Sunday was a back to the car day. The car is actually an extraordinary relief in this heat with its lovely aircon. Just so that it is recorded … the car hire place I’ve been using is Autonoleggio Giglio, Via Orzali 391… in case anyone wants to know in the future. They have been quite good to me.
So we set out to do a bit of Garfagna driving and made for the furthest point….Castelnuovo. A town up the river. It was an OK town but there are definitely towns more beautiful. We wandered around there for a while and then went back to the car to drive to the Fort …’Fortezza di Mont’Alfonso’. Up and up and up this windy road we went, and then up some more. There was a town we had seen way, way on top of the mountain and when we reached that town we concluded we had gone too far….a bit dumb I have to say and when we turned around and went back down the vertical road we saw that we had driven straight past the fort in totally unobservant style. Still it was a very scenic drive if a little daunting to ensure the Panda kept going, in first gear, on the steepest parts of the road.
We found the fort and walked around its walls…the best part was the views, it was otherwise uninspiring!! Then onwards and downwards to Barga. I love this town every time I go, it is a really stunning little medieval, walled town. We found a place to sit in the shade and have lunch, then I insisted Norjie walk up to the Duomo!! I on the other hand had been there twice before, so I insisted that I remain in the restaurant sipping wine and having a wee pannacotta…I’ve got my priorities right and I’m bossy enough to ensure Norjie got her priorities right too!!!
After Barga it was back to the Panda and off again, making our way back to Lucca, with a brief stop at the Devil’s Bridge at Borgo a Mozzano for a photo op. We dropped the car off after the biggest difficulty of the day which was working out how to fill it up in a self service thingo!! I put in 50 Eu and then couldn’t retrieve any change which made it an expensive fill-up!!
We got back to Lucca and the apartment at around 6pm. Just time to cool off, have a shower and go the “The World’s Best Restaurant” , Ristorante Giglio for dinner…my shout to farewell Norjie. We had a MASSIVE bistecca to share because Norjie wanted to try the Tuscan specialty…I can’t believe I got through it…took a while!! It was a lovely night and a late night.
So then there is the Monday morning need to face school. Each week we are missing some of the friends from previous week but today there was a ‘new’ woman who is from Adelaide and who I knew from ages ago when she was at Italian school before she went off to Sicily, Carmel. She is lovely although I think far too good to be in my class.
After school I had to meet up with this other Australian woman I had met ages ago through one of the teachers. She is a delight and we sat over a 3 hour lunch nattering like mad. She hasn’t come to school yet but will do so, probably after I leave.
Just in case you are wondering at how badly I am neglecting Norjie, she went off to Pisa for the day today and had a lovely time. Dinner at home tonight!! She leaves Thursday morning then I have one more week before I head down to Rome and then on to Matera.