May 27, 2022 – Trip to Lucca

We had breakfast at the hotel (pretty good) and then checked out and got a cab at the nearby taxi stand to take us to the airport for our Ryanair flight to Pisa. The airport was hot and crowded and the flight was late and then they moved us to another gate which had absolutely no seating but eventually the buses to take us to our flight did arrive and we made it to Pisa. Ryanair is annoying (for many reasons obviously) because I had paid extra to be able to put my bag in the overhead because I technically had two which is not allowed. Every single time the flight attendant went down the aisle they were like “Whose bag is that in the overhead? You need to put it under your seat.” and then I had to say “I paid for that”. Good lord. Once in Pisa, we followed the arrows all the way to the car rental, where we picked up our little mini SUV thing. We drove to the Agriturismo La Conte which is on the outskirts of Lucca. Our rooms were right off of the lobby, which bothered some people in the reviews but we thought was fine. Charlotte had a room that was a big bed on one end and a kitchen on the other, with a separate bathroom, and our room was off of that room with its own bathroom. The farmhouse was historically rustic which was charming and had a pool that unfortunately was not open this early in the season but considering it wasn’t that warm that was fine. The hostess brought us a cheese plate and some drinks, and we enjoyed some time outside. Then we went into Lucca which was about a ten-minute drive tops, and walked around and had a nice dinner. We especially enjoyed all the geckos on the walls!

May 28, 2022 – Lucca

We started off with an extremely thorough breakfast at the Agriturismo. Because of Covid rules, they weren’t allowed to have a buffet so instead they provided each table a complete buffet of their own. SO MUCH FOOD. We did our best, we felt bad not trying everything but again it was SO MUCH FOOD. We also talked to the people at the table next to us. They were from the Netherlands (I think?) and were there for a friend’s wedding. They had brought their dog and because they had an event that day they’d hired a dog sitter to take the dog for the day.

We drove into Lucca and parked just outside the gate where we’d been the night before–hey if it’s not broken don’t fix it.   We decided to start off by walking along the city wall and who should we see but the dog from the Agriturismo with its dog sitter having a nice long walk. Next, it was time to climb the Torre Guinigi. When we’d come when the girls were little I had gotten to the top with Charlotte on my back but had a hard time navigating the steps to get back down. Fellow Americans helped me out that time. I see they’ve changed the final steps so that’s not a problem anymore! The view from the top of the tower is outstanding but it’s very tiny up there between the planters with the trees so we were mindful of all of the people waiting to go up and didn’t linger too long. It was thankfully really clear outside too which made for some great photos. We continued our walk around the town and wound up at the Chiesa dei Santi Giovanni e Reparata which has ancient Roman ruins dating back to the 1st Century BC under the church. The ruins are actually under everything it’s just that they excavated the ones under the church. By now we were getting pretty hungry so we found a cool hipster restaurant close by. After our nice food and beer, we toured the Museo di palazzo Mansi which dates from the 16th Century. The first few rooms you see are normal standard mansion fare but as you explore further into rooms with extensive murals that just aren’t good (there’s no other way to say that) and other rooms that are just so overdone you realize these people just had no taste! Very worth seeing though, and they had some historic clothes as well which are always fun to see. And then we went out for some beer with my there legal daughter. Why is our drinking age so late? It’s crazy.

May 29, 2022 – Pisa

Another huge over-the-top breakfast. The lady is just so nice, and we tried to get her to bring less but it’s just not going to happen. We headed off to Pisa for the day, which is about an hour. Took the obligatory leaning tower photos and then we tried to tour the Duomo di Pisa but they wouldn’t let Charlotte in because she was in a jumpsuit and her shoulders were showing. Some tourists literally draped maps on their shoulders and people were in there with super short skirts and shorts but even though Charlotte had on pants and looked classy as hell she wasn’t allowed in. It’s arbitrary crap like this that makes people not like the Catholic church! Mark and I took a quick walk around, but you know duomos look like other duomos. Next, we went over to the Battistero di San Giovanni which Charlotte was allowed into. Very cool building. And finally, our favorite building of all, the Campo Santo, which is the old cementaria. Such a cool graceful building. Unfortunately during WWII an American soldier caught the roof on fire with a grenade and ruined some of the frescoes but fortunately many still remain. Pisa took a big hit during WWII and we’re lucky more wasn’t ruined. Anyhow I could have spent forever in the Campo Santo but eventually we did leave to go walk around the rest of the town. It’s actually pretty cute with a nice waterfront but not that big. We had lunch at a little restaurant and they had a heavy hand with the alcohol in the Aperol Spritz which was kind of fun and lead to Charlotte and I buying really cute purses at a nearby shop that we otherwise might not have done. No regrets though. We returned to Lucca and went into town for dinner, and then returned to the Agriturismo where we enjoyed the fireflies.

