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Settling in Lucca

Well, I think I’ll sleep well tonight!! In my efforts to entertain myself I went a bit too far I think. This morning after spending more endless hours trying to send photos via iCloud (and failing) I set off to find a Sunday morning coffee. This is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I went to a place and got totally ripped off because they charged massively for table service. So the search for Sunday AM coffee continues. Then I came home and put more effort into stupid iCloud. Then off I went, taking a deep breath due to the challenging nature of the enterprise for me, and hired a bike and set off to cycle the wall alone. In fact it went well and I was able to get around the wall twice on the bike. Clever me I thought…think I’ll have lunch somewhere!! So I went (information for Rosa) to the place on Via Giorgio (the street on the way back from the laundromat) that we went to with the little courtyard area in the front. That was nice…I had a seafood spaghetti and a little vino. I then came home for a bit and then decided to now walk the wall…which I did, but golly the old legs felt it. That’s nearly 15km one way or another by the time you get to the wall and back. So now I’m home and have a glass of wine firmly in hand.

I’m trying to download House of Cards Ham but that is also proving challenging. Not to worry I’ll talk to you soon and in the meantime I have bought Olive Kitteridge from iTunes and am half way through that…it is depressing but I’m involved!!!

That’s it from here.

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Finding my way in Lucca

First full day of the next 4 months and creating a life in Lucca. Still fumbling a bit but getting there. Up this morning and off for the mandatory coffee. Then a bit of shopping to ensure a weekend supply of food (always central to my existence). Then back home and a cheering 3-way phone between Aust., London and Lucca. That was really nice….I feel connected!! Also talk of my next treats with Ang, Kirst, Ham and Ariane makes me happy!!

My great frustration today has been my efforts to transfer photos via iCloud or Dropbox. I have made multiple attempts and have a mess on my hands with no idea how to work my way out of it. iCloud has charged me for more space and then has said it’s full and I can’t share. then I don’t know how to delete what they have gone and put in there that I don’t want. I’ve tried ‘HELP’, done what they said to no avail. So went out and walked around the wall. It’s a fairly (5 km) solid walk by the time you get to the wall and back so that is good and hopefully will be undertaken every day. It’s drizzling a bit but nothing to worry too much about.

I then followed Rose’s instructions just as if she were here and I went to a little bar that serves a pasta for lunch. I sat there with a wine and a Ravioli with butter and sage…nice. Then I headed home. Had another try at the fucking iCloud with ideas I came up with as I walked but its a horrible mess I’m afraid. I want to delete and start again but it won’t let me!!!

I’ve been at home this afternoon, having a bit of a read, doing some cooking up of asparagus and spinach to have some green with my meal and generally doing not too much. As discussed this morning, I’m allocating this weekend to just get myself back on the up and up.

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Once again time has passed and Rosa also is now back in Melbourne

Sad Mumma is back but she’s not going to hang around for too long. I hate goodbyes and am very bad at them and I hate the feeling of coming back to emptiness, it makes me so sad. But not to be too indulged for too long…so what does Sad Mumma do? What any woman does in this situation. Laundromat, clean every surface in range, hand wash jumpers, organise, buy mad things like labels for the rubbish…you name it. And then there’s eating and drinking to console and there’s reacquainting with my most loyal of friends, Al Jazeera, as well as getting back to a long overdue email to remember the wonderful last few days and finding a new series to keep me happy. Ham left House of Cards Series 3 so I guess that’s where I start. Is it there? Haven’t checked yet!!

