Lucca to Florence

It’s Monday, our last day in Lucca. Tomorrow we head to Florence. We had big plans for traveling outside Lucca, but we did the usual… walk around aimlessly. Saturday night we decided to eat at a restaurant recommended to us. It was completely booked for the night, so we made reservations for Monday night (tonight). Then we went to another, and it was booked. After about five restaurants being booked, I was in a panic. I’m not sure I was actually that hungry, but knowing we couldn’t find a place to eat was freaking me out. Finally a restaurant, who doesn’t take reservations, fed us. It was one of the best meals we’ve had so far!

Sunday dawned cloudy and cold. We set out for our usual cappuccino and to hunt for a church. As soon as we stepped outside, it started sprinkling. We scurried back in to get raincoats. We lucked out and found an old neighborhood church right away. Then we had our first bowl of Tuscan soup.

Next stop was getting more chocolate in front of the mosaic church. While we watched the sky suddenly turned black and lightening flashed. Thunder shook the ancient walls. I was shocked by the intensity of it.

Everyone moved to the closest café umbrella or went into the stores. The thunder kept chasing people up and down the streets. I can’t describe how loud it was. We decided to go into the mosaic church. It looked plain from the outside but was gorgeous and ornate on the inside. We happily paid the three Euro to go inside—the upkeep must be expensive.

Afterwards, we sat under an umbrella and watched the torrential downpour. After about an hour, we decided we’d better buy groceries for dinner and stay home. I bought some fresh sausage and a couple of cartons of soup… it was perfect.

Monday was bright and sunny. I love Lucca. It’s laid back yet vibrant. I love the exercise mentality and comradery. We have our favorite cafes, restaurants and pubs. Joe found a craft beer pub. They must have six or seven porters/stouts. They even open the bottles for him and let him walk out on the street with it… he can’t get used to that.

Almost every day we went to this little ma and pa café near our place. Pretty soon they knew what we wanted as soon as we walked through the door. This morning I was sitting there sipping my cappuccino when the old man who made the coffees came out to the patio. This wasn’t so unusual… he often came out and sat in the sun and watched the world go by, but this time was different. He looked sneaky.  His hands were behind his back. He was looking away from me, but walking towards me with cute little steps. I absolutely knew he was up to something but couldn’t figure out what. When he finally got close to me, he turned his back to me and got closer and wiggled his fingers. He had a piece of chocolate for me! Now isn’t that the cutest thing ever?

Tuesday, we packed up and took the train to Florence, actually Oltrarno—the other side of Arno River. It took us about twenty minutes to walk to our new place on the other side of the Arno. We got pizza and wine at a little place across from the Pitti Palace… man that was the best pizza. Then we got groceries.

I’d read that there was a cool piazza for the younger crowd near our house. When we left our place to go find dinner, a group of twenty-somethings were heading up our street. We smiled at each other and followed them. Eureka! They led us down a long narrow street that opened up to a huge piazza completely packed with young people from everywhere in the world. It was amazing. We had to choose from ten different restaurants that blended together. The only way to differentiate them was by their table-cloths.

Last night, I guess that was Wednesday, we went on a rooftop bar tour. Joe and I love discovering rooftop bars. It was a fun time, but not what I’d expected. I thought we’d go to several terrace restaurant bars, but we only went to two. We started at the oldest café in the city for a coffee, then to a cool rooftop for spritz and snacks, then we went to another rooftop bar on top of a fancy hotel for chianti, then down to one of the oldest gelaterias. The problem with the fancy hotel rooftop is that we weren’t really supposed to be there. She wouldn’t tell us the name (though I’m sure I could figure it out) and asked us to not describe it to anyone because she didn’t want to lose her privileges for taking tour groups there. It was a gorgeous 360 view, but we can’t go back. So in reality we only discovered one new place. She gave a nice little discussion on the Duomo, and we had good food at the bar we were allowed to be at. One of the guests was a pretty girl who was obsessed with being the group cheerleader and taking constant selfies. It was amazing the different ways she could contort her lips for a picture! People are so entertaining.

We discovered a little hidden-away restaurant by our place and had an amazing meal. One of our sources of amusement is watching people’s reactions when the order the Florentine steak. It’s a super thick giant T-bone steak. It could easily feed four or five people. A group of locals in their twenties sat by us. They ordered a ton of food, drank a ton of wine, and smoked a ton of cigarettes. They split two steaks between the nine of them. Clearly they knew how big the steak would be.

This morning we set out for a little walk to a café nearby. Then we decided to walk up to the David Plaza, but of course we didn’t follow the path leading up to it. We climbed the streets past the old city walls, up behind the Pitti Palace and the fortress. We stumbled onto one of the oldest churches in Florence. It was up behind the plaza. 

We finally came to the plaza and had a beer (note to visitors—get a coffee or beer or something so you can use their bathroom) and sat for a few minutes before heading back down past a bizarre waterfall. It was at least three hours, and I was dead beat and starving.