"Why you come to Lucca?"

The waiter at dinner last night exclaimed, "Lucca, why you come to Lucca?"  He was happy when I said, "To have dinner with you."  He then proceeded to give me a kiss - on each cheek.  It seems that the people in Lucca don't understand what a treasure their town is. Here are a few of the reasons to visit Lucca.

Walking the walls - Lucca has not been involved in a war since 1430, so it's walls and buildings are perfectly preserved. The wall is 2 1/2 miles long and it seems that it is everyone's backyard.  People are always walking, biking, picnicking or just sitting on the wall.  We joined in and and walked like locals.

Some modern art on the wall.

These cardboard ostriches were tucked into one of the tunnels under the wall.

Female angel.

One of the entrances to Lucca.  The wall extends on both sides of the city gates. Some only allow pedestrians.

There is a maze of tunnels under the wall.

Good Food - finally some food to write home about.

Excellent music - every night there is a Puccini concert at San Giovanni Church.  I went to two concerts, Taylor went to three.

Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca.

There is a concert every single night of the year at the Church of San Giovanni.  Each concert featured 2 singers and a pianist.  Different music each night.

Churches - There are many churches in Lucca - all of them filled with the most amazing frescoes, paintings, sculpture, and architecture.  We visited many but not all of them.

Here is an example of some remodeling in a church.  A new chapel is being installed over an existing arch. This is the Church of Santa Cecilia.

Like most of the churches in Lucca, Santa Cecilia has beautiful frescoes.

This Madonna and child are so sweet.

San Martino Cathedral is the main church of the Republic of Lucca.

Church of San Frediano.  Hardly anyone visits this lovely church.  I was actually in it alone for quite a long period of time.

The altar is very simple, but the chapels on both sides of the church were quite fancy.  I love this simplicity.

 

I hate when tourists take photos of paintings, but here I am. I did it.  I love this painting and I justified my behavior as being acceptable because I was the only one in the church.

Friends - While there are many aspects of Lucca which are charming and alluring, one of the things I really enjoy is being here with friends.  After the frenetic pace in Rome, learning to relax in Lucca with friends has been lovely.

Our first night's dinner in Lucca with John, Bruce, Margit, Taylor and Jamar (the photographer).

Relaxing at the Pfanner Palace and Garden. We spent most of our time in the gardens just like this.

"Lucca? Why you go to Lucca?"

When we were in Rome, people would exclaim, "Lucca?  Why you go to Lucca?" when they heard our next destination. We weren't sure why we were going to Lucca, except that we wanted to experience more of Italy than Rome.  Now that we are here, I will tell every one who hasn't been that they should go to Lucca.

We have been in Lucca for perhaps 3 days.  It's hard to keep track because we have gone from the frenetic pace of Rome, to a frenetic first night party in Lucca, to utter relaxation.

Lucca is a walled city in Tuscanny.  We are staying at the Palazzo Busdraghi right in the heart of town.

Our front door.

We arrived mid afternoon on a train from Rome.  We hired a taxi to take us to the Palazzo.  Several hours later our friends John and Bruce arrived from Seattle.

The first night was a little rough.  It was the annual "White Night" which means that everyone stays up all night and makes lots of noise.  Actually, all the shops are open, museums are free and there are concerts in all the public squares. While we were joining the party in the streets, the festivity was fun.  However, once we went to our rooms to go to bed, and the party continued, it lost it's charm.  The chaos didn't quiet down until 3:00 am.  People were wandering out of town at 5:00 am when Taylor took his morning walk.  The music was so loud, blasting into our windows that at one point I looked out the window to see the people dancing.  Boy was I surprised to find that no one was dancing, just walking down the street.  Why the music had to blast from the corner by our hotel, I have no idea.  Taylor, of course, slept through the entire night.

View from my room around 1 am.

View from my room around 2 am.  Why aren't these people dancing?

Needless to say, the next day Margit, Taylor, John, Bruce and I were all a bit groggy, but Lucca is the kind of town where it's okay to be groggy. If you come to Lucca, you can avoid the groggy feel by avoiding White Night.

Selfies in Rome

We had many wonderful experiences in Rome.  We saw a large assortment of the major tourist destinations, many of which involved great art.  Rome was hot, and crowded with tourists.  Most of the tourists were busy standing in front of me taking selfies.  As a matter of fact, we noticed that the sculptures were even taking selfies.

