Off to Italy!

A few days after Christmas, the five of us packed our bags, loaded up and squeezed into our Peugeot wagon and headed off on an adventure. Last year, we took the kids west to Spain so this year we thought we’d head east to Italy. Our 6 day excursion took us to Pisa, Lucca and Florence. Nick, Sarah and I had visited the first two towns together last fall and we loved Lucca so much we wanted to take Nicholas and Lindsey there on our way to spend New Year's in Florence.

We made it to Pisa by mid afternoon and spent about an hour there seeing the Leaning Tower and helping to prop it up!






Lucca was just a 20 minute drive from Pisa so we were settled into The Villa Romantica by early evening. The owners, the Favilla family, were happy to welcome us back. After visiting a bit with them, we all walked into town and did a bit of window shopping before dinner.







We had reservations at Trattoria da "Leo", where we’d had a fabulous dinner last fall. We were really looking forward to another delicious dinner but unfortunately, we were disappointed with rather mediocre dishes this time. Mom and Dave had been there in October and had the same poor results so not sure we'd recommend it in the future.

The next morning we had a wonderful, much needed breakfast at Villa Romantica-they have the most delicious cappuccinos!! We decided to borrow 5 bicycles and we rode into town for the day.

During medival times, Lucca was protected by the massively wide, 4km long wall which surrounds the entire town. It is amply wide enough for cars, but happily it is only used for walking and bicycle riding...

Being up on the walls allowed us to peek over into parts of the city not visible from the streets....




This was a really fun and memorable family outing…but as it was bitterly cold, once around the city was enough!! We rode down off the wall and into town. After cruising the streets for a bit, we stopped into an inviting little spot, Il Bario, for lunch.






It was the perfect place; warm and cosy! We all chose hot, rib sticking dishes. Lindsey and I enjoyed a hearty, Tuscan Vegetable soup, Nicholas and Nick had homemade raviolis with a fresh ragu sauce and Sarah got her favorite, Gnocchi, with pomadoro sauce. After lunch, we split up into those brave enough to go for another round on the wall and those who were just too cold to even think about it...like me and Linds!!






Nick saw a flyer announcing a circus in town so he, Sarah and I went to that in the early evening. It had been a really long time since any of us had been to a circus and it was our first European circus to be sure! Under a small, heated tent, we watched an entertaining show from our front row seats. There were many different animals and endless acrobatic acts. The whole thing was surprisingly impressive and we didn't mind the fact that we didn't understand one word of it!









Do you recognize this lion tamer?!?

We all went to dinner after the circus at Ristorante Giglio, a recommendation of the Favilla family. We had a very good meal as well as a fun time there. Don't these look like satisfied customers?!?

Tomorrow morning we are off to Florence!

Dining in Lucca:

Trattoria da "Leo", Via Tegrimi, 1, 0583 492.236
Il Barino c/o Caffe del Mercato Piazza S. Michele 0583.494127, www.ilbarino.it
Ristorante Giglio, Piazzo del Giglio,2 0583 494058, http://www.ristorantegiglio.com/



Lodging in Lucca:

Villa Romantica, via Barbarini, 246, 0039 0583 496872, http://www.villaromantica.com/