Lucca

15 Monday Jun 2020

Posted by Un po' di pepe in Italia, Photography, Travel

Tags

Daytrips from Firenze, Daytrips from Siena, Italian history, Lucca, Torre Guinigi, Toscana, UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Lucca is one of my favourite smaller cities in Italia. While writing my last post, I realized that I have not yet dedicated a whole post to Lucca! Founded by the Etruscans as Luk, meaning marsh, Lucca became a Roman colony in 180 BC. In the 12^th-13^th centuries, the silk trade and banking were responsible for economic development and population increase. Lucca was an independent republic for 500 years, until Italian unification. Today the population is 88,000 and Lucca has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2006.

Lucca does not have 1 or 2 monumental sites-the city itself is the attraction! Lucca is best known for the well preserved, intact Renaissance walls encircling it. The complex defense network is still mostly intact, 12 m high and 30 m wide, with 6 porte – entrance gates and 10 ramparts. The only thing missing is the moat, which was filled in the 1800’s.

On top of the walls is Via delle Mura Urbane, a wide 4.2 km tree lined pathway that is popular for walking, cycling and running. When entering Lucca, the 16^th C walls from can be seen from below. Bike rentals are available near most of the entry gates.

Lucca has a real ‘lived in’ feel to it. Walking through one of the gate tunnels is like stepping back in time. Lucca is flat, with a random street layout. Most of the centro storico is pedestrian only and full of biciclette to photograph. The streets are narrow and flanked by tall, narrow buildings. The many towers and other landmarks are often not visible from below, so it is easy and fun to get lost among the historic architecture and cobblestone streets. Lucca

The main street, Via Fillungo has beautiful storefronts and buildings. It connects Piazza Anfiteatro and Piazza San Michele. Piazza Anfiteatro’s oval shape is the ‘ghost’ of the 10,000 seat Roman amphitheater that once stood there. Entrance to the piazza is through brick tunnels.The stones were looted to build other structures, but the tall buildings in shades of yellow and cream with green shutters were built following the shape of the former amphitheater.

As in San Gimignano, defense towers were a status symbol for Lucca’s wealthy families in the 1300’s. Lucca’s skyline has several towers, the most famous being the 45 m Romanesque Gothic red brick Torre Guinigi. Built in 1384 by the Guinigi family of silk merchants, the tower is 45 m tall with 7 Holm Oak trees growing on top, symbolizing rebirth. The rooftop was originally used for dining, with the kitchen on the floor below. Imagine carrying dishes the 232 steps to the top! Admission is €5 single/ €8 family. A 2 day combination ticket can also be purchased that includes Torre delle Ore and Orto Botanico

At 50m Torre delle Ore is the tallest tower in Lucca. It started as a personal defensive tower, and when defense was no longer needed, it was turned into a clock in 1390. The present clock mechanism is from the 1700’s. It even has its own resident ghost legend-in 1623, a Lucchese woman who had sold her soul to the devil ran up to the top to try to stop time, but she didn’t make it. Climb the top to see rooftop Lucca and the best views of Torre Guinigi. In the photo below you can see Torre delle Ore and the campanile of San Martino.

Lucca has over 70 churches. The Gothic/Pisan Romanesque church of San Martino was started in 1070. It has a mismatched 14^th C campanile-the top is white like the church, but the lower half is red quartz stone. The church façade has 3 levels of open arches and each of the 37 columns are different. There was a contest for the design of the columns and each artist submitted one. Instead of awarding a winner, all of the columns were used without paying the artists. Che furbi! San Martino is home to the famous relic, a cedar crucifix known as il Volto Santo di Lucca (the holy face) and works of art by Jacopo della Quercia, Ghirlandaio and Tintoretto.

Like much of Lucca, the church of San Michele in Foro was built on a much earlier structure. Piazza San Michele was formerly the Roman Forum. The façade has 4 rows of ornate arches and columns, similar to San Martino. I do not think artists contributed these columns for free! San Michele has works by Tuscan superstars Luca della Robbia and Filippino Lippi.

The oldest church in Lucca, 6th C San Frediano has a beautiful golden mosaic façade.

