Florence to Peschiera Del Garda

Well, we’re definitely not in Florence anymore. We took the high-speed train here to Peschiera del Garda and were the only two who got off the train. At first we couldn’t figure out how to get off the train because the doors don’t open automatically. I think I’d still be on it if Joe hadn’t figured it out. As soon as we stepped onto the sidewalk, the train doors snapped shut and it zipped away leaving us standing alone with our bags. By the way, our bags have taken a beating on this trip. They rolled around the department store so smoothly, but cobblestone streets are a different story. We left a wheel somewhere along the way. Since then I’ve noticed several suitcase wheels abandoned in gutters.

Peschiera Del Garda is an ancient town at the southernmost tip of Garda Lake. It seems to be pretty, but it’s hard to say for sure because it’s raining all the time. We have clothes hanging about our apartment in varying degrees of dryness. It turns out our raincoats were not designed for continuous rain… maybe they’re just wind-breakers. I even treated mine with a water-proofing product before we left California. Part of the problem is, I picked an apartment about fifteen minutes from the shops and restaurants. The up side is it makes for great people-watching from the cafes while we wait for a break in the rain.

Our place is on the third floor and has a cute little balcony over looking the residential area. This morning, during a brief break in the rain, I could see a slice of the lake. We rushed out to get a dry walk in and got down to the lake, and it’s really pretty! All surrounded by mountains. It reminds me of the lakes in Northern California… when they have water in them.

It’s difficult to describe Peschiera (pesh-kee-era). It has two fortified islands side-by-side at the apex of the lake, so they give the appearance of being surrounded by moats. The giant walls rise straight out of the water. Bridges connect the islands to each other and the mainland. The action is on the second island (west). We are to the east, so we have to cross two bridges to get to the old town. Because we are so far north in Italy, two languages are spoken here; Italian and German. At least I assume it’s German. There’re so many dialects that sound like German, it’s hard to say. One of the signs describing the city said it’s been inhabited since ancient Roman times. Then it became part of the Austrian empire. Now it’s Italy.

But for daily issues, I’ve got a few comments about this region. First is the coffee. Their coffee tastes as good as everywhere else in Italy, but it’s a bit trickier to get coffee in your rental. Let me explain. I like espresso, so I’m content with the little stove-top device called a moka. It makes a couple of shots of espresso—or about a quarter of a cup of strong coffee. Joe likes regular coffee. Each place we’ve stayed in had a water kettle (it’s an electric pot for heating water). Joe uses the coffee filters from the store to make coffee in his thermos (he hooks the filter over the edge of the thermos and pours water over the grounds). In other words, we make it work. Why not just make espresso and add hot water?? Because the moka is very hot and it’s a little time consuming to take it apart and remake it after waiting for it to cool down. Not a problem in Lucca because they had 3 mokas, plus filters for the regular way. The Florence place had filters also, plus we bought some from the store… oh and they had an American coffee maker. But, alas, our place in Peschiera del Garda only has one little moka, no coffee pot, and no filters. None of the stores have coffee filters. None. Joe even carried a filter around with him to show the shop keepers. They were baffled. He has resorted to using paper-towels for filters— resourceful, huh?

The next issue is this area has different outlets then anywhere else we’ve been. The appliances, however, are just like everywhere else. In other words none of the plugs match the outlets. Can you see my problem? The host has one adapter in the whole place. Fortunately, we have an adapter with us. I thought it was comical that the hairdryer wouldn’t fit the outlet it was sitting next to. There was no explanation for this… we had to figure it out.

The bicycle culture is different here than elsewhere in Italy. In Lucca, everybody rode around on cute bikes. In Florence it was fairly common, but the scooter and vespas were more common. Here in Peschiera it’s the racing bikes. It’s apparently a tourist thing to ride around the lake on racing bicycles with racing outfits and bike cleats. I feel like we’re here for a race or something. They do have a nice cycling /walking trail along the lake.

