Slow Travel Down the Mountain

We mostly relax this week at the villa and it's great - we are ready to take it slowly for a few days before we hit Florence & Cinque Terre.

 Perfecting the synchronized jump

We go down the mountain and hang out in the town just down from our villa, Bagni di Lucca.  It's a beautiful little river town that was a stop on the Grand Tour back in the day.  Byron and Shelley had homes here and it was a haunt for many other artists, including Rossini, Liszt, Verdi and Puccini.

Bagni di Lucca from our villa.  The white house in the center was Shelley's home.

We luck out and there's a large market set up today (we are told it's only once per year).  The girls shop & decide to buy pretty fans and bracelets.

We have dinner 

This restaurant on the river is where I fall in love with the "Spritz"-a great drink everybody orders a lot here.  It's made with Aperol (?)  - never heard of it but it's yummy and bright orange.

   

After dinner, we wander up the river road….

After soaking up Bagni di Lucca, we head back up the mountain to the villa, open the shutters to let in the cool night air & get ready for bed - great day.

Biking & Puccini in Lucca

We decided to go to Lucca today and see the sights there….

Passing through a shop and out the back door, we pop out on a 2C Roman amphitheater  - pretty amazing!

An aside:
I owe this guy, laying on the ground to take pictures, a big, "thank you!"  If the girls thought I was a bit annoying with my picture taking, this guy has raised the bar of crazy to dizzying heights- Grazie!!  I will threaten to shoot from this angle when they start to give me a hard time...

We come across lots of  beautiful churches & piazzas...

…and we have fun just walking around.  Here's the classic statue guy....

Amigos

We do pizza by the slice (a few times)

 To work that off, we rent bikes to ride around the old town, up on the castle walls which was great!!!

Look out - a biker gang from Chicago!

Check out those walls!

 

We buy tickets to the Puccini Festival tonight & we're really excited!!!

Lucca is Giacomo Puccini's birthplace and they perform his music every night of the year, with no interruptions, in the beautiful Church of San Giovanni.  

 Church of San Giovanni where the Puccini Festival takes place.

It's fantastic!  He wrote 12 operas.  What a fabulous experience listening to arias ring off the marble while gazing at the magnificent frescoes.  It was a real treat!

We follow that up with dinner on the piazza.  The kids run around in the twilight and we adults finish our wine & enjoy the sun setting on Lucca.

Relaxing Days at the Villa

We relax and lounge around the villa for a couple of days.

The hammock gets a workout.

We play a lot of bocci…

We learned you really don't want your bocci ball to go off the pitch…

It rolls a loooong ways down & everyone spends a lot of time searching…

The house is beautiful and it's history is fascinating.  It dates from 1600.  

The owners left a booklet with lots of info about it, including many details.  For example the basin you see in the corner of the kitchen next to the fireplace was used for washing, using ashes from the fireplace.  The fireplace is original to the house.

It's a typical Tuscan farmhouse built of stone with chestnut beams and cotto floors.  The animals were kept in the cellars with the living quarters above because it provided heat in the winter.  There was a hole in the floor next to the sink that was directly above the pig trough to toss down the food scraps.  

Cellar doors

We take the 10 minute walk into the small town nearby, Benabbio.  The shortcut is a shepard's path that starts behind the farmhouse….

It's a pretty walk

We have delicious wood fired pizza in town.

And take the beautiful stroll back home to the farmhouse.

The Mountain House

We arrive at the villa in the mountains after hair pinning lots of turns and some serious nail biting - we are up here!  It's totally worth  it, this place is gorgeous!

The girls hit the pool immediately & we wait for the Hinich's to arrive shortly…

They arrive about an hour later & even though they're exhausted from their travels to Italy, they catch a second wind!  Impressive!

 Pool with a view

Vacation mode

  Views from the villa

Our dinner table tonight

 The Gang

    

                                                                   Out the front door

Preparing Dinner

Proscuitto with melon, lasagna, local cheeses, fresh bread & tiramisu

Playing Sardines

Relaxing & waiting for sunset

 Our first sunset

Looking forward to a fun week with with great friends!