Lucca is the birthplace of Giacomo Puccini, and the house where he was born is now Museo Puccini. Admission is €7. If you are in Lucca in the evening, it is common to hear music coming from churches, piazze and the opera house Teatro del Giglio.

Lucca is beautiful to visit any time of the year……except for the first week of November! Unless you are attending, avoid visiting during Lucca Comics and Games. Lucca is NW of Firenze, closer to Pisa. The train station is right across the street from Porta San Pietro, one of the entry gates, making Lucca an easy day trip -90min from Firenze and 30 min from Pisa. Lucca really deserves a few days of its own though, and also makes a great base to see the rest of Toscana.

The photos in this post were taken on 4 separate visits over a 15 year period, which explains the dramatic weather fluctuations!

Lucca is also mentioned in the posts Viaggio con Isabella and Autunno in Italia

Photos of San Martino and San Frediano from wikimedia commons.

Buon viaggio, Cristina

Viaggio con Isabella

20 Wednesday May 2020

Posted by Un po' di pepe in Amici e Famiglia, Firenze, Italia, Photography, Travel

≈ 32 Comments

Tags

Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi, Italy travel tips, Lucca, Milano, Monteriggioni, Oltrarno, Torre di Giotto, Vernazza, Viaggi in pultrona

One year ago I was just returning from Italia with my nipotina Isabella. Since we are not able to travel in real life, viaggiamo in pultrona, let’s armchair travel and revisit our trip.

A bit of backstory…when Isabella was about 8 years old, she saw a photo of me on the Ponte Vecchio and asked ‘Zia, where is this?’. I replied ‘Firenze’ and she asked if we could go there together one day. I was thrilled at the opportunity to share my love of Firenze with her, so of course I said ‘Si! We can go when you graduate’. We were delayed a few years due to scheduling issues, but last year in between Isabella finishing her university classes and starting a summer job, we managed to squeeze in a 2 week trip!

We flew to Firenze, where we rented a studio apartment in the Oltrarno for a week. It was in a renovated stone tower a short walk from the Ponte Vecchio and down a narrow alley from Piazza della Passera.

Chef Peppe Zullo, our amico from Orsara, was in town our first day. We met him at the Mercato Centrale where he and his son Michele had recently taken over a restaurant upstairs called Tosca.

We had prebooked only 1 museum-the Uffizi of course, for the Saturday so that Gaetano, our cugino in med school could join us. New Caravaggio rooms have opened since my last visit! I noticed many portraits of Anna Maria Luisa de Medici on display. We have her to thank for all of this! Isabella loved the Uffizi, not just for the artwork, also the building itself, so Gaetano suggested she visit Palazzo Pitti another day.

I am ‘vertically challenged’, which may be why I like to climb to the top of things, especially if there is a view involved. We climbed almost everything in Firenze, starting with a walk to Piazzale Michelangelo via Porta San Niccolò for views of the city, then continuing up to San Miniato al Monte. We climbed the dizzying narrow stairs to the top of Brunelleschi’s Duomo to see the views and the Torre Giotto. Another day we climbed the Torre Giotto and saw the Duomo! These climbs were vital to working off gelato! For more photos taken from above see Viste di Firenze.

We also enjoyed the view, modern art and caffè from la terrazza degli Uffizi. This is the title of one of my monotypes, so I had to throw that in there! The Aperol Spritz from the roof bar of La Rinascente in Piazza della Repubblica was the best I have had. With her new headband and puffy sleeves, Isabella looked like a Renaissance principessa enjoying a spritz!

We were on constant lookout for street art by Blub-even Gaetano when he was with us. The results of our Blub hunt are in the post L’arte sa Nuotare.

Isabella loves caffè. She started ordering caffè lungo because both times she ordered un americano, they repeated ‘American coffee’ and tried to serve her drip coffee! Mannaggia! What has the world come to! Caffe a Firenze We had caffè at a different place every morning, including Caffè degli Artigiani in Piazza della Passera, Bar d’ Angolo in Porta Romana, one of my old favourites I Dolci di Patrizio Cosi, and one place way too close to Ponte Vecchio. They were all wonderful! Isabella kept track of the cost of a cornetto and 2 caffè lunghi…..as expected, she found the price decreased and the quality increased the farther out we went! Valuable life lessons!

