November 9 -11 - Arrival in Lucca, Tuscany & Thursday

Wednesday November 9th -- Cousins - Carol Sabatini and Mary Vigilante meet in Lucca today -- here is how my day started:

I left left my hotel in Pisa around 9am and took a cab to the Pisa train station. Having never ventured onto the Italian trains before, I knew this might be interesting. I bought my train ticket from the counter (my Italian got me a ticket anyway and to the right location no less) and proceeded to lug my bags aboard the train to Lucca (remember 1 big roll-aboard, a camera backpack, and regular backpack).  Unfortunately I forgot to stamp/cancel my ticket as you are supposed to do before the train leaves.

When I arrived in Lucca I remembered that I was supposed to cancel the ticket first, but was glad that the conductors were not on board the train to fine me for that mistake. I arrived to Lucca where there were a ton of stairs to get down off the train platform and then up to the street level.... cross a busy street and then through the Lucca city walls.  Carol had offered to meet me to help with the stairs, but I was not sure what train I would be on, so I got to go it alone, and save buying her a gelato as that was kiddingly the price of her help <G>.  Fortunatley, our apartment is not too far from the walls and I easily found the location.

I arrived at our apartment just minutes after Carol, who was there chatting with the brazilian house cleaner.  As Carol sez - it was great to finally meet up after months of emailing and phone discussions and planning and anticipating our adventure. The rest of the day we just wandered and talked our way around the town as I got oriented to this ancient walled city.  Unfortunately the house cleaner had not dried the towels, nor put a top sheet on either bed.  She wanted Carol to take them out for drying at a laundrymat.... so we left the house cleaner to figure it out but the consequence was there were wet towels waiting for us when we returned.

While searching out a restaurant, we came to Piazza St Michele -where a musician was playing so Carol had to do some dancing in the piazza. Unfortunately for her, no one took up as her partner - tho'' some of the men were looking at her pazza (crazy)... so we moved on. We had dinner at La Buca de St Antone which we translated to tavern of St Anthony. Carol had roasted guinea hen with roasted grapes. I had a steak.  Carol is a gelato freak (and I am not far behind her) -- and had already scouted the gelato places in town; many are closed for the winter, but I think we can find a new place just about every day (if she has not already been there for a sample).  After dinner, she steered us to a place that she liked... but they were melon ball size dips, which hardly gives you a feel for the taste - tho' she liked it.

Thursday November 10 - We decided to rent a car for the weekend so we started our morning scouting out the various car rental places in town.  Since Hertz and Avis were supposed to be nearby, we started there - first visting Hertz.  Avis turned out to not exist in Lucca.  Then Carol walked to three different agencies to check out the possibilities.  I came back to the Apartment and did an internet search, and found that Hertz had the best deal.  Carol needed the exercise while I enjoyed the web search, but we both came to the same conclusion.

As you would expect in Tuscany, fining great places to eat is not difficult.  Tho' I am surprised that my cousin is not a big wine drinker (no wine after 5pm).... so I resolved (to myself) to a glass per meal and would buy a bottle or two for the apartment.  We shared a dish of fettucine with pomodoro and basilica and then I had had a huge leg of roasted pork with onions.  My cousin is more venturous with her meats than other food types - she had chingali (wild boar) on polenta.  We strolled back to the piazza of the San Michele church to do some evening passigata watchhing.  The piazza was the site of a Roman forum 2000 years ago.  After watching for a while and starting to get cold, we went in search of more gelato.

After dinner we went back to the apartment to work on our computers.  I spend some of the evening showing Carol the Geni.com site that our Naples cousins had created about our Vigilante family history.  While Carol and her husband were in Asiago, visiting our other US cousin (Jerome whose son is playing hockey for the Asiago professional team) who has manged to get some of the information that we will need for dual citienship. We are inching closer to having all that we need.  Based on some of the information, Carol contacted her sister Linda who is in Harrisburg to get some additional information (like our grand parents marriage certificate and death certificate).

Friday - November 11:    Today was to be the start of our road trip.  We were armed with a Hertz Never Lost -- and let me say, it DOES NOT LIVE UP TO its name..... or maybe we should have gotten maps... but we sure ventured to places we had not intended.  Our intended destinations – Carrara, Cinque Terra, and Piano di Momma.

Carrara is a city and comune in the province of Massa-Carrara (Tuscany), notable for the white or blue-grey marble. It is on the Carrione River, about 20 miles west of Lucca. Carrara marble has been used since the time of Ancient Rome; the Pantheon and Trajan's Column in Rome are constructed of it. Many sculptures in the Renaissance, such as Michelangelo's David, were carved from Carrara marble. The marble arch in London and the Duomo di Siena are also made from this stone. It is the stone that I really wanted to have in my kitchen island (Statuario Honed), but it was too expensive. After a year with my kitchen remodel, I am glad I did not do the marble, as it would surely have several red rings from wine bottles..... but seeing where it comes from was quite interesting. 

It was quite the hike up the mountain.  We saw virtually no one as I made each and every switch back on the drive up.  I had to stop many times to take pictures. We were told that Mine 178 was open and giving tours so we headed up the mountain.  Several times the trucks let us know that we were in their way....

After stopping at this historic cemetery (Yes -- my cousin eats weird meat, but also LOVES italian cemeteries), we headed down the mountain, to La Spesa and Cinque Terre.

