Pasqua (Easter) in Italy is one of the busiest travel times. Everyone goes on holiday somewhere and we were no exception. Over the long weekend from April 3-6, Giordano, Valentina, Miki and I went to Tuscany, a very popular “somewhere” to be at Easter. The trip started on Saturday afternoon when Giordano and Valentina picked me up and we drove a couple hours to Cesena for a Gomma Gommas concert. They were playing in support of a German band called Not Available on the same stage where bands like Nirvana and Foo Fighters have played in the distant past. Most exciting, the audience had to pay to see them! It wasn’t another free bar show. Unfortunately, since the time when Nirvana swung through town, a neighborhood has grown-up around the venue and live music has to end by midnight which is right about the time the youth of Italy head-out for the evening on a Saturday. In spite of this, a respectable crowd was on hand and those that did make it were enthusiastic and energetic and the boys were excited by how it went and acting like rock stars after they came off stage.
After the show we drove the couple of hours to Bologna to Valentina's parents house. We arrived around 3am and discovered the breakfast cakes and sandwiches her mom had prepared. They were delicious even though we might have ruined the next morning’s breakfast for the rest of the family. I slept until 12.30 on Sunday, finally to be woken by Valentina telling me it was time for lunch.
It was nice to see her parents again (or more precisely it was nice to see her parents cooking again) and they were excited to have their daughter home even if it meant the weird American showed up too. Her brother is back from studying at university in Scotland (he works for Lamborghini now and I nearly stole his employee ID because it’s so cool) so their whole family was together. I never did hear how breakfast went but there didn’t seem to be any grudges as Easter lunch started. After my experience at their table in December I knew I had to be careful and pace myself. First up were warm and cold appetizers including a plate of local sausages and prosciutto, a plate of cheese and a variety of stuffed pastries. Then the pasta, bavettini with homemade pesto and lots of parmesan cheese made at a dairy down the road. I would have been happy to push away from the table after a couple servings of the pasta but that’s not how this paragraph goes. After the pasta was stewed rabbit with mushrooms and chestnuts served with roasted potatoes, peppers, and zucchini. Then came veal cutlets with tuna. Then came the dessert: three kinds of cake (don’t even think about not taking at least one piece of each), gelato, cookies and Easter egg chocolate.
With lunch sadly at an end we picked-up Miki (poor girl, her family decided just to go to a restaurant for lunch) and we headed over the mountains and down to the western coast for Lucca. On the way over the mountains it started raining and it only got heavier the further we drove. By Lucca it was pouring so to console myself I had two slices of pizza in a little restaurant as a way to stay out of the rain for a bit while we waited for the receptionist to finish lunch with her family and come open the hotel. We had booked our rooms a couple months in advance and had found a nice Bed & Breakfast just outside the historic center. Upon arrival we found out the Bed & Breakfast didn’t actually serve breakfast (it was available separately for purchase daily at the pastry shop they owned next door) so we took to calling the place a Bed. Our Bed was managed by a very nice couple who had given Valentina their personal mobile number and said to call them after four and they would come open the Bed for us.
After settling in we walked through the rain to dinner.
The restaurant, Osteria Baralla, in business since 1860, was located in the center of the Center and like Venice, if you weren’t born there it’s a bit tricky to find your way. Soaking wet, pathetic looking and starving by the time we arrived, we bulled past the “stupid Americans” who hadn’t thought to make reservations (wait, I’m a stupid American!?!) and headed straight for our table. It was there I met my new friend, Tordelli. These are pasta stuffed with meat, like a ravioli (which are originally from Liguria), but from the Toscana region and they are fantastic, especially with ragù. Afterwards arrived the Brasato al Pepe (essentially chunks of beef stewed in wine, peppercorns and sin) served with polenta and roasted potatoes and grilled artichokes.
And then there was dessert which for me was apple torte and crème anglaise with the rest of the wine, and then coffee and then limoncello. Describing meals on this trip is an exercise in run-on sentences.