For the purposes of this email I think I’ll work backwards starting with the last 24 hours. Yesterday morning, early, Rose and I set off from Lucca to get down to Roma and then out to the airport. Everything worked well and we were at the airport with excessive time to spare. I started to blubber before we left Lucca!! But generally got through it all. After a horrid airport drink and food (really shit) I waved Rose through security, narrowly avoiding one of the security people thinking I was having a breakdown and calling an ambulance for me!!! I then got myself back into Rome and up to Chris’ place. I must say that it is good to feel so familiar with Rome these days, it feels a bit like coming home. Got to Chris before she left for work…it was good to be with a friend!! When she went to work I went out walking. Got myself a Gelato and some wine and went back to the apt. I set up her fantastic home movie thingo and watched ‘The Theory of Everything’ which was good and gave me a legitimate reason to cry again. When Chris got home she cooked a yummy meal, we watched some Breaking Bad (she is hooked) and I was so exhausted I went to bed. This morning we went for coffee. There was a bus strike so we were thinking Chris would have to drive me to the station to get my train back to Lucca. But I saw the only bus for miles around trundling down the road so made a mad dash across a massive, busy road and jumped on it. No time for even any goodbyes!!! It was good that I did because at the station there were just no busses in sight so I was lucky. Since then…. go back to the beginning and read ‘cleaning, organising, obsessing and being compulsive’.

Back to Wednesday…Rose’s last day in Lucca. A quiet and really nice day. Doing some shopping and wandering around. having a lovely lunch back at one of our favourite places…a Fresh Produce ‘Market’. We had a rest in the afternoon. Then I kept insisting that I wanted to ride a bike around the Wall so that Rose was with me to get over the hump of getting back on my bike (as it were). Rose was sceptical but compliant, so Mission accomplished and I’ll now try and ride a few times around the wall as often as I can. Then we rested again, had some aperitivo at a nearby wine bar and then went out to Rose’s choice for her last meal, Buca di San Antonio. They greeted us like long lost friends, treated us very well and we had a lovely meal which included striking up a conversation with George and Judit at the table next to us. An older Hungarian couple who live in London and were very interesting.

The day before was Tuesday…and this was a BIG one!!! Very big for little me and so amazing, a really great day that was such a good thing to do. Off we set at 7am to get ourselves to the Cinque Terre. This meant a train to Viareggio, a change of train to La Spezia and then the Cinque Terre train. We got off at Riomaggiore and got all the information we could find, decided to get back on the train and go to the furthest village of Monterosso. The only part of the walking trail that was open was between Monterosso and Vernazza. It was the hardest walk and it really was challenging, in anyone’s terms I reckon. It certainly challenged me but having said that it was also so rewarding. The views were undeniably spectacular, the sun shone as only the sun can shine and the towns are delightful. It was just a great day. When we got to Vernazza we had a well earned beer (yes, even I was hot enough to have a beer). I had a delicious lunch (Rose wasn’t quite so lucky). We had the mandatory gelati on the waterfront. Then we decided we’d done everything we’d set out to do and it was a long trip home so we got back on the train(s) and headed home. After a bit of a rest, and an aperativo we went out to tea at a Pizza restaurant we went to with H&A…Rusticanella2. This was good. Home and to bed exhausted.

Nearly there…If I was anyone reading this I probably would have given up by now. Monday was an ‘explore Lucca’ day. We wandered around and went to the Duomo (finally), the Palazzo Sfanner which is utterly divine with a most beautiful garden, then to Chiesa San Michele. We had a nice lunch in a little Piazza looking at a statue of Puccini. We were both tired on Monday so had a restful afternoon and went out to a restaurant we hadn’t been to before, Da Giullio which was OK but not that great.

So that’s it…caught up again. Now it’s time for me to think about some tea. I bought a ready-made lasagna before Rose left so now is the time to devour it!!

My love to all who read this garbage….sorry it is so endlessly boring this time around.

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More heavenly days of touring around with Ham, Ariane and Rose

These emails have been so infrequent because we’ve been SO busy. Having a car makes you want to see and do everything while you have the opportunity and this we have done. This past week with the kids in Tuscany has truly been amazingly wonderful. But let me pick up where I left off after the day in Pisa.

