We just love Lucca!

We can't get enough of Lucca.  Even Olney loves Lucca.  This time we went to meet our lovely friends Micah and Anna who are living and working in Rome for a couple of years.  It turns out Tuscany is in the middle between Saluzzo & Rome, how horrible huh?

Our Villa in Lucca.  That's my new car out front!

Micah and Anna wanted to have a gastronomically satisfying weekend and I think we did just that.  Though after 6 bottles of wine in one weekend for the 4 of us, I was tired and in need of a break!!

The view from the villa!

We picked up Micah & Anna at the train station in Pisa and went straight to our favorite brewery, Bruton!  You may recall from our last trip to Lucca that they have an excellent Florentine steak and we got 2!  And of course that went well with 2 pitchers of their beer.  Also, they have an excellent chocolate mousse.

Us and Anna in the Oval Piazza

 We weren't the luckiest in the weather department, but Saturday morning was quite lovely.  We slept in and then went up the mountain to the Agrituristico Celli where we bought wine and grappa and honey.  Then we went back to our lovely villa and had a lunch of Tuscan salami, cheese, bread, olives and assorted yumminess Fabri and I brought from Piemonte to share with Anna & Micah.  After lunch, before we all fell asleep again, we went down to Lucca. 

Lucca from above

Unfortunately not too long after we arrived, it started raining, so we had to skip some of the architecture in favor of ducking into bars.  So after a couple of aperitivos and getting a little wet around the edges, we headed back to the villa to relax before dinner.

Us in the wine cellar of Cantine Bernardini

For dinner we went to the #1 trip advisor pick, the Cantine Bernardini.  During the day it's just a small green door in a big blank wall, but in the evening, you go downstairs into several century old wine cellars.  We thought it would be crowded, but the rain must have kept people home.  That suited us just fine as we enjoyed some lovely gourmet specialties and sampled the Montecarlo wines.  Montecarlo btw is the famous wine producing region of the Lucca hills.  It's north of Chianti and the wines are different.  I would be happy to list what we ate, but it's too difficult to translate all the deliciousness.  But the dishes were very seasonable with leeks, mushrooms, chestnuts and truffles, lots of truffles.  Nothing makes me happier than seasonably appropriate menus.

Sunday morning before leaving the villa

 Sunday we woke up late and had breakfast before bidding our villa farewell and heading to Viareggio (sound familiar?).  We went to lunch at some random restaurant we found (it ended up being pretty good) and drank a bottle of my favorite white wine, Greco di Tufo.  That was our 6th and final bottle of wine for the weekend (thank goodness!).  After lunch we walked around town and let the puppy run around in the sand.  Then, after one last gelato, we said goodbye to Micah & Anna at the train station of Viareggio and Fabri, Olney and I got in the car and drove back home.  The drive was pretty nice (I did most of the driving) until we reached Piemonte which looked like Armeggadon.  The clouds were so thick and dark and there were strong winds.  Luckily we made it home before it rained and relaxed a bit before ANOTHER eating engagement: the birthday dinner of Gaetano & Giovanna!  More wine and more delicious food (this time Piemontese) and we were off to bed before another week started with out us!

On the beach in Viareggio

Our Best Man turns 30

A couple of weekends ago we were conspirators in a surprise party for our Best Man Miki.  By conspirators I mean that we were invited and we succeeded in not telling Miki and I successfully did not post anything about it on the blog or facebook or buzz or something like that.  Big accomplishment.

Laura & Miki at our wedding

Anyway, you should remember Miki from the wedding.  He's a flavorist by day and a rock star by night.  Whatever that means. 

His lovely girlfriend Sonia (with help of her beautiful sister Ylenia and HER so-so boyfriend Steo) organized a dinner at the Jazz Club of Cuneo.  We'd never been there before but I liked the idea of a little live jazz music playing while we ate.  There was this great little band of 3 that I wish we had heard more from.  They had a stand up bass which I love accompanying a sax and a guitar.

Fabri sat across the table from Pej, a fellow doctor friend and they talked medicine the ENTIRE night.  That was fine though, because I got to talk a little with everyone!  And it was a great group of people.

Miki and Sonia

The food was all right, nothing spectacular, but we certainly weren't hungry at the end.  I remember especially liking the pasta, but I don't remember what it was.  Whoops!  Miki chose a very yummy nebbiolo called Rispetto (respect) and at the end of the meal we toasted him with spumante.  It was just a fun time hanging out with some awesome people we don't see often enough. 