What I haven’t mentioned before now is the ongoing laundry saga. We arrived in Lucca with basically no clean clothes. The Agriturismo has a washing machine, but it also only has one drying rack and it also has a road crew who is staying in a few of the rooms. So it was a challenge involving lots of strategy to 1) get to the washing machine while it was empty and 2) acquire the drying rack. We got both the night we arrived, but when I removed our dry clothes in the morning the guys appropriated the rack and put it outside their door. So we had to drape our clothes all over our rooms (remember their washers are very small so we’re talking multiple loads). The next day while they were at work we stole the rack back and did another load. Then they got it, and finally, we got it. So five loads later we had enough clean clothes to last the rest of the trip.

May 30, 2022 – Volterra

Another huge breakfast but by now we knew it was futile to fight it. Every day there was a new regional specialty that she had made from scratch that we just had to try. SO MUCH FOOD.

We drove to Volterra which we had enjoyed when were there before. This time we enjoyed it a little less, mostly because they’d decided that having bathrooms for tourists would just be a bridge too far. After the drive there I really needed to go so we went to a gas station. Nope, no bathroom not even for customers. Then we went to the parking lot. There’s a bathroom there but it’s been closed for a while it looks like. The building nearby for bus drivers has a bathroom but not for the public. I couldn’t take it anymore, had to go down into the cornfield. Clearly, I was not the only one who had to do this. And on our way back up there was a guy waiting for his turn. Classy move Volterra. Mark still needed to go so we walked to the closest restaurant. Nope. He did find a brewery that would let him use the restroom and deep in the heart of Volterra there is a restroom you can pay to use staffed by old biddies. Once we got settled we decided to make the best of it and toured the Palazzo Viti. You know what’s nice about Palazzos? They’re not like other Palazzos! We really liked this one. Unlike the Palazzo Mansi it’s more understated and even had a very nice functional library. Not that anyone asked us to but I could live there quite happily! Next, we had an Aperol Spritz with lunch which did help our attitude quite a bit. Then we toured the ruins of the Roman Theater built in the second century BC, as well as the later Roman baths on the site. Finally, we toured the Etruscan Museum which was cool. Not much left of their (older than Roman) civilization but funerary urns but they do know that women were equal to men in their society and they liked to party a lot. Sounds pretty good to me! Finally, we went to the underground Etruscan aqueduct and the old Etruscan walls.

We went to drive home but there was traffic and it took way way too long.

May 31, 2023 – Shopping in Lucca and wine tasting

Originally we were supposed to go to Florence to see David and the stuff there. But Charlotte and I were so burnt out from driving that we staged a revolt and said we instead wanted to take it easy in Lucca. What a good choice! After our huge breakfast, we went into town and went shopping. Charlotte got some great stuff. Not the knock-off Santa Cruz t-shirt with the actual Santa Cruz logo, but a shirt in the Giants font and color. We had the best gelato in Lucca and then went for a little walk near our Agriturismo before heading out to our reservation at the winery Fattorio al Dotto. I had somehow not put in the correct email address so we never got confirmation but went anyway and are glad we did. The guy running the tasting was from Michigan and very jovial. We got seated at our own outdoor table with a view of the gorgeous valley. Each pouring of wine was served with food. Such a nice way to introduce Charlotte to wine tasting and what a great and relaxing way to round out our Lucca adventure! The wine was extremely drinkable, not sophisticated but we weren’t about that. We liked it so much that we took them up on their offer to ship us a case home. This case actually wound up being pretty comparable to what you’d pay in the US for similar wine because the low cost of the bottles offset the shipping price. We took our drunk selves back to the Agriturismo where we finished up what food we had purchased while in Lucca, and then went to bed.

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