This brings me to my last observation. Italians, and Europeans in general, still smoke cigarettes. I’ve seen some vape smokers, but not many. I’m just not accustomed to this. People smoke in the US, but not around other people in public. Here they smoke at all of the outdoor areas. A restaurant with outdoor seating (the vast majority are outdoor seating) will have three-quarters of the tables with smokers during their meal or drink. Honestly, for me it’s not that big of a deal. My folks smoked all my life—in the car with the windows rolled up! It’s just weird, especially because they’re so young. To see a girl who looks like a world-class model smoking a cigarette is sad.

The exciting news is the hubby found a pub that sells dark beer.

Slug Bug and Foodie Tips

I’m not sure if it’s a world-wide game, but in the USA we play slug-bug. The rules are this; whoever sees a Volkswagen Beetle first, slugs the other person. We usually played this on long road-trips, which created havoc in the car and eventually ended in a fight. So, you may be wondering where I’m going with this story? Well, not long after we arrived in Italy we noticed a lot of people wearing Levi t-shirts. A lot of people. We began to joke about it and then we turned it into a slugging game (not really slugging—just a light slap on the arm)… Levi! Whack! We’ve gotten a couple of funny looks because we have to hit each other fairly often. I told Joe we’ll draw a lot of attention if we accidently come to a Levi store :)

We’ve struggled a little to feel settled in Florence. Nobody seems like a local. On Oltrarno it’s a little better. We’ve found a couple of restaurants where they recognize us and seem excited to have us back. Two of them are run by elderly couples with youngsters working for them. Another one is actually a little cooking school with a deli. They have good wine and beer. We struck up a conversation with them the other night and got pulled back into the kitchen to show us where the classes are held. They were closing up for the night, so we stood and visited with them as they wrapped up the cheeses and put everything into the big refrigerator. But most of the places have such a huge turnover, they don’t remember us at all.

Oddly enough one of the places we like to go eat lunch is the Mercato Centrale. Maybe we don’t expect to get to know anyone. Above this massive market place, is a food court. The food court seems to be run by a huge culinary school (different from the one I mentioned earlier). This is where we see the most Italians… especially teens. Because it’s got all the different choices, it draws a lot of groups of friends and small families. My favorite is the pulled pork sandwich.

It’s not easy to find the Mercato. It’s huge, but it’s completely surrounded by merchant carts. This is where you can get leather goods and scarves, but you can’t see the building. So here’s how you do it. Keep looking between the merchant carts until you see stairs. There’s many steps leading into the market… keep looking, you’ll find one. Once inside, with your mask in place, head for the center of the chaos. Past all the meat, truffles, wine, fruit, and veggies. In the middle there’s a set of stairs going up. There’re other ways to get upstairs, like an escalator, but it’s too hard to describe where they are.

Once you order and find a seat you can take off your mask. Within a couple of minutes a security person will ask for your “green pass.” Have your phone ready with the picture of your covid shot open. They understand that Americans don’t have the green pass, but you still have to show you’ve had a shot. They don’t know or care what they’re looking at, but they look anyway (though one time a girl asked about the second shot—I explained it was the J&J and she was fine). This doesn’t make much sense to me, since just as many people get sick whether or not they’ve had the shot. Shrug. Oh well, I guess it means something to someone in the government.

We went to mass at the Duomo… THE Duomo. If you’ve been following me for any length o f time, you know that I like to experience cathedrals for the purpose they were designed for. It’s an incredibly solemn experience to hear the Gregorian chants and then the massive organ vibrating the air. This is the second time we’ve done mass at the Duomo in Florence, though the first time it was in a nave. This time we were right up front and center. During the Latin service I could look up at the fresco designed by Vasari and finished by Zuccari five-hundred years ago.