The next day, Thursday we headed off to Genova for the day. We just got on the autostrada and got ourselves there and then spent the rest of the day exploring the streets of Genova. What a great city! Reminiscent of Naples in that it is centred around a thriving port and a city that has seen the splendour of the seafaring heyday. But Genova has an elegant side with beautiful old palazzos lining the streets in the upper town. You can just imagine the ancient splendour. It also has a seedy/ edgy side to it like Naples. So full of life and people and activity and decay. A large immigrant population adds to the life of the city. We all loved it. We went and had a great lunch…full of the pesto that originated in Genova and (for me) the fish! Then we wandered around the tiny, winding streets of the old port town. We walked up to the more elegant area with all the palazzos that lined the streets and once buzzed with life. We went into Palazzo Reale that is now a museum with the opulence of the times on display. Totally gorgeous really. To the Duomo, a quick aperitivo, then finally back to the car and home to Lucca. Home late to Lucca and then out to find a Pizza for dinner. A big day!

Friday we retraced our steps almost to Genova but turned off to explore the Italian Riviera and get an injection of the world of the rich and famous. First to Rapallo with its old, decaying seaside mansions, castle on the water and lovely water front promenade. Then on to Santa Margherita where we had lunch, wandered around a bit to take in the sites and then on to Portofino…the jewel in the crown of the Italian Riviera. It is so beautiful, it really is. It still has the air of a small, beautiful fishing village despite the obvious presence of the rich and famous with the amazing yachts and the expensive restaurants. For all this it doesn’t seem to lose its charm. We had THE most delicious gelati there and sat by the waterfront in the sun. It was really lovely. Then home again, back along the windy cliff edge road. Back in Lucca we had dinner at Ristorante All’Olivio where Rose and I had been before H&A arrived in Lucca. It was a splendid meal. In fact I think I had the best meal I’ve had in Italy. It was heaven. A beautiful fresh pasta with tomato and superb mozzarella- type cheese, followed by the most divine pigeon you could ever imagine. It was so tender and so delicious. I was ecstatic. Then my desert was to die for…a pannacotta- type thing with an orange sauce. Impossible to describe!

Saturday. Ham and Ariane’s last day in Tuscany and what better way to spend it than touring around the Chianti area with wine tastings and a lovely lunch at a futuristic winery…Antinori nel Chianti Classico. It was a most beautiful day really. It was sunny and warm and the drive was just too beautiful for words. We went to Castello di Verrazano to taste their wines (and buy a couple of bottles), then on to enjoy a lovely lunch with local wines, then drove some more through vineyards, olive trees, castellos and ancient hilltop villages before going to Volpaia, Radda in Chianti for another tasting (and purchasing) and then home. A Glorious day really.

For their last night in Tuscany Ham and Ariane had their choice of restaurants to go to for dinner which very predictably saw us back at the best of the best, Ristorante Giglio for our magnificent Last Supper. Again the first dish is always wonderfully fresh pasta and then Ham and Ariane shared a Bistecca- about a kilo of the most tender and tasty meat you could wish for. Ham particularly really got into it demolishing the massive T-bone! Rose and I were marginally more delicate but definitely not left behind with Veal cheek and pork. We won’t go into the amazing desert of semi-freddo ice-cream with crackly chocolate sauce…oh my god!!!

This morning was very sombre for the mumma. We got up, got organised, walked to the car park with H&A getting a coffee on the way and then had to sadly wave them off to Pisa for them to catch the plane back to London. What a lovely, lovely time it has been. I’m so lucky to have a few more days with Rose here in Lucca but already the end is nearing and I will so hate to see such a lovely time come to an end. But before it does we will make the most of what is left. Rose and I laundromatted, aperitivo’d, lunched and went to the Torture Museum for the rest of our day. We’re now resting before we aperitivo again and then decide what to do for dinner. A happy Mumma for another few days!!

