Wisteria Envy!

I knew this was coming, it happens every year, severe case of wisteria envy! Bagni di Lucca is currently full of very large, stunning purple wisteria. The scent is beautiful and although they are growing in people’s gardens their size and visibility means we all get to enjoy them. Yet still I can’t help wishing each actually belonged to me! This is the one I love the most, it’s about 30 seconds away from Villa Rosalena, so I do get to see it daily during the all too short flowering period. It’s the dusky mauve against the grey stone wall I like.

I do have a wisteria, so my envy is not really very justified! It’s just that mine is small. It appeared a couple of years ago. It’s not in the best of places, not where I’d have chosen, but as it self seeded I’ve accepted nature’s choice. It is beside the steps, so it’s wonderfully fragrant when you walk past.

There are two large wisteria in the neighbouring gardens, so one of these below must be mother to mine!

Plum blossom confetti and magnolia envy

I feel very unoriginal, but like many bloggers at the moment I cannot help but share a little bit of spring! In our garden and patch of hillside the first little signs of spring are quite tiny, violets and narcissus. But now to join them are the biggies, the plum trees in blossom. That’s what really lifts the spirits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first of the plum blossom was the pink blossom on dark leaved trees, these give us tiny deep red cherry plums, too fiddly for eating but which make a lovely tart jam.

Most of our trees have white blossom, these are a mixture of yellow and purple plums.

The plum tree blossom is so important for me as the marker for spring as the other trees on our hill are still bare and wintry.

The blossom is sadly so short lived, already with the slightest of breezes it’s starting to fall like confetti. But there will be so many other spring beauties to follow I doubt I’ll mind too much. Spring does bring out another kind of green in me, that of envy. Already I’ve been coveting  mimosa trees at the start of March and now we’re into mid March it’s magnolias. I do have a magnolia grandiflora, a huge evergreen, but what I’m currently envious of is the ones that flower now on leafless branches. Yesterday I spotted a gorgeous one outside the Villa Fiori here in Ponte a Serraglio, Bagni di Lucca, and today whilst walking to the post office another stunner in a garden in Fornoli. How can I not be envious!

Sharing the goats!

Driving along a track yesterday near the village of Granaiola, one of the villages of Bagni di Lucca, I had to stop for goats – many, many goats. It gave me such pleasure to see them, along with the goatherder and his dogs. As I had my camera with me I snapped a few quick pictures to share. They had to be quick photos as these goats were on the move, though with a fair bit of stopping for a munch along the way!

a poke around Lucca Antiques market.

This weekend was the Lucca antiques market. I had some specific items I hoped to find, but as is often the way I didn’t find quite the right thing. But really it was more of an excuse for a poke around there anyway, as you never know what you might find. Markets like these are a treasure hunt. There may just be hidden gems. And of course you have to look on every single stall, twice over, just to be sure! Here’s a few of the stalls that weren’t what I was looking for today, but which caught my eye anyway!

Some of the things I wonder who buys, like these keys. They look great displayed like this, but what to do with an old key? Someone must buy them, they must be someone’s ‘treasure’ ( at least they look like they might unlock a treasure chest!)

These little treasures I could easily find a use for! They look so lovely reflecting in the mirror. I would love to sip my liqueurs elegantly from glasses like these.  Currently I break glasses at such a rapid rate that I have to stick to Ikea for glasses, but maybe when I’m ‘grown up’ and less clumsy!

I was hoping to find a nice ceiling light, but those I liked hung too low for most of the family to pass safely underneath, but I did find this stall with all the bits to repair broken chandeliers so when I finally find the right light fitting at least I’ll know where to go to fix it if it has missing parts.The Lucca antiques market is held on the weekend of the 3rd Sunday of each month. It is on Saturday and Sunday, but to work out which weekend it’s the Sunday that counts, it’s always the 3rd Sunday, but the day before it may not necessarily be the 3rd Saturday. There are around 230stalls I believe. I looked at them all but didn’t count to check this! It’s easy to find, start at the Teatro del Giglio, which is to the side of the largest square in the centre of Lucca, Piazza Napoleone.