We hustled straight to a pizza shop we’d seen earlier and had wolfed down a couple of slices. Joe hit me twice because he saw Levi shirts, but then I dominated for the rest of the day… especially because I found the Levi store! The store employees had to pull us apart because we were rolling around on the sidewalk smacking each other… just kidding! It’s humor, people. ;)

Then we did another cool thing. We went to the View on Art Roof Garden. I’m not sure where they got the word “garden,” but it’s a great rooftop bar we discovered on our tour. It’s near the Republic Square (Piazza della Repubblica)—the one with the merry-go-round. Take Via Dei Tosinghi, then right on Via de’ Medici. From the street next to the Robiglio you can see into a hotel lobby. A big lit up sign says View On Art inside the lobby. Go past that sign on the wall and you will find the elevator immediately on your right or six flights of stairs. A little sign says roof garden 6^th floor. 

If you go during peak ours (late afternoon) you may need reservations. We went at about 3:00 and we had plenty of seats to choose from, though a lot of the shady seats were taken. There is indoor seating also. By the time we left at 5:00 it was almost full.

We also like this tiny little café straight off the Ponte Vecchio. It’s called Gino’s Bakery. The cutest old couple own it and they are very enthusiastic about their products. It’s the hottest cappuccino I’ve had anywhere, and they have these amazing little flakey pastries with some sort of cold creamy filling. Joe got the one with chocolate. 

Today Gino talked me into trying the famous one with the orange/cinnamon cream-cheese filling. It was good, but a little too sweet and rich for me. I’ll stick to the tiny ones.

I’ve mentioned it before, but keep this in mind when traveling in Italy; they have a cover charge to sit down. It can be as high as 3 Euro each. So there’s a couple of ways of doing things. You can walk up to the espresso counter, order your coffee, sip it or gulp it, and pay just for the beverage. Or you can pick the exact place where you can get the best view and pay for the privilege… it depends on what you want in that moment.

Another oddity is the curfew for drinking cappuccino. Apparently it’s a mortal sin to order one after 11:30 in the morning. Thank goodness I’m not Italian, so nobody cares when I order my cappuccino. Don’t let this alter your behavior. Italians are very gracious people to everyone—except other Italians.

Tomorrow we head off to Peschiera del Garda. This town is on the southern-most point of Lake Garda. It’s supposed to be raining a bit, but we brought raincoats and umbrellas so no worries.

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.

Exercise and Paper Sculptures

The other night we found a side street that was busy with a vibrant young crowd. We immediately sat at one of the bar tables and ordered beer and wine. It was so entertaining. Then we wandered back to our favorite hang-out, the amphitheater. Because it’s considered too touristy, we can sit and relax without the crowds. Everyone crowds into the narrow streets and church plazas.

Lucca is completely surrounded by a fortified wall, which now serves as a walking and cycling path. We decided to go for a walk this morning. It’s supposedly only 2.6 miles around, but seemed much longer. We walked for about an hour and half. Thank goodness we’d stopped for a cappuccino and panini first. Apparently, two noblewomen in the distant past decided the walls should be made into a parkland. They planted trees and made a walking (and cycling) trail for the people of Lucca. It’s interesting that Lucca never had to make use of its military wall. At around that time the Americas were discovered and all the power-hungry folks turned their attention to the new world.

I love the view from the path. The gigantic trees keep it nice and cool. There were a couple of groups of school kids up there with their teachers. One was a group of boys sprinting to their coach at the shrill of a whistle. The other group was of maybe twenty teenage girls. Joe and I purposefully let ourselves get surrounded by them as they walked. It was like being in a gaggle of geese. All talking at once with ponytails swinging back-and-forth… so cute.

This town is way too small for cars. Way too small. From our window we can see down the street which ends at our door (we’re on the second floor—first floor to Europeans). Our daily entertainment is to watch the cars trying to get around the corner without tearing their car apart on the stone walls. This morning a service truck had us mesmerized. 

Because of the crazy roads, bicycles are the norm here. As you know, Italians are the most fashion conscious people in the world… even on bicycles. Pretty ladies with dresses and high-heels and men in suits cruise to work on bikes. Children start off with trikes and the elderly end up on trikes. Every single wall in the city has horse loops for the reigns, which are now for the bike-locks.