Danielle and Angela

Me!

Sagras, festas and fairs, oh my!

Today is the second birthday of the Adventures in Italy blog!!  A lot has changed in these two years.  We completed our house, adopted a puppy and bought 3 cars in these two years.  I've been teaching English both with a school and without, volunteering at a museum and improving my Italian daily.  We are continuing to travel as much as possible and I am always focussed on getting as much out of Italy as possible!

On that note: sagras, festas and fairs!  Sagras are food festivals traditionally focused on a single local food product.  There is usually a market of some sort (antiques, local food products, made in China junk) and then in the evenings a dinner based on this product and of course music and dancing.  Festas are any sort of festival or party.

Fall is sagra, festa and fair period here in Piemonte.  Every weekend this month there are at least 4 or 5 and I'm in heaven.  I love these things.  They are full of Piemontese rednecks or country people.  The accents and dialect are fun to listen to.  The food is always interesting and usually pretty, pretty good.  And the dancing is awesome.  They do a particular type of ballroom dancing called Liscio where it appears that the couple glides across the floor as though they're on wheels.  Anyway, I love it.

We started our fall fair period with the 5th Annual Sagra dj Tajarin in Casalgrasso.  That's near Carmagnola and the museum.  Tajarin is a somewhat thin egg pasta.  The sagra had 4 types of pasta: green, white, red and black each with a different sauce.  They were all very yummy!

Two weeks ago we went to the Festa di Bagna Caoda in Faule.  Bagna caoda is a Piemontese sauce that sounds disgusting but is actually delicious.  It's made with garlic, a lot of garlic, anchoives and cream.  It has to be kept warm while eating it or it will congeal, so you use that little "cooker" pictured above with a tealight to keep it warm.  In the sauce you dip peppers, potatoes, onions, cabbage, cardoon and celery.

Now we're looking forward to the chestnut, leek and gnocchi sagras!  If you ever want to visit and like the idea of Italian rednecks, fall's the time!

Tuscany

Our house near Lucca

From Tuscany with the Rents

Again I've let the blog get away from me.  And it's a shame because I have gorgeous photos already to go!  It's been about two weeks since we went to Tuscany with my parents.  We stayed in a restructured home several hundred years old with little bathrooms and a beautiful view.  You could see Lucca at the bottom of the valley, but perhaps the most spectacular view was the owner's villa which we toured.

From Tuscany with the Rents

I picked up my tired parents at the Pisa Airport Wednesday afternoon and we found our lovely little Lucca villa.  We did a little exploring around that area Wednesday evening including testing out the Bruton beer brewery.  We enjoyed that little local so much that we went back with Fabri and ate at their restaurant.  It was excellent.  I highly recommend the Fiorentine Steak which was perfectly cooked.

Happy Hour at the Bruton

From Tuscany with the Rents

Dinner at the Bruton

From Tuscany with the Rents

Thursday Mom, Dad and I went to Florence for a few hours.  They went to the Accademia Gallery to see Michelangelo's David.  Having seen it before, I went shopping and walked around the historical center of Florence. We met up to see a few more sites and then headed back to Lucca. 

From Tuscany with the Rents

Friday Fabri arrived with the puppy.  Olney loved the house, especially having his own garden that he could run around off the leash.  After lunch we all went down (including Olney) to walk around Lucca.  Lucca did not disappoint, it was a beautiful city.  We walked through the entire walled city, and some way along the wall as well.  It was a good city for puppies and we all had so much fun that we decided to go back on Saturday to do some more exploring and to shop at a huge antiques market taking place.

From Tuscany with the Rents

Sunday we packed up and headed to Viareggio about 30 minutes from Lucca.  Viareggio is on the sea, so Olney had his first salt water experience.  Mom & Dad got to walk with their feet in the water and Fabri and I walked along the boardwalk window shopping.  From there we continued up north to Saluzzo for a few days until Mom & Dad had their usual luck trying to head North for a couple of days in Holland.  The usual luck being, there's always a problem, this time a strike in France closed down the trains so that I drove Mom & Dad to Nice Airport to make sure they would make their flight to Holland.

Surfer Pup!

From Tuscany with the Rents

Mom and I exploring around Saluzzo

From Tuscany with the Rents

Dad, Olney & I exploring around Saluzzo

From Tuscany with the Rents

As usual there are more photos in my Picasa Web Album!