Blogs from Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, Europe - page 7

LUCCA AND NEWYEARS EVE We went for a day trip to Lucca that is still one of my fav places to go, like Vience but without the water. It was cold but not too bad at all. The night before Bernie and Sharyn had taken us out to a restarant in Aulla Called Osacar, the seafood was amazing. It was so nice to dress up and pretend we were Sophisticated for one night. (well David and I, Sharyn and Bernie are already sophisticated). Newyears Eve was amazing David and Bernie had stocked the cantina full of Fireworks, they were like two little kids in a candy shop. They took it very serious and had there display all planed out. At midnight the whole valley sky was full of fireworks it was amazing. Every town had ... read more

Today was slated for our dreaded "driving in Italy" experience, as we headed west to try to find the town where my grandfather was born. The night before we panicked a bit, as we "map-quested" the route from Florence to the tiny town of Gombitelli, perched on a mountainside, northwest of Lucca. We could only get the Italian version and found there were 35 lines of complicated directions--despite the fact that most of the drive was a straight shot on the Autostrada!! But Chris was excited about searching out his roots and strongly encouraged us to bite the bullet, so we headed over the a car rental office a few blocks from the train station. In return he navigated, hand-held and generally kept us positive and out of panic mode, as we frantically negotiated the rented ... read more

This village is beautiful and a place for just relaxation. We enjoyed our time in the local bars, cycling around the medieval walls and we had the best meal of our entire trip in Italy. ... read more

So today we have ticked off the hire car through the Tuscan Hills adventure! We started off at 9:00am having found Avis just outside the walls. We passed through lots of little villages heading south and also managed to circumnavigate the “Divorcia” village. Some people just have an aversion to any sort of right turn while others just don’t know their right from their left. So Tuscany looks just like the calendar. We ended up by good fortune at a very high fortified walled village called Volterra were we had the best Pizza ever for lunch then on to San Gimignano where we climbed the tower - 218 steps. What a view in 4 directions. Of course I couldn’t resist - I will definitely need more wall space at home. I’ve never seen so many beautiful ... read more

HE SAID... On arrival we walked the cobbled path into the fortified village of Lucca and made our way to our apartment, a roomy four storey conjoined building that we shared with our guide and two others. We had our own private balcony looking over Lucca, which was unexpected and simply unbelievable. We headed to the supermarket and stocked up on food and wine and then walked to our restaurant, which was run for (and by) disabled kids. My pasta with rabbit sauce was absolutely brilliant, as was our walnut, mozzarella and gorgonzola pizza! The house wine was sensational (as always), and I capped the meal off with a grappa (that warmed me up for the walk back to the apartment in the rain). Looking forward to the bike ride round the walls tomorrow! We arose ... read more