My comment about the NeverLost was because several places as we searched out Cinque Terre said abruptly -- turn right or turn left (in English of course).... and it I had turned, we would have driven off one if the Cliffs.... so again, I was really wishing we had sprung for maps.

The Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. It is in the Liguria region of Italy, to the west of the city of La Spezia. "The Five Lands" is composed of five villages: 1) Monterosso al Mare, 2) Vernazza, 3) Corniglia,4) Manarola, and 5) Riomaggiore. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Over centuries, people have carefully built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea. Part of its charm is the lack of visible corporate development. Paths, trains, and boats connect the villages, and cars cannot reach them from the outside. The Cinque Terre is a very popular tourist destination made famous by Rick Steves.  Cinque Terre is tucked along the western coast of Italian on the Ligurian Sea that, at one time, could only have been reached by the sea. Now, there are roads but two of the villages are currently inaccessible to outsiders. They have just been devastated by landslides and floods which rushed down through their narrow, steep streets from the mountains where all these 5 towns cling.  Several of the Cinque Terre villages were severely affected by torrential rains which caused floods and mudslides on October 25, 2011, killing peopld and doing horrible damage to the structures, particularly in Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare.

This was pretty intersting driving. I was so glad that we had a small car, as by the end of the day, my hands were raw from gripping the steering wheel making one hairpin turn after another. Our first stop was Riomaggiore which is, of course, situated down next to the sea at the bottom of one of those never ending switch back roads.  As with many Italian cities, cars are not allowed access in most areas, so we had to park the car at the top of the village and then walk down the steep incline to the sea. That meant, of course, that we would have to then walk UP on our return. There is a bus, which left to go down to the bottom just as we arrived.. and returned to the top as we were having lunch.

I questioned how and why people would chose to originally live in such a steep, narrow slit of land in the first place. Carol quickly informed me that in the days when pillagers and pirates ruled both land and the sea, such a refuge would offer protection because the one lane path lined with its tall 4 and 5 story houses would become a gauntlet for defense against attackers.  That was nice and worth the effort but now the return. 

We hauled ourselves back up but with a needed stop at a restaurant in Riomaggiore with its outdoor tables (there was not much open).    We were the only guests at the restaurant when we were seated, other than the village cats.  Soon afer a nice young woman from NY who was traveling with her monther, was seated alone nearby.  We asked her to join us.   As it was about 2:30, we decided to then head to Portofino to see what famous stars might be visiting in their gazillion dollar yachts.  

Portofino is a small Italian fishing village, comune and tourist resort located in the province of Genoa on the Italian Riviera. The town is crowded round its small harbour. According to Pliny the Elder (the writer) Portofino was founded by the Romans and named Portus Delphini, or Port of the Dolphin, because of the large number of dolphins that inhabited the Tigullian Gulf.

But since it is not “in season” there were no yachts and most of the boutiques were closing or closed.  We stayed only long enough for a quick walk around and the inevitable pictures. 

As we were leaving the parking garage, I created a traffic jam, as I did not realize that you had to pay before at a common station before trying to exit the garage... so we held up three cars of workers in the village that wanted to go home.  Our hero Carol jumped out of the car and paid our fee before returning to the exit queue, and we freed up Portofino's only traffic jam of the day.    

From here we tried to head back to the Autostrada, but Carol just had to have a gelato.... and after the stress of driving, I really needed a Diet Coke (or Coke Lite as it is here in Italy). So at the first town, Santa Margarita, I double parked and in we ran.

We now headed to a nearby village that Carol had found out about as having a nightly dance with a full orchestra -- in the Piano di Miommo.  So we set the GPS and prayed that we would not end up in Greece.  Since the dance was supposed to start at 10pm, we decided to see if we could find the dance hall. Carol jumped out of the car and chatted with a guy that was cleaning up and he said the dance was at 8pm, so off we went to find dinner at a nearby restaurant.  Carol continued to be disppointed that the rabbits in tuscany are cooked with Olives -- which she does not eat -- how dare the tuscan's put olives in their food! ... We ate quickly, as Carol did not want to be late.

We arrived to a rather empty dance hall - and there was no orchestra, just a DJ. It was held at the Papillon dance hall in Piano di Miommo, about 12 miles west of Lucca. After being seated a few people started to show up and the music started.  It was billed as music of the 60s and 70s.... and being American, we assumed american music.... but it was 60s and 70s italian music, all with about the same beat.  Carol LOVES ball room dancing about as much as she love gelato, and I took lessons for a few years (but had no interest in dancing and was dressed entirely too causual).  Their dance was mostly western 2 step, and the women were very dressed up. But there was very lively Italian music to which everyone danced at an exceedingly fast pace. We stayed about 45 minutes and Carol danced a few times. It was fun to just watch.  At about 10, Carol said that she had enough, so we headed for the door, only to be chased by a lady asking to be paid -- we thought it was free. So back to the bar, each of us pony up $8euro for the music.  

Lucca is a walled city, with no cars inside the walls.... so when we got back to Lucca we had to go in search of a parking spot. Hertz had showed us where the free parking was, but after driving around for a while, I would defy anything but a bike from finding a place to park.  Of course we didnt want to pay for a parking spot, but after trying one spot and fearing that the car would be gone the next day, we moved the car to a paid lot that was close by the apartment but outside the wall.