It then spreads around the piazzas near of the several churches including San Giovanni, San Giusto and the Cathedral of San Martino.And of course it trickles off down some nearby side streets, several of which have some very luxurious home decor and grand antique shops on which it would be easy to otherwise not stumble upon.

Of course it’s even more fun when it’s not a wet, grey day in February, but then as the market is only once a month one can’t wait for the weather!

The charm of Lucca’s shops

A recent question on a travel forum asked what was so great about Lucca, why did so many love the town?  The other day I had to wait around for a while in Lucca on a very cold morning. To kill time and with that thought in mind I took some photos of whatever struck me as special about Lucca. When I looked at them later I realised many were of shops. This surprised me as I’m not a girl who much likes shopping. But then I realised most were food shops-which makes much more sense!

Lucca is our nearest ‘big town’ and no matter how many times I go I find it always enchanting. Lucca isn’t about ‘must see’ sights and that’s a big part of its appeal, it’s still real. It has a lovely atmosphere and feel to it, a great place to just stroll around, any time of year.  It is enclosed by 4.2km of intact walls  and nothing within the walls  is modern, nothing jars. I think the quaint, traditional style of these shops is a huge part of the charm of Lucca. The fact that they are unchanged for decades. These are small, unique, family run businesses, a far cry from  impersonal multi-national chain stores.

I always aim to buy foccacia at steam bakery Amedeo Giusti. Often I don’t manage it- because the tiny shop is usually so incredibly packed and I’m not always patient enough! But it is worth braving it,  their breads are excellent and so fresh. As it was early morning on a very cold day I was lucky to find it almost empty.

At Giusti I bought foccacia bread and cenci which are special pastries for carnival. At the Chifenti bakery on via San Paolino I succumbed to another seasonal treat, frittelle, which are sweet fried balls with rice, crema or nutella fillings. Unable to choose I had a mixture!

I had to include the vegetable tarts in the window to save readers from the mistake I made when I first bought one-of thinking that these vegetable tarts were savoury! Maybe the fact that they are surrounded by chocolate, cream, almond and fruit tarts should have been a clue! They are sweet vegetable tarts, a Lucca speciality.

The most well known Lucca sweet speciality is probably Buccellato, a fruited aniseed bread, lovely toasted with butter. Most bakers in the town offer it, some specialise in it, like this one on Piazza San Michele.There are a lot of bakeries in Lucca, these are just a handful, plenty more to choose from. And there are other shops, albeit not as high up on my personal shopping priorities! This one I don’t go in, china and glass is not my thing, but I like to stop and admire the exterior.

I always like to pop in for a look around Le Sorrelle in Piazza Anfiteatro, it has wonderful tablecloths in vibrant fruit designs, also scented soaps and herb based beauty products.

I don’t know the name of this shop on via San Paolino, and I’ve never been in, but I love the fact that it exists! It sells all kinds of useful implements. There are sickles for cutting, each with a slightly different blade from different areas of Tuscany, and special tools for gathering truffles, olives and asparagus. Pans for chestnut flour cakes, glass flasks for cooking beans, knives for opening oysters -where else would you find such things?This shop probably sums up Lucca, what I mean by it being ‘real’. In some  popular towns tourism has eaten away at the true nature of the town, and shops are full of souvenirs and ‘tat’. Of course there is some of this in Lucca, but not much, most of the shops in Lucca cater for their traditional Lucchese clientele and the tourists are incidental. The shops aren’t fake ‘olde worlde’, they are genuinely unchanged and original. When a tourist goes to Lucca they can feel they are ‘living’ in a real town, doing what the locals do, even if it’s just for a few hours.

Getting there. Lucca is 24km from Bagni di Lucca and can be reached by bus or train. It also easily reached by public transport directly from Florence, Pisa and Viareggio. Bus drops within the walls at Piazzale Verdi, train is just outside the walls, only a minute or two. By road use the A11 autostrada and park in the large car parks outside the walls. Do not attempt to drive inside the walls.

Snow! Where’s Mr. Tumnus?

This is what we woke up to this morning. Magical isn’t it. I’m like a little kid when it comes to snow. On days like this anyway, when I don’t have to go out in it unless I want to and it doesn’t inconvenience me! And I haven’t been outside yet,  all these were taken from the windows. For now I’m staying warm indoors, appreciating the beauty and looking for Mr. Tumnus.