We joined 5 others on a lovely daytrip from San Gimignano to Siena with Piero of Bike Florence and Tuscany. The weather was ominous, either sprinkling or threatening to rain all day. Monteriggioni was a stop for wine tasting and we cycled parts of the Via Francigena. In Siena we had a few hours to explore the city and have Panforte.

The weather was not very warm for May. I think this is the first time I have ever packed a small umbrella, but glad I did! We had to dress in layers, or ‘a la cipolla’ as they say in italiano. Some evenings in Firenze, it seemed like we were wearing ALL of the clothes in our valigia! Despite this, we walked everywhere.

Here is our map –YES- a map-of where we walked. Maps of the city centre are great for getting oriented. It is much easier than trying to look at a GPS on a tiny phone screen. We did not have time to take the bus to Fiesole or get to L’Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David or attend Mass at Santa Croce. Isabella will definitely need to get back to Firenze. While shopping, she did receive many compliments every day on her Italiano, even bartering down the price of a cute leather jacket!Lucca was our next stop, 1.5 hours away by train. Lucca is one of my favourite places in Italia! We stayed at a small B&B near Torre Guinigi. The owners found out we lived in Vancouver and told us about their nipote in Vancouver who is Isabella’s age. I started to say that Vancouver was a big city…… when Isabella said ‘Uh….Zia….I actually do know him…. Che mondo piccolo! After that, every time they saw Isabella, with no subtlety at all, they went on about what a nice boy he was!

Lucca is known for its intact medieval walls. We rented biciclette to ride the path on top of the walls. The forecast was for good weather. We had done 4 laps of the tree lined 4 km route, when unexpectedly a torrential downpour started. It rained so hard we could barely see.

We tried to get off the path, but visibility was so bad we could not tell which gate and ‘onramp’ we had taken to get up to the wall. This was important because we had to return the bikes where we rented them. Isabella wore her new jacket, and rather than get it ruined in the rain, she had folded it up inside out in a plastic bag in the cestino -the basket- leaving her in short sleeves. Brrrr!

By the time we got to Piazza Anfiteatro to warm up and wait for the rain to stop, we looked like wet rats. The restaurants are outdoor, so they had large heaters, and even blankets. A friend was coming from Viareggio for aperitivo later, but she had to cancel due to the weather. Even in the rain, Lucca is spectacular. It is also a great place to shop! I never spend enough time in Lucca.

Our next stop was La Spezia via Pisa and on to Vernazza, our home base in the Cinque Terre. I wrote about our time there in 2 posts- Le Cinque Terre and Exploring le Cinque Terre. The second post is specifically about our adventures. The weather was beautiful, which is good, as there are no indoor activities there! Hiking all day with a 19 year old is hard work, so luckily there was wine tasting in the evening!The morning we left Vernazza was raining almost as much as on the walls of Lucca! Isabella had been to Roma several times, but not to Milano, so we booked to fly home from there. We met our cugina Federica, who we stayed with, and went to the Navigli area to have dinner with more cugini. Our visit was too short. We spent the next day walking and window shopping around the Cento Storico and had a few ‘streetside reunions’ and phone calls with more cugini and a friend. I have been to Milano many times but have yet to see L’Ultima Cenacola, Da Vinci’s Last Supper. Even 2 weeks in advance, I was not able to book admission. Another reason to return!We hope you have enjoyed this piccolo viaggio virtuale with us! Hopefully we can travel again soon. Ciao, Cristina & Isabella

Olive Oil Limoncello Cake

25 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by Un po' di pepe in Mangiamo!, Recipes

≈ 28 Comments

Tags

Casa Berti, Catalyst Art Retreat, Cucina Italiana, Dolci, Gugliano, Italian food, Limoncello, Lucca, Olive oil harvest, Olive oil limoncello cake

In November I attended an art retreat, surrounded by 900 olive trees! It was at Casa Berti near Gugliano, about 40 minutes outside of Lucca. There were also lemon trees in giant terra cotta pots on the terrace, not yet ready to be moved into the limonaia for the winter. Many of the lemons become limoncello. I was so inspired and distracted by the olive trees that I took several breaks from art making to pick olives. I could not help it-they were calling to me! Every day or two, when there were enough picked, they would be taken to the frantoio or olive press and then return to Casa Berti as lush, fragrant oil. Green gold as a friend calls it. The Casa Berti cucina had a stainless steel bidone full of new oil with a little spout for pouring.