At 5:30, we met our guide, Luca, ("Luca of Tuscany like a local") in front of the train station for a tour. He was a blast. He walked us through the city, stopping to explain odd things like the street that never gets any sunlight so it’s named the dark street (loosely translated). We made three food stops. 

The first was Pizzeria L. Pellegrini. The pizza cook shoveled pizzas in and out of the blazing oven. The unique local item was Cecina (Cheh-Cheena). It is basically a thin pie-shaped cake made from chickpeas. It was great.

Then we walked further until we came to one of the oldest shops in Lucca; Antica Bottega di Prospero dal 1790. The owner of this wine/salame/olive oil store served us himself. It was a great experience to have him quietly pouring our wine and then hovering in the background as Luca explained the olives, the oil, and the salame board. He closed up shop but stayed with us until we were done.

Next we went to a restaurant we’d eaten at before and had a mixed board of bruschetta. One had the dreaded anchovy. I’ve never tasted anchovy and I swore I would if the opportunity presented itself. Another thing I dislike is liver pate… so naturally one of the bruschetta had chicken liver pate. I tried them both. I would never order either one again, but the anchovy with bufala mozzarella was okay. I still don’t like liver pate. It was a very nice evening and I think taking a food tour with Luca is well worth your time. You can find him on Airbnb’s tour page for Lucca: Lucca Aperitivo Adventuretour… morning or night version. It’s very personal and small groups.

Today we made our first breakfast at our home… scrambled eggs. Then we went to our favorite café to order cappuccini. Then we came back to our street and bought tickets for the Guinigi Tower. It’s directly across the street from our door. At the top of the tower is a bunch of trees. I will admit right now that I did not climb the 232 steps to the top without multiple rests. Climbing that many steps with a mask on wasn’t fun, but it was worth it. Torre Guinigi dates back to the 1300s. I’ve been in much better towers on the inside. This one had all modern steps and quite a few metal steps. There’s something awe inspiring about climbing up ancient worn stone steps with thousands of years of wear and tear. However the view from the top from under the ancient trees was pretty special.

They have little outdoor market places everywhere. I discovered the chocolate market! Oh yeah… I’m weak when it comes to chocolate. Next to the chocolate market is a giant sculpture of a person in a hoody. Veronica explained that the industry of Lucca has been, and is, the manufacture of paper products. They have different themes for the art on display throughout the year. Right now it’s “Fear and Desire.” I don’t understand the hoody sculpture, but the others were interesting:

This woman is trying to make friends with the dog, who clearly is afraid yet desires the contact.

The tightrope-walker is wanting to get to the other side, in spite of the danger.

This giant bull doesn’t look afraid to me, but maybe he is?

This man wants the freedom to fly, but looking at his face you can see the excitement and fear.

Italia! Our first stop in Lucca

We crawled out of bed 24 hours ago. Sort of. We got up at 5:30 am for an 8:00 flight and now we’re flying over Ireland at 5:30 am, but of course it’s a nine-hour time difference. So it’s actually 8:30 pm back in California. That might explain why I’m awake writing my blog instead of sleeping. Oh well… I’ll sleep tomorrow. We lucked out and were able to upgrade to premium seats at the last second for only $230 each. Normally it’s three times that much. I recommend you check premium and first-class prices when you book your economy tickets. That way you will know if your being offered a good deal. I’d say we saved about fifteen-hundred bucks for these seats.

But, speaking of tomorrow/today, we’ll be landing in Rome at 8:00 am. The biggest dilemma is to find out what our Covid test results are. We got our noses swabbed Sunday morning. When we landed in Dallas, we still hadn’t gotten the test results back. The problem is, we may have to quarantine in Italy. We’ll see. We already had to fill out an online form to allow the Italian government to trace us if someone on this plane gets sick with Covid (which was a good thing because they wouldn’t let us board the plane in Sacramento without it).