Mr. Tumnus is the faun in ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’, he meets Lucy as she arrives in Narnia, beside the lamp-post. Look at the photos-I have a suitable lamp-post, so where is he?

When I grew up, in Sussex on the South coast of England, we hardly ever had more than a token few flakes of snow, and so C. S  Lewis’ wonderland was enchanting to me.  Now that I get to see some proper snow here in Tuscany, Italy it always makes me think of Narnia.There are footprints in this one, but probably not Mr. Tumnus, more likely one of the cats !

The snow started here rather tentatively yesterday afternoon, but was only just starting to settle by bedtime so I wasn’t sure how much we would wake up to. Looking at the depth on the table it looks to be quite a bit.

We only get one or two days like this each year here in the Lima valley so I think it’s time to go and build a snowman now.

UPDATE – Have ventured out as far as the garden now. Here is my snowman!

My son eats snails!

Thankfully not the kind a child might dig out of the mud but the properly edible type!

The first place he ever ate them was the Osteria al Ritrovo del Platano. We stopped by one day when passing to look at the menu. He kept pestering to go there and try them. Pester power won and we went, thinking he just wanted to try them out of kiddie gruesomeness and he’d get it out of his system. But he not only ate them all but with very apparent relish. Ever since whenever it’s his chance to choose where to eat he chooses there. He’s since eaten snails at other restaurants, but this place is the top choice for him. He claims they are bigger there. And as this was his first snail experience this for him is exactly how they should be.

I can’t tell you what snails are like to eat. I’m a vegetarian. According to my son the snails are chewy and he likes the texture with the garlicky buttery sauce they are cooked in. He doesn’t eat meat either, but he loves seafood. The first non veggie food he ate was clams from his dad’s spaghetti alle vongole at age 5 so maybe snails aren’t too big a jump from shellfish. In order to sort the snail eating thing out in his head he defines himself as someone who doesn’t eat mammals!

I suspect he also likes the ritual involved. The snails come on a special plate with an indentation to hold  each snail and there are tongs to hold the snail steady and a special pronged fork to winkle them out of the shell.

Osteria al Ritrovo del Platano is a small restaurant with a small but well chosen menu. Game features particularly and local Garfagnana specialities.  Obviously I don’t have the snails! My starter is always the warm black truffle eggs, and then maybe truffle pasta, or maybe a cheese platter.

The walls are decorated with memorabilia of Giovanni Pascoli, a famous Italian poet who had a house nearby at Castelvecchio from 1895 until his death in 1912. Pascoli used to frequent this osteria, and surely it cannot look that different from  his day, still having a rustic charm.

The Osteria al Ritrovo del Platano is at Ponte di Campia on the SS445 Garfagnana road which runs alongside the Serchio river, north of Lucca, Tuscany. It is between Gallicano and Castelnuovo di Garfagnana and also easily reached in 10minutes from nearby Barga via Castelvecchio Pascoli.  From Bagni di Lucca it’s 25minutes drive. http://www.osteriaalritrovodelplatano.it/

Pascoli’s home at Castelvecchio is now a museum

The empress, the devil and the moon.

I wish  the Tarot Garden was nearer. I’d love to go there often. But I’m in Northern Tuscany and it’s about as far south in Tuscany as you can get, about a mile from the border with Lazio. It’s like a theme park for grown ups, who can justify it as ‘Art’, though equally appealing for kids. Mine said it was ‘bonkers’ and they’re right, and that’s what’s so great about it. It’s fun. It’s wacky. You just have to smile!

The Tarot Garden was created by French artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) She describes visiting Gaudi’s Park Guell in

Barcelona  in 1955 “I knew that I was meant one day to build my own garden of Joy” and that’s exactly what this  is, a Joy. This place is so tactile, there’s no sense of barriers or  ‘don’t touch’. These pillars inside The Emperor are just irresistible to touch. I loved the chillies, the boys predictably like the skulls!

