On the Road to Cinque Terre

Thursday, March 23, 2011 (Part 5)

We had a very easy drive from Lucca to Cinque Terre. Of course, it is easy for me to say that because I had nothing to do with it. Dad is our driver (as usual), and Katherine has assumed the role of our navigator. They make a GREAT team.

I should add as a footnote that when

I say our drive was an "easy" one, I mean that we didn't get lost or misdirected (for once), and we made the trip in the 1-1/2 hours we had expected.

Once we left the highway, however, and made our mountainous approach, the drive was a bit of a challenge. It was full of narrow

roads, steep ascents and descents and lots of switchbacks. Dad stalled once but recovered quickly. And the views out over the Mediterranean as we made our way down to the coast were beyond breathtaking. It is simply beautiful here.

Lucca's Palazzo Mansi

Thursday, March 24, 2011 (Part 4)

Our second stop on our biking tour of Lucca was the Palazzo Mansi, a renaissance home that is now a museum. The rooms have been preserved. There are several rooms containing an art collection, but I most enjoyed the rooms themselves. The original frescoes, tapestries and furnishing were very ornate and very interesting. These were dark rooms (and no pictures were allowed), but we enjoyed meandering through the palazzo.

Sadly, it was time to head back to the hotel. We are headed to Cinque Terre this afternoon and it

was time to get on the road. But I could have spent more time in Lucca. In fact, I would have been happy to have kept our bikes for the rest of the day and circled the town several time on the ramparts promenade. Oh well, I suppose this just means that we have to come back!

Lucca's Torri dei Guingi

Thursday, March 23, 2011 (Part 3)

After one circuit on the ramparts, we parted company with Dad. He went back to the hotel to rest for a little while, and we continued on our bikes to see a few of the tourist spots in town. We had a little more than an hour before we had to be back at the hotel to check out.

Still on our bikes, we left the ramparts trail and rode into town. Our first goal was the Torre dei Guingi. There was a time, during medieval times, when 60 or more merchant families lived in towers in Lucca. Each floor was a single room and the staircases were on the outside of the building. The kitchen was the top most room and the rooftop was the vegetable garden.

Today, the Torri dei Guingi is one of the few tower homes still standing, and it also still has a roof-top garden. Only trees are grown here today, but that made it even more unique. And nowadays, the staircase is inside. Katherine and I had the tower surprisingly to ourselves today, and we enjoyed the climb. And we certainly enjoyed the views from the roof. What a very interesting spot this was.

Biking Atop Lucca's Ancient Wall

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 (Part 2)

We had a wonderful morning in Lucca today. We rented bikes (even Dad!) and rode around the city atop the ancient earthen wall that surrounds it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We made a complete circuit on the wall, and we stopped a lot to take pictures. We also stopped at the main cathedral in town -- called San Martino.

This wall-turned-veranda is amazing. It is a 150-200 foot wide "street" often flanked on both sides by tall shade trees. Also, on the outer side, there are frequent "ruins" -- sections of ancient out walls (battle stations, maybe?). The ramparts promenade is well used by the townspeople. We saw many people strolling, walking dogs, jogging, and biking along the wall

. We also ran into a relay race for local school boys being run along the ramparts. It was a beautiful day -- sunny and in the high 50's -- and this

was the perfect way to see Lucca.

Breakfast at the Palazzo Busdraghi

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 (Part 1)

Our hotel in Lucca, the Palazzo Busdraghi had the prettiest rooms, BUT all the rooms were on the second floor and it had no elevator. Also, the parking lot was several longs blocks away. For my Dad, these two points were definite negatives. But for me, I really liked this hotel. It had the most character of any that we stayed in on this trip, and it also had the best location -- right on the main pedestrian street of Lucca. Nothing is very far from our hotel in this small, walled town. Also, the staff here were very friendly and very

accommodating. There were complimentary bottles of wine in our rooms, and, when we checked out, one of the hotel staff walked us to our car and carried half our luggage with him.

We also had a wonderful continental breakfast at the Palazzo Busdraghi. I enjoyed a very filling breakfast consisting of the following items from the buffet: pineapple, cantelope, ham and cheese, tomatoes with mozzarella and basil, rolled cake with nutty frosting and Prince of Wales tea. It was an excellent start to an excellent day.

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.