Linda and Margaret's Italian Adventure: Lovely Lucca, and Italian trains!!

Happy Sunday! Ciao to all!

Dinner on Saturday night was back at Café Za Za, and it was TERRIFIC! We got there about 6:30 p.m. as we didn’t have a reservation, and really didn’t want to wait for a table. We were seated in a ground floor room that was beautifully painted in very bright colors! This time, we split the artichoke appetizer – two artichokes on the plate, marinated and steamed and arriving standing up on the plate! (The reason it sort of slants in the picture is because we forgot (yet again!) to take the picture before attacking the food!) After that, Linda had spaghetti alle peschitori (sp!) – clams, mussels, octopus and calamari and fresh tomatoes over pasta; she loved it and ate every bite! I reordered the tagliatelle with a butter sauce and truffles sprinkled on top – YUM! We were too full to even think about having dessert – another incredibly great meal for a very reasonable price, all washed down with a bottle of house chianti and sparkling water. I think we were back at the hotel – for our very last night in Florence! – about 9 p.m.

Up at 7 for the massive repacking job and getting out the door. Our last breakfast, and we were down about 10. We had decided after schlepping everything to the hotel from the train station, that we would treat ourselves and take a taxi back – those suitcases do NOT roll well on cobbles! Only took a couple of minutes to reach the station; much, much more pleasant! However, here it got a bit confusing. Seems that when I read the information on the train, I forgot the little fact that trains often run VERY different schedules on Sunday than they do the rest of the week…how Italian! So, we had to wait about an hour before we had a train, which made something like NINE stops before it got to Lucca – and it’s not that far! Some of the stops were all of 2 or 3 minutes away from the prior stop!

Oh well! The train was a double decker, very similar to the RER in Paris, and we had nice seats on the top deck, and were able to store our luggage between the banks of seats right behind us. Beautiful day – clear and a bit breezy. Arrived in Lucca right on time at 1:30 p.m. and decided to REALLY spoil ourselves by taking yet another taxi from the station to our B&B. However, when we got about half-way there, the taxi was stopped by barricades, as they were hosting a marathon around the walls today! Got out of the cab, and made it the few remaining blocks.

Found Paolo, the owner of the B&B Il Seminario, and he showed us to our room; also provided us with a very good Lucca map complete with restaurant recommendations on it. We have a really huge, lovely room on the top floor (thankfully he carried up our cases!). It has a sofa bed as well as a complete kitchenette – don’t think we’ll use it, but it’s fun to know is there! Also a table and chairs, so if we were really ambitious, I think we’d be all set! Unpacked a bit, and then headed out to see Lucca on foot!

Lucca is really, truly lovely, and the walls which surround the city completely have been turned into a wonderful park. There is a huge broad boulevard for walkers/joggers/bicyclists and others, with plenty of benches and statuary scattered around. The view is wonderful from the wall, and you can look down on various piazzas as you go along.

We headed toward the old Roman amphitheatre. The amphitheatre has long been completely demolished except for what seems like some outside walls, because the people used the actual old stones for new construction in town. However, the circle was intact, and in the sun, it was quite a lovely afternoon! As we had yet to eat lunch, we opted to split yet another pizza margarita with glasses of red wine and sparkling water. Very, very good!

Wandered through some open shops, looking at aprons, soap, salt, olive oil – all sorts of good things. Actually didn’t buy anything … yet! Stopped at the Basilicata St. Frediano, which has a stunningly beautiful mosaic top on it; really beautiful place!