The Emperor, apparently, is the card for masculine power, for good or for bad. The sculptures represent 22 Tarot cards. I know nothing of Tarot cards. No matter. It’s enough that there was spiritual meaning for the artist. For me, they’re just fun. Niki de Saint Phalle has achieved her aim of a garden of Joy.

I don’t find this devil very scary,  in fact he looks rather jolly. Niki de Saint Phalle wrote that working on it scared her. She was living inside one of the largest sculptures at the time, the  Empress, nicknamed ‘the Sphinx’, and had visions of hundreds of devils swarming around the Sphinx. Whilst that may well be the product of an artistic imagination, I loved seeing inside the Empress, which had been turned into her home and studio while working on the project, complete with working kitchen and bathroom

The sculptures vary considerably in size, from the house sized Empress to human sized and down to ‘the Star’ shown above inside the Empress/sphinx. The sculptures are set amongst the plants and the landscape, to interact with nature.

I love all these big bottomed, big bosomed, curvaceous ladies, makes me feel in good company!You can tell this place was designed by a woman, there’s a sense of the power of the feminine running through it. ‘Justice’ (with ‘injustice’ locked up inside her) maybe has too rigid a brassiere for comfort though!

The Tarot Garden  is bonkers, but bonkers is an entirely good way. And very inspirational. To think of one woman having the vision, then making it happen in a very remote corner of Tuscany. Work began in 1978, the garden opened to the public in 1998. That’s truly a labour of love. Niki de Saint Phalle wrote that it was “My destiny to make this garden, no matter how great the difficulties”. I’m so glad she did, the world is surely a better place for having joys like this garden in it. It is off the beaten track, but well worth seeking out, especially if you are looking for somewhere to please ALL the family!

TOP TIP!Take a bottle of water! We found it very hot, dry and dusty and there were no fountains to drink from.

Website http://www.nikidesaintphalle.com/

How to get there.

Il Giardino dei Tarocchi is in localita Garavicchio, Pescia Fiorentino, near Capalbio, in the Province of Grosseto, about 5km inland,  very close to the border with Lazio. Reach it on the via Aurelia SS1, exit at Pescia Fiorentino. Head left, should soon spot the park!

Open April to mid October.

Wet feet in the woods with Red Riding Hood

What do you see here? Handy stepping stones  to jump across a stream or icy cold winter mountain water that no sane person would go anywhere near in mid January?  Want to look closer?

Looking a bit colder now? Let me tell you it was! This weekend I hopped and jumped and stumbled over about 8 such streams, and occasionally missed and got wet feet. But thankfully ONLY wet feet! My fear had been slipping and getting my whole self wet and very, very cold. Could so easily have happened, I’m definitely not the most sure footed! It started so innocently, with wanting to go for a walk. Note the word ‘walk’, no mention of scrambling over rocks or jumping icy torrents.

We headed for the nature reserve of Orrido di Botri, the deepest canyon in Tuscany. The canyon is only open June to September as there is too much water the rest of the year, but we knew there were a number of marked trails around the area. We took the route to the left of these buildings following the red and white markers of the CAI (Club Alpino Italiano).  Notice here I’ve used the words ‘trails’ and ‘routes’, that’s the benefit of hindsight! Beforehand I somehow had the word ‘path’ in my head, quite forgetting that mountain enthusiasts of the CAI probably didn’t have the same vision as me of what a walk might involve!

Here’s Red Riding Hood, looking lost in the woods (also known as youngest son with hoodie on). You may be thinking surely we took a wrong turn, there’s no path there, just trees and rocks. We thought that too, but every so often there would be a red and white marker on a tree or rock so we knew it really was the route.

Okay, so a bit stony. But then the route hit a series of  mountain streams,  and the bank was far too sheer to go up. This meant crossing the streams, stone to stone. Fun in summer maybe, but rather daunting in mid winter. Here’s Rod about to jump, notice the fallen branch in the top left of the picture.

Whilst I was till crossing this little stream I looked up to find Rod balanced on that branch! Across another rather wider stream. Crazy man! At first he was going well, but then almost lost balance. He made it in the end. There was no way I was going to cross the same way, I had to try the stone hopping, but this time missed and got one wet foot. But only one, and only a foot.