Being surrounded by olives, freshly pressed oil, fresh lemons and limoncello, I had the urge to make an olive oil limoncello cake. I have been making this cake for years, but I did not have the recipe with me. I also left my art making to bake just when Ben, the owner of Casa Berti, had gone on another run to the frantoio with olives. I searched the kitchen but could not find any measuring utensils or a scale, so the measurements were all a big guess. ??? Luckily I knew where the limoncello was!

The cake came out better than usual, probably due to the quality and freshness of the ingredients. I usually just dust it simply with zucchero in polvere-icing sugar. For a fancier look, make a limoncello glaze with icing sugar and limoncello. The cake is also nice with fresh fruit, especially raspberries or blueberries. It goes equally well with a cup of espresso or a glass of limoncello and is also very easy to make-you don’t even need a mixer-just a wooden spoon and a whisk. I adjusted some of the amounts to the recipe based on the Casa Berti cake, but if your measurements are not exact, non ti preoccupare, it will probably still taste good!

Casa Berti

Casa Berti Olive Oil Limoncello Cake

400g (~3 cups) flour

200g (almost 1 cup) sugar

4 medium sized eggs or 3 large eggs

160ml (~ ¾ cup) extra virgin olive oil

130 ml (~½ cup) milk

60 ml (¼ cup, 4 tablespoons) limoncello

Grated zest/peel of 2 organic lemons

16g packet Pane degli Angeli (or 15 ml/1 tablespoon baking powder)

Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F)
Butter and flour a 23 cm (9 inch) pan
In a small bowl, add the lemon peel to the sugar and mix with fingers or the back of a spoon until they are well mixed and the sugar looks damp
Whisk the eggs and add the sugar/peel mixture
Add the olive oil, milk and limoncello
Add flour a bit at a time and stir with a wooden spoon just until the flour is mixed in. Do not over mix
Add Pane degli Angeli
Spoon into the pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. Be careful not to overbake or it may come out dry
Cool and dust with icing sugar
For a fancier topping, make a limoncello glaze with 1 cup icing sugar and 30 ml (2 tablespoons) limoncello. If it is too dry, add another 15 ml (1 tablespoon) limoncello or milk. Mix together and drizzle onto cake.

For a post on how to make your own limoncello, click Limoncello. Buon appetito, Cristina

Autunno in Italia

30 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by Un po' di pepe in Firenze, Italia, Orsara di Puglia, Photography, Roma, Travel tips

≈ 30 Comments

Tags

Autumn in Italy, Casa Berti, Catalyst Art Retreat, Falò e Teste del Purgatorio, Firenze, Gugliano, Italy travel tips, Lucca, Orsara di Puglia, Piazzale Michelangelo, Roma, Tutti i Santi Festa

Returning from my short trip to Italia, as usual I was back to work the next morning. This did not help with the cambiamento di fuso orario. I have so many posts to write, but now they will have to wait until after Christmas. Until then, here is a quick summary with some highlights from my viaggietto. It was a bit of a blur….at 17 days, I think this was my shortest ever trip to Italia!

I had not been to Italia in autunno before. The fall weather was mostly clear and sunny, with a few days of serious rain. I envisioned myself having every piazza practically to myself….was I ever mistaken! My first few days were in Roma the last weekend of October. The Pantheon was packed with more people than I have ever seen in July! I could barely make it through the crowd to throw my coin into the Fontana di Trevi! I found out that some European countries have their school midterm break around this time. In Italia November 1st, All Saints’ Day, is a holiday and many Italians take ‘il ponte al primo novembre’, an extra-long weekend. Even so, the guard at the Pantheon said ‘Qui non c’è bassa stagione’-there is no low season here. My 2 partial weekends in Firenze were similar. Smaller places, especially the seaside are quiet at this time of year, but the cities always have a lot of visitors, especially on the weekend. Despite my utter shock at the hoardes of tour groups I was not expecting, Roma was glorious as usual. One day I want to spend a whole month in Roma.

