Lucca

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First we drive down the peninsula to Portofino, more narrow windy roads, some enough for only 1 car, on the bend! Get to Portofino unscathed, so far, but no parking, so u turn and head back via Rapallo for a nice drive along the coast. Get to another little coastal town (Chiavari) and walk the promenade and have a coffee (only 1 euro). Back on the road to Lucca which we find around 1PM. Into the old city, get lost again, get directions from the local police! Still not fnding it, we park and walk to the B&B only to find we are only 50 metres away. Drive to the front to unload and then follow the guy from the front desk to the designated carpark & not having Jules to say over your way a bit, I put a nasty scrape along the side of the Audi! Oh well my ANZ insurance will cover it! I go back and break the bad news. Now all afternoon to explore Lucca, wonderful town surrounded by a massive wall. Lunch at Risterandte Giglio, sat at an outside table in the sun but behind plastic awnings, cooked. We shared an antipasta platter of local salamis and she has the pasta with boar, like a ragu and me the artichoke risotto. An oold lady, very well presented (and looks rich) is seated at the table next to us and the staff are all fussing over her like she's important. We notice her main course of various meat cuts, looks disgusting and we comment, thinking she doesn't understand us, but later when Julie is trying to find something in the phrase book, she says in perfect english, sounding even like an english aristocrat, "can I help you with anything?", we embarrassingly decline. After a few snaps and a walk through the shopping strip, Gucci etc., sales everywhere, Jules quickly learns to spot the italian word 'saldi'! I find a great pair of jeans for 42 euros but alas too short, few more weeks in Italy for this though. The then decide to circumnavigate the city at the top of the wall - it's wider than a road as they filled in the space between the outer and inner walls at some stage - lots of battlements & tunnels, would have been quite an elaborate protection mechanism in its day. Back to the B&B we settle into the lounge with a glass of wine. We ask for a restaurant recommendation, he gives us two, both about 5 mins walk, the whole city is only 1km across. The first is closed, the second is packed and we can't get a table until 9:30. We book it, as being winter there's not much open and head out to find a bar. We find a small bar/cafe with people spilling out into the street outside one of the churches, the place is going off. I force myself in to buy 2 glasses of Chianti and head outside in the cold with all the young italians. At 9:30 we head back to the restaurant and have to wait a further half hour for our table. But worth the wait, Jules has a seafood risotto to die for, me tortolleni filled with meat in a meat sauce! Mains arrive, Jules struggles through her veal, my wild boar arrives and is 3 huge chunks which I make a huge effort on & finish, much to her surprise. We skip dessert for an espresso and pay the bill and are offered a complimentary grappa for the inconvenience, which we gladly accept. Back to the B&B it's midnight but still plenty of people about being Saturday, have a chat to the guy on the front desk about the weather, floods and cyclones and after we are back in our room a 3 day forecast for Italy is poked under our door.

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