From the Rome airport we’ll catch the airport train into Rome. We’ll change trains there for a high-speed train to Florence (I have a secret fear that we’ll sleep through the train stop and wake up in Milan or something). In Florence, we’ll change again to a local train to Lucca. When we get off that train, we’ll walk straight out to the city wall and find the tunnel with the stairs. After about ten minutes walking, we’ll arrive at our place. By that time we’ll be zombies. But, that’s okay. We’ll sleep for awhile and then go explore Lucca, our home for one week.

So far not much has happened. I read Black Beauty from Sacramento to Dallas. From Dallas to Rome I’ve watched Luca (an adorable movie about two little sea monsters who become boys and take up residence in Cinque Terre, Italy), Peter Rabbit II, then I watched Raya and The Last Dragon (another cute movie about dragons and saving the world). During that time I managed to not notice my water bottle was leaking. Now I have wet britches. Traveling is such an adventure, right?

Well, a lot’s happened since that last note. When we landed we signed onto the free wifi at the airport before going into customs to find our test results, which were negative. Then we hustled through customs and never had to show the results. We bought train tickets at the airport kiosk and walked for five minutes to find the train. The first ticket doesn’t say where to get off the train… we kept going and going and finally I got desperate enough to ask another passenger via google translate. She waved her arms around dramatically and mimicked getting off the train and getting the train going the way we’d just come from—towards the airport. This seemed odd, but we did it. We went back to one of the stops that was bigger and dragged our luggage to a customer service desk. In limited English he told us we were screwed and had to go to the ticket office. The not-so-gracious lady at the ticket office issued us new tickets after chewing us out for not getting off at the correct stop. We were baffled. She extended a hand for all my tickets and pointed to the next ticket which had the correct STARTING point for that ticket! How was I supposed to know that? Just my opinion, but I think the first ticket should’ve had both the start and stop, like a plane ticket. We ended up going to Florence, then Pisa, then Lucca. By-the-way, we did have to show our vaccination shots on the trains.

But we’re here now. At the point of shear exhaustion, we walked straight forward from the train station towards the city wall and found the tunnel and stairs going through the wall. We went down little cobble stone streets until we came to ours. Right across the street from the famous Torre Guinigi (a medieval tower with trees growing on top). It makes it easy to find our place :) Just as I reached for the door, the landlady opened it and welcomed us in.

We were starving and wiped out. I knew I couldn’t eat another protein bar, so we scurried to the central plaza to grab a bite and a beer and wine. By the way the wine I got is excellent and local. Joe kept dozing off at the table, so we went back and slept for a couple of hours and headed back out for groceries (okay—beer, wine, milk). Then we slept like babies for nine hours.

Today we went for real groceries then we drank espresso and ate paninis. But one of the high-lights of this whole trip was meeting our old friend, Veronica for lunch. We met her fifteen years ago at a Club Med and have stayed in touch ever since. She came to Lucca to have lunch with us. She treated us to a meal at one of the oldest restaurants in the area, Ristorante All’Olivo. Afterwards she gave us a little tour of Lucca.

As you all know, I am fascinated by odd behavior. In Italy, it’s odd to be drunk. It’s a cultural no-no. So, we’re standing there chatting with Veronica near one of the cathedrals and I noticed there’s this dude sitting on the steps being a little loud and unruly. He was with another guy and a lady. Next thing I know the buddy leaves and the unruly guy passes out, with his head on the girl’s lap. His bear bottle rolls away about five feet. None of that is that interesting, but the Italian’s reaction to it was priceless. The tourists glanced at him and kept going. The Italians glared as they went past. Their expressions were so fun to watch; anger, embarrassment, disgust. They shook their heads and muttered. Even the teens looked amazed. Veronica said this just doesn’t happen, especially not in the city center. I’m sure his parents have received several phone calls today!