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Tuscan days

The days are just flying by and as a consequence no emails have been forthcoming from me. So this is a catch up.
Sunday: Exactly as planned. A day of grazing. It was crazy…we couldn’t eat all the food for lunch so had to extend the meal into dinner. Antipasto platter consisting of cheeses, prosciutto, salami, bruscetta, etc…so delicious, all the produce of this wonderful food oriented country. Then the primi piatti which was a delicious pumpkin ravioli with a gorgonzola sauce. We then went out for a bit of a walk in the afternoon. The streets were full and bustling. Then home to cook up a chicken with garlic, oil and lemon. For desert we had bought a delicious custard/cream and strawberry pie and a torte di limone…just superb. This was all washed down with Aperol Spritz’s, beer, wine by the tonne and finished with Arancello and (for Hammy only) Grappa. Talk about a feast day.

Monday: A public holiday in Italy and we set off for the Giardino dei Tarocchi which is a sculpture park I had been told to go to. It is south of Lucca and near the coast. We naively thought this would be a lovely little excursion with a fish lunch by the seaside. So off we set. As it turns out so did every other Italian family in the whole bloody country. Our lunch by the seaside turned into a bit of a fiasco with not a single table to be found anywhere and the streets of our lovely little seaside town jam packed full. We eventually found a place where we could get takeaway and sat on a street bench with hamburgers, seafood lasagna, beer and wine. Sunny but cold!! Eventually we got to Giardino dei Tarocchi and had to fight our way into the carpark and then stand in a queue, absolutely freezing our butts off, for an hour to get into the place. It is a great park, similar to the Gaudi Park in Barcelona, with wonderful, colourful and bizarre sculptures to look at and climb into. Would have been wonderful with less people around. We finally got home around 10pm due to awful traffic. Cooked up some leftovers for tea and went to bed exhausted.

Tuesday: Off for a drive through the Chianti Region and to take in San Gimignano and Siena. Although still cold the sun was shining and it was a gorgeous day. So lovely driving through the Tuscan countryside through the typical rolling, vine and olive tree covered hills. We went first of all to San Gimignano. It is a really beautiful town as everyone probably knows, wonderfully preserved, antiquated twisting, tumbling and climbing streets, with towers and churches adding to the atmosphere. We went to an absolutely superb place for lunch that we had read about and were lucky enough to get there in time to get a table. Many were not so lucky. We had a superb meal and a lovely chianti. We wondered through the town some more, had a heavenly gelati and then headed off for Siena. Again driving through the beautiful countryside. Siena is lovely. I have been there in the last couple of months so I planted myself in Italy’s most beautiful Piazza (Del Campo), found a spot in the sun and sat there while the others went off to the Duomo. We wondered around the town and then headed off for home. The trip home was the drive from hell. We’re not sure what had happened but there was a massive blockage of traffic. So much so that cars were driving off the on-ramp to get away from it and we all made Hammy do the same. He was very brave…this would NOT be something you would do in Australia!! Anyway we kept hitting blocked traffic and exiting very cleverly to get around it all. When we hit Lucca we went straight out for a meal in a cheap and very cheerful ristorante which was fun. Then again late home and into bed.

Wednesday:….finally catching up, I’m now up to today. This morning it was off to Pisa. Saw the tower…tick(didn’t climb it though), saw the battistero…tick. and the campanile…tick. All really nice but the really nice thing was when we’d seen everything we had to see and went off walking in the town. It is a lovely town and I had never really explored the town before. I’d been into the main tourist area but what I loved today was that we got away from there and found to our delight a wonderful town. We went down to the Arno River and honestly you wouldn’t know whether you were in Pisa or Firenze they are so similar along the river. Again we found a place for lunch but this time not as successfully as in San Gimignano. Hammy was determined to have a pizza but unfortunately the place we found was mediocre at best. Still nice sitting out in the sun.

Then we came back here. Before coming back to the apartment we went for a walk along Lucca’s wall for a way just to soak it up in the sunshine. It is just glorious when the sun shines, it really is. Ham and Ariane have now gone off to do some laundry at the Laundromat and tonight we are going to a restaurant North of Lucca recommended by Chris to eat game!!