Borghese Gallery, Rome

Mothers Are Full of Surprises

It never occurred to me that my mother Alice might have an interest in Rome.  It seems that she must have.  She seems to be everywhere.

Our first afternoon in Lucca I was sitting in a cafe, looking for an internet connection, and look what I found:

Then, this morning as I was walking down the narrow alley that our hotel is on, I saw signs of Alice again.

I think this goes to prove that mothers are full of surprises.

Coffee with Alice

Before we left Rome, Taylor and I stopped for coffee with Alice.

Roma Ostiense Train Station.

Eating in Rome

I think we all had the idea that eating in Italy was going to be exceptional.  Well, eating has been more of a chore and the food so-so.

We get up early in the morning, go to a local coffee bar and then head out into the day to pursue seeing and learning everything we can about Rome.  We've tried several, but this one is our favorite coffee bar.

Sciascia Caffe is our favorite.

Margit always has espresso, Taylor always has Americano, Jamar has Cappucino.  We all have cornetto with different fillings.

 Keep in mind that we are doing our sightseeing in the extreme heat. By the time we are ready for lunch our standards are very simple:  Does the restaurant have chairs? Occasionally we stumble onto a good meal, but most have been mediocre.

Mimi and Coco Wine Bar is in a cute neighborhood near the Pantheon.  The best part of the meal was the limoncello that came at the end.

Our dinners have been varied, often a repeat of lunch - the three of us share salad, pizza, maybe pasta. We are trying to behave like the Romans do and have our final dinner after our normal bedtime.  Because it is cooler out, it has actually worked out to eat after 8 pm. Some nights we get food from the bakery across the street and eat at home.  We always have our meal with a good bottle of wine.

Aperol spritz is another option and refreshing after a long hot day.

Today was a game changer.  We started at our favorite coffee shop then walked along the Tiber toward Trastevere.  We found a kiosk at the end of the Ponte Cestio Bridge making shaved ice. We went right up to the window and each ordered our dream fruit concoction.  Finally, amazing food in Rome!

Hand shaved ice.

Taylor's choice.

I chose kiwi lemon.

Margit loved her watermelon.

Feeling happy with wonderful Italian shaved ice in our stomachs, we enjoyed strolling through Trastevere, and then crossed the Ponte Cestio to the Jewish Ghetto where Taylor had read about a good restaurant.  It took quite a bit of work using our maps, and Google maps but we finally found the restaurant.

Soro Margherita is in a deserted square.  When we found it we thought we might be at the rear entrance, but this is the front door.

It was minuscule, but they had one table left out of the six tables in the restaurant.  We tried to order, but the waitress told us that we would have the surprise dishes.  We agreed because she was a little bossy.  Actually she was very bossy.  But, when the food started coming we realized we didn't care about her attitude, because the food was the best we've experienced all week.

We started with fried artichokes. Amazing.  Farfelle with tomatoes and olives.  The most fragrant and flavorful frittata that any of us has ever had.  We kind of wanted one more dish, so the commandant waitress brought us two.  Homemade fettuccine with pesto, and a bucatini with a bolognese sauce. Equally fabulous.

The dishes were all so exquisite that there was no time to take photos before we ate.

We were finally done. We couldn't eat all of the last two dishes.  However, the commandant waitress would not allow it.  She grabbed our bread and started sopping up the left over sauces and shoving it in our mouths.  Yikes.

This waitress was a little crazed as she tried to convince us to clean our plates.

Thinking over our wonderful meal with the crazy waitress, we wondered if she was attempting humor, or if she hated tourists - especially Americans.  We decided that we didn't care because the food was what we dreamed of having in Italy. Perfetto!

Call Me Alice

Those of you who are in touch with me regularly are aware I have of late been disgruntled by my name. Without knowing me, people often assume I am a man.  As a matter of fact, when the barista at Starbucks asks my name I always say, "Alice."

The worst thing that has happened recently is that my bank froze my account, including credit card, because they were sure that I am a man, and the real me is a fraudster trying to hack my own account.  I actually had to send proof that I am female before I was able to access my account that I have used for almost twenty years.  Even, Taylor, by being married to me, was locked out of our money.

Imagine my dismay when I encountered this a few blocks from my apartment near the Vatican:

                             

I am accepting other suggestions of new names.

Waiting your advice.