Franco joined me for the first 9 days-this was only confirmed a week before leaving! He had not been to Roma in a very long time, so we decided to visit the Colosseo and Foro Romano. I took way too many photos of this. I was obsessed with the way the sunlight struck this green door on the Tempio di Romolo in the Foro Romano. The rest of the day involved a lot of walking. It was centered around a visit to Poggi to buy Fabriano Rosaspina paper for my art retreat, and meeting a friend in Monti. We ended up doing everything on my Un Giorno a Roma itinerary and a few extras.

Monti

Spending just 4 days in Orsara di Puglia was a mad dash. This was not enough time to visit family and friends, so I greeted a lot of them in the street. I heard the same phrase from anyone who was not expecting me ‘Ma sei fuori stagione!’. I guess I was out of season, but technically so were they! It was hard to recognize people bundled up in their puffy piumini. November 1 is a holiday, and in Orsara also the festa Fucacoste e Cocce Priatorje. In Italiano this would be Falò e Teste del Purgatorio (bonfires and heads from purgatory). Sometimes we simply call it ‘Tutti Santi’. I wrote about the festa in this post, and now that I have been there myself, I will add photos or write a new post. There were zucche and bonfires everywhere. My balcony was decorated with zucche. I took so many photos I am still going through them, but here are a few.

Il fuoco e le zucche di Antonella e Domenico

The festa was absolutely amazing and also a moving, sprirtual experience-for me and 20,000 others. The weather was clear and crisp, but it was very cold at night. My little casa has no heat, so I borrowed an electric space heater. Brrrrr.

I encountered a lot of olives on this trip. It seemed every road near Orsara was full of parked cars and people with crates and olive nets. I was not used to seeing the trees full of ripe olives! I enjoyed spending a day at my Nonno’s olive grove. One evening we walked past the frantoio, the olive mill, which is always closed the rest of the year. The divine smell of pressed olives lured me in. I photo-documented the entire olive oil extraction process for a future post. Then it was arrivederci Orsara until July. Unfortunately, I missed my family’s olive harvest by one day, but I was able to pick olives in Gugliano.

Next was Firenze for 2 half days. I had not been for several years and it felt good to be back. A spectacular view was the reward for a long morning walk along and across the Arno to Piazzale Michelangelo. A torrential downpour started just as we arrived, so the return trip was very wet. I had to blow dry myself, then got back out in the rain to catch the train to Lucca. We arrived in Lucca just as thousands of attendees were leaving the Lucca Comics and Games Convention. For security reasons, the front of the stazione was closed off. My ride was waiting out front, so by the time we got there, I looked like I had been through the spin cycle. The imposing medieval walls of Lucca were barely visible through the rain and the mist. Next came the bumpy half hour ride to Casa Berti near Gugliano for the Catalyst Art Retreat.

Casa Berti

Luckily a fire was waiting. Franco was in charge of roasting castagne, then he caught the last train back to Firenze to fly home in the am. The retreat was wonderful and the location stunning. My fellow artists were an inspiration.

My corner of the studio at Casa Berti, looking out over olive trees

Artist Mary Cinque working on a woodcut in the studio

The retreat ended with an exhibit at Villa Coloreda near Pietrasanta

I also found time to visit Lucca, pick olives and cachi, make limoncello cake with freshly pressed olive oil and finally try Bistecca alla Fiorentina. Lots of material for future posts.

#cooldudesroma

So much for a ‘quick’ summary! I’ll end with a few notes about travelling to Italia in autunno:

-It may be ‘low season’ for airfares, but unless your destination is a small town or a seaside area, do not expect to be alone! This is especially true on weekends. In the cities, midweek hotel prices are lower, but they go up on weekends.

-Dancing around an almost empty Piazza Navona is possible……before 8am!

-The days are shorter. It gets dark at 16:30 to be exact. Take this into account when making plans for the day.

-The weather can be variable. Even if the days are sunny, nights are cold. Dress ‘a la cipolla’, in layers like an onion, and be prepared for rain too!