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Early days in Lucca

It’s been a few days. Rose and I spent Thursday getting our bearings in Lucca. We walked the wall (at least most of it until we hopped off to find some lunch). We sat in the glorious sunshine and had a most delicious pasta. We also did the mundane things. We found the supermarket, identified the shops we’d be needing to be able to cook up an Easter feast. We bought Rose a little jacket given that she hadn’t packed anything warm. We took it easy in the afternoon then went out and had a nice meal at Trattoria L’Olivio, then home to bed. Still very nippy in the evenings.

On Friday we went walking again after morning coffee. It is business as usual on Good Friday in Italy which feels a bit weird. So we did a bit more window shopping. Did a bit more wall walking before we found another nice place to sit in the sun for lunch. Then it was time to get on the bus for Pisa Airport and go and pick up Ham and Ariane. As we were about to get on the bus we got messages to say their plane was delayed. We got on the bus anyway and their plane was an hour and a half late. Not too much drama, just another excuse to have to go to a bar for wine/beer/coffee.

So exciting to see them..what more pleasure for a mumma!! We took ages to finalise the car hire mainly because I didn’t bring the right credit card. Anyway eventually we were on the road and in Lucca before long at all. Parked the car outside the walls and walked in to the apartment. Aperitifs and settling in time and then out for dinner to a fantastic restaurant called Buca di San Antonio. It was great…fabulous food and lovely atmosphere. So much to eat!!

Now we are up to yesterday. The weather angel finally decided it was time for a big piss and it rained and rained all day. Apart from running off to put money in the car meter and having coffee and doing LOADS of shopping for Easter Sunday/ Monday we did little in the morning. We then went and found a place for lunch. We happened upon a lovely place for the mandatory fresh, delicious pasta.

We then thought despite the awful rain that we’d go for a little drive in the surrounds of Lucca. And it was absolutely lovely. A lush, green valley with mineral springs, lovely little villages and a river with picturesque bridges. We got to a town called Barga and walked through it’s steep winding streets up to the Duomo on top of the hill. That was lovely. Then back to Lucca. What could have been a wet and miserable afternoon was really enjoyable. We got home late and could only spruce up to get ready to out to dinner to “Lucca’s best” restaurant Ristorante Giglio. And it was truly heavenly food. I’ve never had a gnocchi like it….just superb as was every single dish. Lovely wine and a desert to only dream about. A fitting start to the easter break.

Today we have stocked up for a ‘cook-up’ at home for Easter Sunday. It will be fun. I for one am in heaven surrounded by family. Just missing you A&K!!!

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Arrived in Lucca

Here we are ensconced in Lovely Lucca after a very rocky start this morning. I’d paid a 200Eu deposit on the apartment and had to settle up the electricity bill. I’d told Eleonora (Landlady/ Manager) that we had to catch a train at 10am and had arranged to meet her at 8.45am. So we were up nice and early, showered, packed, cleaned the apartment and were waiting at 8.45…and we waited and waited. By 9.30 I started to ring her, no answer!! By 10 I was worried by 10.30 still no Eleonora. Finally she rang at about 10.40. I said our train was going at 11.10 am and we couldn’t wait. She said she’d be here in 15 mins. To cut a really exasperatingly long story short she arrived about five to eleven. Our train actually went at 11.20 but we were frantic. Anyway, grabbed some money from her and ran. Got a subway train immediately (had to race for that too) and then had to fly to get on our train in time with 3 suitcases and a lot of angst.

All went well after that, we connected in Florence and came on to Lucca. Cristina’s husband was there to meet us and we are comfortably settled into our apartment with a wine and a beer in our respective hands. We’ll head off out to dinner before too long and then call it a day with lots of exploring to do in the morning. I have to say that coming to a new city and finding my feet is SO much nicer and easier with Rosa. It’s fun and I love the feel of the city. I cannot tell you how much I’m just loving having Rosa with me as we sort it all out. Where’s the supermarket? Where is the best place to buy wine, have a coffee, hire a bike etc etc.

More adventures from Lucca in the lead up to Easter. Very excited about H&A arriving on Friday too…this is just too much excitement for an old and erstwhile solitary girl!!