We woke up Monday morning with the streets still wet but hardly a cloud in the sky and the sun steaming everything dry. Since our Bed didn’t offer Breakfast, we walked next door to the Pasticerria Stella for breakfast before leaving for Pisa. I had a cappuccino with three pastries, one filled with cream, one filled with chocolate and one filled with almond paste. And then because it was fresh and it looked delicious I had a slice of pizza. Once I finally got my face clean and the powdered sugar wiped off my shirt we loaded in the car for the 15 km drive to Pisa.
The main attraction in Pisa is of course the river Arno that flows through the middle of town sort of like Portland’s Willamette but less Super Fundy.
There is also a tower for when you get tired of looking at the river. Nah, just kidding, it’s the tower that's the main attraction.
We arrived early, around 9.30 spurred on by our personal perpetual motion machine Valentina. The parking lot was still empty and even the vendors with their designer watches, belts, purses and sunglasses were still setting-up. From the parking lot you walk about 800 meters to the Piazza dei Miracoli a UNESCO World Heritage Site which contains most of the reasons the majority of people come to visit Pisa.
The view into the piazza as you approach is blocked by a tall wall and dozens of souvenir and snack stands so you only see the occasional glimpse of the top of the Duomo until you reach one of the main gates. Then you turn left to look through the gate and there it is. A building so iconic you know what it looks like even though you’ve never seen it yourself and when you finally do see it in person the first time it’s simultaneously a little disappointing because you feel like you’ve actually already been there and awe-inspiring because porca miseria! “THAT’S THE FREAKING LEANING TOWER OF PISA AND I’LL BE DARNED IT REALLY DOES LEAN!”
Before I start raving about the tower, right as we were getting ready to go through the gate and were taking the first of what would end up being hundreds of the same photo of the tower I was approached by a man selling designer watches. I asked him how much and he told me 50 euros but that included a 5 year warranty. Five year warranty? Intriguing. I asked him how I would claim my warranty if I had a problem, did I just need to come see him? Would he be in the same place? We both started laughing and he lowered the price to 25 euro but no warranty. His English was great so I asked him where he came from. Turns out he was from Ghana, next door to the Côte d’Ivoire where I grew up. I didn’t buy the watch but I liked his warranty offer. Pretty ingenious.
We were so early that the Piazza dei Miracoli was still mostly empty of us, the tourists, who would later in the day fill the entire square.
For those of you who haven’t been or didn’t do the extra reading at the links earlier in the post (or I guess, look that the two pictures above), the piazza is made up of a huge green lawn in which the Bapistry, Duomo and Tower rise up out of in the middle. It’s striking. They are architecturally amazing to the point of being surreal. Hardly looks real. Especially on a sunny day like we had where the light is reflecting off all the white marble. Whether alone in their sea of green or standing out against a field of wild flower tourists the three main structures incessantly pull your eyes and attention towards them.
The tower leans because of soft soil under the foundation and it started leaning almost from the day construction started. It’s a rediculous angle that doesn’t seem possible and it’s kept from falling today by all the tourists who take turns holding it up.
After a couple hours of taking pictures from every possible angle and taking our turn at holding up the tower we left the piazza to see the famous Arno river and anything else Pisa cared to reveal to us.
In addition to the above, there was a fantastic little market similar to Saturday Market (alas no photo) but with good stuff, not junk and then we had lunch. After breakfast and knowing what was in store for dinner I took it easy, eating only a kebab, two slices of pizza and a gelato. And then another gelato. And a coffee. We returned to the piazza one last time to take a few dozen more pictures in case we had missed an angle and then headed back to Lucca and the next stop on Valentina’s itinerary for us – the Ponte del Diavolo.
The bridge is known as both the Ponte della Maddalena after Mary Magdelene and also the Ponte del Diavolo or The Devil’s Bridge. A local story (but not unique, it seems to be shared with a few other bridges) says that the Devil offered the townspeople help with building their bridge in exchange for the first soul to cross it upon completion. The deal was struck and when the bridge was finished the people sent a dog across thus saving the soul of one of their own and fooling the Devil. No mention is made of the fate of the dog’s soul or even how they got it to cross the bridge. Maybe they threw a ball?
Part Two in which we eat dinner on Monday and ride bikes around Lucca on Sunday coming soon...
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