Not too far past this we gave up, it looked to be just more and more of the same, crossing small but icy streams within a larger river bed. It had been kind of fun up to that point, but now there was the prospect of having to return exactly the same way, re-crossing every stream. But where to cross?  This was a wide section and needed careful selection of the best spot.

We made it back to the car, relieved that none of us had slipped in the icy cold water and with something of a sense of having had an adventure. Driving back we were rewarded with the mountains being bathed in a wonderful evening glow.

We stopped to enjoy the awesome scenery at a bend in the road heading back to Montefegatesi. There was a cross and a photo of young woman. Beneath it a plastic chair. Someone must come to this spot to remember her.

The village of Montefegatesi is always enchanting, perched on its rock almost like an island. It was getting a bit late to stop, so just tantalising glimpses from the road this time.

Getting there

Orrido di Botri can be reached via Tereglio or Montefegatesi, both stunning villages either side of the Val Fegana (valley) soyou can make a very scenic circular route.

FromLucca head towards Barga on the SS12 then SR445 until the roundabout for the Val Fegana and Tereglio, SP56. This is proper road all the way to the Orrido di Botri.

Or, from Lucca north on SS12 until Bagni di Lucca, then behind the park in Bagni di Lucca take the road signed for Montefegatesi. Shortly after Montefegatesi the road becomes a rough track, but okay for a normal car if the weather is good.

Montefegatesi can be reached by bus from Bagni di Lucca, 3-4 buses per day.

A Winter Walk

Time for sunny winter walk! The weather gods are smiling on us again, gone is the grey and now we are having those beautiful crisp sunny days that remind us winter really can be okay! So I’ve temporarily set aside dreaming of summer beaches and gone for walks. We had a few hours to spare in Lucca waiting for no.1 son and I remembered Debra’s post about the Nottolini aqueduct http://bagnidilucca.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/its-not-roman/

We drove into the San Concordio part of Lucca and simply looked for acquaduct, and then somewhere to park. I’d guess we started about a quarter of the way along from the Lucca end of the aqueduct. The aqueduct runs for just over 3km from Lucca to Guamo and was built from 1823 by Nottolini to bring fresh drinking water from the springs in the foothills of the Monte Pisani to the city’s fountains. A path runs alongside which is completely flat and ideal for a walk, cycle or judging by the tracks, horse ride.

The 12 metre brick high arches make for impressive companions, there were 459, but now 6 have been removed to make way for the A11 Autostrada. Not only are they architecturally impressive but inspiring also as a monument to something built for the benefit of ordinary people. There were two water channels running along the top, with two different qualities of water. The water doesn’t flow on the acquedotto any longer but there must be some pipes bringing spring water along the route as many locals stopped to fill cratefulls of water bottles at the taps along the route.

The aqueduct ends at the Tempietto di Guamo. This cistern was the connection point for waters from 18 springs. From here you can trace the straight route of the aqueduct as it runs over the plain to Lucca. The backdrop of the Apennines and Apuane Alps north of the Lucca plain is clearly visible. It makes a good spot to understand the ‘geography’ of the Lucca area.

The path doesn’t end at the Tempietto. The waterworks continue underground with conduits, wells and inspection chambers. I understand there is a park dedicated to Nottolini, but we didn’t get very far beyond the aqueduct this time as it was starting to get darker and colder! Time to turn back.

The return was unexpectedly lovely as the winter sun was fast disappearing and bathing the mountains in the distance a deep purple, and the flat farmland along the route in a pinky glow. This goat bouncing rapidly up a tree to peer down at us from a superior position of height was a nice shock.

Did you spot the moon in the these four pictures? It’s not quite a full moon. Of course it looked so much larger and brighter in real life!

As you can see we got back to the car just in time, it was getting a bit dark to see very much!

Although we’d driven to Lucca this walk would be easy to do without a car as the aqueduct starts near to the train station in Lucca. The distance we walked took us 35 minutes to reach the other end of the aqueduct, and I amble along very slowly!So I’d guess to allow up to an hour each way for the whole length, plus however far you want to go after the aqueduct ends. We only went about minutes further, so will have to go again-I always want to reach the very end, just to see what’s there!