Days 7 and 8

Italy 2011

Days 7 and 8

Day 7 was supposed to be the day we took a train to Cinque Terra for a one-night stay. However, it rained throughout the night (of Day 6) and into the early morning (of Day 7), so we decided to stay put in Lucca. We tried to cancel our motel reservation by email, but we never heard back….making us think we will have to pay. We just knew we didn’t want to be hiking between the five towns on a wet, steep trail. We’ve been there two other times, so we didn’t feel too badly.

The weather cleared, and we were able to walk and bike and check out the top of one of the local towers.  Last year, we climbed the tower across the way with the sun-sheltering trees on top.  Those are real people under the trees probably trying to see us.

We have settled into a morning ritual where we make breakfast in our apartment and then go out for a cappuccino (Bob) and macchiato (Shari) and a pastry….always sitting outside. We then shop for bread, meat, cheese, arugula, anchovies, wine, etc. so we can make lunch in our apartment.  At our morning café, transportation is simple and the route uncrowded, just the way we like it.

We had our dinner at our favorite restaurant, Ristorante da Francesco, where we ate our first lunch and where we recognized “our lady”. It has the best tortelli lucchese in Lucca, which is what we ordered. We learned our lady’s name is Sara, and Bob asked her how to make it. She spent a lot of time, along with a young male waiter who knows a little English, trying to write down the recipe. In the end when we paid our bill, Sara actually tipped US!!! She wouldn’t hear of anything else.

Day 8 looked like good weather, so we took a train (two short train rides) to a walled hill town that you don’t read about in Frommers’ or Rick Steves’ books. We heard about it from an Italian woman we met on the train between Rome and Lucca.  The little town of Pietrasanta is home to a lot of artists, so we thought it could prove interesting.  We’re guessing an artist lived in this house.

We were complementing ourselves on doing so well buying train tickets from the machines and navigating the system. However, on the way back, the train was stopping at the town where we had to change trains. The train stopped for only about a minute because it was a small town. We got our stuff together and moved towards the door, but it was locked. We hurried through the next car and got to that door, but we had to push a button to open the door, but we pushed what we think was the wrong one, and it didn’t open the door. Then the train pulled away from the station with us on it!!! We had to go to the next town, get off, and wait about 50 minutes for a train that would take us back to the town where we would catch the correct train. It reminds us that “Pride cometh before a fall.”

We got back into our Lucca apartment just before a storm hit. It rained hard, and there was even thunder and lightening. We were planning to eat dinner outside at Trattoria Gigi where we ate once last year, but because of the rain, we decided to buy bread, olives, cheese, meat, anchovies, and wine at our favorite nearby shop and dine in our apartment.