Our Visit To LuccaJul 19, 2011
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The View From Our Il Rifugio Bedroom
Aqueduct Near Lucca
Entering Lucca's Walls
| July 19, 2011 Our first night in Il Rifugio gave as a great sleep with the bells ringing regularly to help mark the time. Breakfast was served on the patio with bread purchased by Bill moments before (still warm croissants) and chef John providing fresh fruits and coffee. We planned a drive into Lucca for the day to see the sights that had impressed Cheryl and Robert during our cruise. Penny had run out of her medication with a week to go. She was concerned enough that Bill mentioned that in Italy, a pharmacist can dispense many drugs with out a doctor’s prescription. It just so happened that there was a pharmacist down the hill 5 minutes away and he had offered to drive her this morning and act as her interpreter. They were back in no time, drugs in hand…you certainly don’t get that kind of treatment in every B&B!! On the route to Lucca, we passed under an 18th century aqueduct that we had seen on the way in on Monday. Bill told us later that it was built by Elisa, Napoleon I’s sister, whom he had given Lucca to govern during his reign. She is honoured throughout Lucca for her contributions to the region during her governance. We parked at the train station and entered the walls of the town, with a food hunger that needed to be satisfied. Lucca is a walled city in which the residents historically lived and left the walls everyday to work the fields, returning at night to their families while a network of watchtowers kept lookout for invaders from Pisa or Florence. Unfortunately, in our haste to eat, we broke our rule about not eating at the first restaurant on the square. We had a regrettably lousy lunch and could have kicked ourselves for our mistake. From the cathedral square we walked the narrow streets of Lucca until the rain started. We had been so hungry that we had rushed from the car without our umbrellas and were now open to the elements. We popped into a small bar to escape the rain and use their facilities but the rain wouldn’t stop. Making a beeline to the train station, we tried to avoid slipping on the cobblestones while keeping up our pace. We drove back to Il Rifugio for cocktails before dinner while we waited for the rain to let up. Bill and John walked us up to Catia’s pizzeria a few hundred meters away. Dinner was pizzas all around, with roasted beans and bruschetta appetizers and lots of laughs with Bill and John, joined by Catia along the way. Catia (Italian for Cathy) is a transplant from Fresno, California who was born in Italy and returned here 14 years ago. She speaks English and Italian interchangeably and acts as the go-between for Bill and John in business matters, but is mainly their very good friend. After the great dinner, we headed back down the hill in the now pouring rain and arrived at Il Rifugio totally soaked and ready for bed. |
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