailed battle scenes. We were delighted by these pictures and we were very glad that we had made the extra effort to see them.

Siena's Torre del Mangia

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 (Part 1)

This morning, we returned to Il Campo to do the things we had hoped to do the afternoon before. We had two goals. They were to climb the Torre del Mangia (next to the Palazzo Publico) and to tour the preserved medieval public rooms of the Palzaao Publico. And once again it was a beautiful sunny day.

Il Campo means "field" in Italian. It seems like an odd choice for the name of the piazza in the center of Siena. It has no real "field" qualities. The Campo is roughly oval in shape and it is

entirely paved. I cannot recall seeing any living plants or flowers there. And there certainly is no grass. The paved surface of the piazza is divided into nine sections -- one for each of the merchants who sat on the council that governed medieval Siena. The piazza is also on a slope with the Palazzo Publico on the downhill side. Il Campo is perhaps most well known for the Palio horse races that occur here every year on July 2 and August 16.

Once arriving in Il Campo, we made a beeline for Il Torre del Mangia, which is named after one of the bell keepers who was a large man who, apparently, did nothing but eat. Dad really surprised me because he decided to join us in making the climb up the tower.

It was 387 steps from bottom to top. And it was a hard climb. Some of the flights of stairs were really steep. But we made it and it was well worth the climb. Of course, we took a lot of pictures. The vistas were beautiful. One of the scenes that was most fun was to look down on Il Campo and see the shadow of the tower case over the square.