"Almost" a Year in Provence: Lucca

Wednesday afternoon, October 25-We drove into Lucca, after our visit to the Leaning Tower, on a lovely back road from Pisa. We eventually found the Villa Romantica(great name for a place to stay with your 11 yr old daughter!) located just outside the city walls at the end of via del Stadio at around 5:30PM. It's a cute little B&B we found by recommendation on Slow Travel. When we walked in the door the owner, an older man, welcomed us with a smile. we needed no introduction as I had sent a description of us as "my husband, 11 yr old daughter and I..." in my request for reservations.

We dragged our heavy bags up to our 3rd floor room and thought, after all this driving, this exercise is a good thing! Our room was perfect for 3, in fact this trip is all about being a threesome. Nick has named us the Three Musketeers and we are "all for one and one for all" in this adventure! Our room has a single bed in the outer part of the room divided by a floor-to-ceiling open bookcase, behind which is our queen sized bed and TV and chair. Sarah was very intrigued by her first sighting of a bide in the bathroom. We'll see if anyone is willing to give her instructions! After we freshened up a bit, we headed into town. Villa Romantica is just a block or two from the city wall. A few minutes walk and we were approaching these formidable brick walls. They looked impenetrable.

We entered the city through a small doorway in a "fold" of the wall. While we wandered, we enjoyed the change from Aix-different architecture, larger, darker street cobbles, etc. As we walked nearer to the center of town, we found quite a shopping district and enjoyed doing lots of window shopping. The town was prepared for Halloween the following week and most of the stores were decorated.

There were high end, designer shops, as well as tourist stores, and smaller boutiques which Sarah and I enjoy. Lots of jewelry, leather goods, winter jackets, sweaters for sale but we tonight were "just looking".
We finally reached the restaurant, which I had gotten a recommendation for not only from Slow Travel, but the proprietor of the B&B's son as well. The Trattoria da "Leo" is located at Via Tegrimi, 1 (0583 49 22 36)just off a lovely piazza , we think called San Salvatore. Although it was early, we were able to go in look around and make a reservation with the nice manager/owner. We went off to walk around some more and when we returned the front door had been closed and a group of about 10 of us hungrily awaited the 7:30 opening. We really enjoyed our evening here at this homey trattoria with its high ceilings, cheerful golden yellow tablecloths and lively atmosphere. There were many Italians as well as tourists and a friendly staff. Our sweet waitress was willing to translate the entire all Italian menu for us in a thickly accented, but darling and mostly understandable, English. As you can see, Nick adored her.

The food was wonderful! We had risotto with fresh fungi, raviolis with pumpkin and spaghetti Bolognese (go Nick!) to start. Our second piatti included mouth watering, fall off the bone spareribs and roasted chicken with the best roasted potatoes. The whole meal, including 1 liter of delicious house red wine, 3 first and 3 second courses plus a few contorni was 62euro. We would go back here in a heartbeat!

The walk home included a stop for gelato along the way....…we were to discover this was to become a nightly event on the trip!! Sarah was really tired of walking so we stopped to rest on this ancient wall.

She was so tired that she seriously considered "borrowing" this bicycle, not only for the ride home, but take home to give to Lindsey, our "pink girl"!