Blogs from Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, Europe - page 12

(Walk on the Walls) Our first "day trip" out of Florence took us to the medieval Tuscan town of Lucca (west of Florence, before Pisa). The historic part of the city is completely walled, although the "walls" are so wide that it is almost like a park with a tree lined "street" around the city. We saw kids playing soccer, and locals jogging or reading the newspaper on one of the many benches. We walked around for 2 (of 3) miles, enjoying the sunshine and singing random songs from musicals. I guess the streets and trees reminded us of Sound of Music (though set in Austria), good thing there weren't too many people around. I am sure people thought we were just culturally confused when we tried to react the Beatle's Abbey Road cover on ... read more

My parents (Big Mike and Rosie to everyone here now) came in for a week in November '07. I don't know how we survived the week, every night another dinner and another bottomless bottle of wine...At the end of the trip we headed up to Bagni di Lucca to say hi to some of our cousins and catch up a little bit. ... read more

And the good times continue. i have not been digilent at posting comments, but as you can imagine, i have better things to do. We spent 4 days in Florence, rained a bit but still got to see all the big sites we intended. our bike ride in tuscany was a bust due to the rain, storm, thunder, lighting, and hail. but the entire group was taken wine tasting, olive oil tasting, toured a castle, as well as had lunch with as much wine as we desired. And when i saw the roads we were supposed to be riding, i was relieved. Florence is fun, reminded me of San Francisco - the shopping, troppo caro! I ve yet to locate the apostrophe on the italian key board, and shift is different and the at sign (which ... read more

Breve pausa di un mese in Italia. Il 9 ottobre riparto per il Brasile. Mentre viaggio alla media di una cena al giorno per vedere gli amici, ho gia pronti i due fogli necessari per avere il visto permanente in Brasile: carichi pendenti e antecedenti penali. Domani sono a Firenze a farli timbrare dal consolato Brasiliano. Di questo periodo italiano, cosa posso dire? ...oltre al piacere di rivedere un pò tutti, forse potrei pubblicare una guida ai ristoranti lucchesi. Dunque venerdì ero al Gabbiano in Darsena a Viareggio con ex-colleghi fiorentini: una cena-garanzia con antipasti (buoni), carbonara di mare (il piatto per cui vale la pena il ristorante), e frittino con insalata (buono e non unto). A chiusura gelato al limone e conto di 30 euro a testa. Vino e acqua della casa compresi. Sabato ero ... read more

Trouble in the Homeland August 18, 2007 In previous blogs I made mention of August being the vacation month of all of Europe…well we got stung by this in my ancestral hometown of Lucca. My grandfather, Paul Selmi, emigrated from Italy in 1911. He was born in Lammari, Italy right outside the ancient Roman city of Lucca. We decided when planning our Italy itinerary (planned on the fly in Croatia on the beach) to include Lucca. My good friend Katherine recommended it and her taste is beyond reproach so combined with our heritage and need to be in Tuscany on August 18th, off we went after Vernazza. We left the US with no accommodations other than 4 nights in London at the start of our trip. I was so hesitant about this…but was reassured by many ... read more