| Sep 15, 2005 - Food, Wine and Family in Lucca, Italy
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 | Famous Tower in Lucca
| | Famous Church in Lucca
| | Budding Chef and His Master
| | Some of the Finished Product
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 | Vernazza (Cinque Terre)
| | You Can See it in his EYES, he loves it here (Vernazza)
| | Vernazza from part of the hike to the next town, Monte Rosso
| | One of the other towns, I think it was Rio Maggiore
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| Crostini with pate, Crostini with sausage and cheese, hand cut tagliatele with porcini sauce, hand cut spinach and ricotta cheese ravioli with sage butter sauce, hand cut lasagne with ragu and bechamel sauces, flourless chocolate cake with orange sauce...These were our creations in the cooking class we took in Lucca. Of course, the best part of the class was eating it all at the end and the dishes were paired with smooth local wines. Our teacher was a sweet lady who had a few near brushes with culinary disaster as she scrambled to help us execute the lofty menu in the alotted time. After the wine, her cheeks flushed and what little English command she had disappeared as fast as the food.
I really enjoyed Lucca. The little walled city has now-familiar cobblestone streets, the buildings are painted the color of the Tuscan sun and have green shutters and terra cotta tiled roofs. We walked around encountering the occasional piazza (square) with a centerpiece cathedral encircled by bustling outdoor cafes. We stayed in a guesthouse owned by a couple - the two most enthusiastic people I have ever seen. The owners of Hotel La Torre are probably in their early sixties - Alfredo with a curly mop of black hair and a red and white striped shirt unbuttoned too far that he wore every day we were there (5 days.) Lena served a great breakfast in her ruffly apron of prosciutto and melon, bucciolato (Luchese coffe cake tastes of aniseed) boiled eggs, breads, jams, nutella and coffee. She chatters away in Italian at each guest as though he/she understands. Paul probably spoke the most Italian and therefore our table was engaged for the near entirety of each breakfast (leaving Paul exhausted and me confused.)
We took a bike adventure into the beautiful Tuscan countryside and saw Paul's grandfather's old house and a villa belonging to the other side of the family. (This bike ride also reinforced how out-of-shape I've become, huffing and puffing up the rolling hills.)
We met with Paul's cousin Michela and her husband Alessandro and their 2.5 girls (Michela is 8 months pregnant) and her parents. They took us into the countryside to a winery for an authentic local feast. Olives, salami, more prosciutto, farro (local soup) rabbit dish (which I refrained from since I had a pet rabbit as a kid for about 9 years) and more local vinos. They also took us through a few towns, one with a winery, one where Pinocchio was conceived. Unfortunately, due to a festive time of year we struggled to find parking, but ultimately made it to a cafe for a final nightcap. This was our last night in Lucca.
Cinque Terre
We headed to the northwest coast of Italy via train to Cinque Terre. This was a quaint set of 5 little coastside towns (about a block or two long each) with bright pastel colored buildings arranged on gentle slopes rising from the ports. The towns were linked by a stone and dirt path and we got up early one morning to do the few mile hike to five towns. The hike was really great. Now that we have been traveling about 4 months we have become pretty efficient at finding good accomodations and negotiating good prices. After we arrived I began to scout the town of Vernazza for accomodations and after about a fruitless half hour of walking around began to lose hope when a man suddenly appeared behind me on the alley street and asked if I needed a place to stay. I followed him up a path and some stairs to a cute spot right behind the bell tower of the main church. Each day this man (never got his name) appeared out of nowhere to greet us and leave homemade (excellent) wine, breakfast pastries and bowl of grapes and figs. One of his appearances caught full frontal Paul off guard (he forgot to knock) while I was out getting breakfast! oops. |
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