Lucca - September 8-10 2018
Saturday September 8 - Our days in Cinque Terra had come to an end so we headed to the train station to begin our journey to Lucca. We took the train from Monterosso to Pisa, where we switched to a smaller train that took us to Lucca. So far the trains have been a great way to get around.
Lucca is a walled city. According to Rick Steves, it has not been involved in a war since 1430, and it was never bombed during the war. The buildings and architecture are well preserved and it's unique to see modern shops and fancy clothing stores in the old buildings. It's a great walking town where the sights and sounds keep your senses engaged.
Our apartment, located at Via Streghi 7, is right off one of the main streets, Via Fillungo. It has been completely remodeled and is very nice. Chiara's daughter met us and let us in. She explained some of the features of the apartment and gave us a sheet with some helpful tips about the town.
We started the Rick Steves walking tour until Jeri declared she was hungry!! Our walking tour ended at Piazza San Michelle, where we found an outdoor cafe to eat. Jeri was able to try something new on this trip, eggplant parmesan. I went with the meat tortellini. Both plates were delicious as expected.
We discovered a craft beer store that sells local beers. Lucca actually has 4 craft breweries. Unbelievable!! Blaine bought a couple of the local beers to have at the apartment. One was called Spaceman. It's a west coast IPA. It has a bit of the grapefruit flavor common in the Northwest. It was very good. The second beer was called Lilith. It is brewed by Bruton, which is based in Lucca. It was a pale ale, but it had a more hoppy flavor than most pale ales. It was also very good. The last beer was a porter, called 2 Cilindri. It is also brewed in Lucca by Forte. I saved that one for the next day.
Once we got back to the apartment, we had to find a place to stay in Siena and Sorrento. We were able to find a place in Sorrento at Villa Fiorita. No luck yet in Siena. Jeri put a load of clothes in the washer and she wanted to play Sequence while we waited for the clothes to finish. We haven't played in awhile. She promptly beat me 2 games to 1. Clothes finished up, Jeri went to bed and I stayed up for about 30 minutes watching Pulp Fiction in Italian.
Sunday September 9 - Blaine woke up early, ready to go down and enjoy a cream filled pastry and coffee at the restaurant right outside our apartment. il Bernini. Jeri wanted to wash another load of clothes so she stayed at the apartment. She doesn't really enjoy the pastry and coffee thing so it was a good excuse for her to relax and take her time getting ready.
After we hung the clothes to dry, we walked back to Piazza San Michele where had we left off from our Rick Steves walking tour yesterday. We were going to resume the tour, but once we got there, we decided we should rent bikes and ride the top of the wall surrounding the town before it got too hot. As we walked to the bike rental shop, we came upon a professional crossbow competition. The crossbows were so powerful they had to use a wench to set them.
To our surprise, we found out there was also a women's professional bike tour in Lucca today. They were riding from Pisa, and tomorrow they were headed to Florence. There were lots of support teams on the wall where we first entered, but fortunately they were not riding the wall. The wall is approximately 2.5 miles around. It was a nice leisurely ride, but we did have to be careful not to run into the many other bikers and walkers on the path. There was a huge gardening exposition called Murabilia today on one of the ramparts of the wall and with these 3 big events, it made the crowds on the wall much larger. It was really cool to see all of the items for sale.
We made reservations at Osteria San Giorgio for dinner, which is right around the corner from our apartment. Jeri was in the mood for an Aperol spritzer before dinner so we found a cute little wine restaurant called Vinarkia della Pavona. They were playing some really good Ray Charles rhythm and blues when we walked in and the atmosphere was really nice. They set up a huge free buffet. Everything looked so good and I had to hold Jeri back because we already had dinner reservations. She did sample a few of the things, but left room for dinner!
After dinner we played 2 games of Sequence. Jeri won both. Ugh!
Riding on the wall in Lucca
Crossbow championships. The video is kind of long, but I was trying to capture how fast these arrows were. I knew I couldn’t track them from the bow, so I focused on the targets.
