Are we Italian Yet?

Men playing cards in the park or dominoes. Ladies gathering to chat. We set out to experience day to day life in a small town, in a different country. We have found great satisfaction in this along with some restless moments.

Lucca is a city, but a very accessible one. While there are many things to it is small enough to be comfortable and familiar.  After three weeks ,we are beginning to feel at home. The pace of living here is different. Stores do not have the frantic 24 hour access. Believe it or not, there is not a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts to be found. People will duck in to a pasticceria or bar

for an espresso and drink it standing up almost in one shot! They have a conversation with the server day after day after day. There are the outdoor cafes which line the piazzas and offer an opportunity to linger over a cappuccino or macchiato while people watching. Do not expect to grab and go…. you will be hard pressed to find anywhere that sells a coffee to go. We have begun to anticipate the tour group invasions as it nears 10 am, and have become more able to weave through the narrow lanes when delivery trucks, bicyclists and pedestrians all come together.

We have made peace with the vegetable vendor who tolerated our picking out our own carrots for a couple of times before  pantomiming that we needed to tell him what we wanted and he would get it… now we have a pleasant buongiorno exchange and it all ends well. We have also built our Italian vegetable vocabulary!

Dinner does not begin until at least 7:30 pm (19:30), Lunch ends by 2:30 and many places close until dinner ( though some offer late afternoon aperitivo with snacks.  The evening passeggiata peaks around 7:00pm, though people here walk well past that time.

School has started again so the busy playgrounds only have little ones in the morning but the parks around the wall are full of life when the school kids get out in the pm.  We have come to recognize that young teens are a delightful group and while the names change in Italy or in the USA they are otherwise more similar than not.

There are always grandparents strolling with little ones and dogs are usually in tow as well. We believe the dachshund is the town favorite and often seem to come in pairs or sets of three.

We had begun the day thinking we might take a train somewhere, but we are still finding a piazza we’ve not seen, a church that is now open, or a vista that looks so different in the changing color of the day, so we choose to spend the day in Lucca.

Excursions in and about Lucca.

Fattore al Dotto- Winery in the hills outside of Lucca

A beautiful setting at sunset to taste some great wines paired with local cheeses, salumi, honey and olive oil. Take bus 53…

Bus 53… the most challenging of our public transportation experiences… but all the more rewarding when it worked. We joked that we were going to be like the cool kids sitting the back of the bus… 2 stops later, the real cool kids, just getting out of school hopped on.. they were not sure what to do when the back was full with tourists!

Gigabike- renting again from the marvelous Gino and riding on and outside the wall

Our great debate- ride clockwise or counterclockwise.. the perspective changes what you notice and makes it all new again. With Bill and Laurie in tow we set out to ride again.

Soccer match.. Napoli v Liverpool at an Irish Pub in Lucca  Guinness è perfetto! Standard pub food-panini with great Italian meats and cheeses… no burgers and fries or fish and chips but delicious non the less.

Backyard spritz – we mastered the Aperol Spritz recipe, along with a plate of pecorino and chingale salume to grey the evening in our little backyard. 

Not the typical food for apperitivo- olives, chips, lupini beans, capers, peanuts, but delicious any way.

We had a beautiful spot in the backyard to have our treat and relax before dinner.

Easy Peasy Pisa- a short trip from Lucca yet a beautiful spot to picnic and enjoy. Trains are very reliable and keep a fairly tight schedule.

Lessons of Lucca

⁃Do your homework! As two former school administrators, we appreciate the value of homework, but if you are traveling sans a tour… doing your homework to know what the options and possibilities are available can make a huge difference. Arriving in Lucca at the time of year we did, we knew of some festivals in and nearby which offered a loose structure to an open- ended trip

⁃Open your eyes and appreciate the beauty around you.  The subtle differences in light and shadow is not to be taken for granted. Staying in one place for three weeks offers a real window into the life of a community.  We have tried to really live as if this were home.

⁃Move! The life of walking and being active helps keep you young and fosters community. We began to recognize our neighbors and walking partners

⁃Family- families rode bikes together, walked together, ate together… grandparents often had their little ones in tow and were pointing out the wonders all around

⁃Music is central.  Lucca, birthplace of Giacomo Puccini, has a concert nightly. There is a music school and at any hour you may hear an aria or a piano concerto or a flute, no matter what music adds a richness to life

⁃Eat local, eat seasonal- we have thoroughly enjoyed shopping at the various shops for produce, bread, pasta, meat, and cooking fresh. We are contemplating how to return to the huge grocery store and keep our purchases seasonal and local when possible… don’t worry Costco,we will always have a place in our hearts for you.., but we may shop differently… really differently

⁃Recycle, reduce, reuse!   Part of this is living in the moment.  If you have a coffee- have a coffee… see the people at the shop, enjoy the taste, leave cup…. the take away scene is more Earth friendly and more human friendly here… there is very little take away! How many people do you interact with when you are driving the highway with your extra large D&D coffee?

⁃Compost- the food scraps might really help our garden, and proportions can help our waistline and our waste- line!

⁃Life is better with a dog! We just said goodbye to our faithful friend. Seeing the daily parade of big dogs, little dogs and all dogs in between was both sad yet inspiring. From the young mom who walked that wall while pushing a stroller with her little one as her dachshund scurried behind to either keep pace or catch up, to the bloodhound boys who met up two times a day on the path, older people, younger people all connected through their pets.

⁃Care and respect those with disabilities.. Lucca had a very inclusive and open approach to persons with disabilities. They were a part of all the various ritual of Lucca. We saw very young children to very old adults who were just s part of the everyday life

⁃Love and respect those who have lived a long life… this particularly touches our hearts as we each grew up in a multigenerational family and raised our children in one as well.  There was the middle-aged woman who walked with her elderly mother each day pausing awhile at the Palazzo Pfanner

to admire the gardens, or the gentleman at the vegetable grocery who had a variety of daily friends who assisted and engaged him, or “Charley” who is a.k.a. Carlos who lived upstairs on our apartment and watched out for us daily, the elderly are revered and recognized here. That is a gift.

⁃Be open to possibilities- the day we rode out of Lucca to find and explore the river was an off the beaten path experience that opened us to new things.  Try them when you travel! Some of our best adventures deviated from the plan and added a wonderful surprise!

⁃Ciao,Lucca!