| TUSCANY
Part One -- Lucca, Piccioli,
Pisa |
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We got stuck in Montecatini for a half hour because of a stalled car at a left turn that we needed. We first got stuck behind her, then tried to go around but ended up back behind. Then I yelled at Uli to go around and he said, "Do you want to drive?" and I said, "Fine!" and promptly stalled the car with all the other cars honking at me. Uli's
insisting on not driving the autostrada and I'm not convinced. Sure,
it's more interesting, but the traffic is awful and we're missing the
towns we're trying to get to during daylight. I
guess it depends on one's philosophy of travel: the journey or the destination.
So far the journeying sucks.
Mon May 12, 9:21pm So far, Lucca is a wonderful surprise. The hostel is astonishingly nice. The feeling the town gives off is warm and inviting, despite the fortified city walls surrounding the place. Nowadays the ramparts are guarded by joggers and bikers on their appointed rounds, rather than soldiers. We're eating at Vecchia Trattoria Buralli at Piazza S. Agostino. After my first taste of ragu last night I was set to swear it off. "Hell, they slap it in jars with the brand name Ragu in the States!" I said. Then I tried the ragu that Uli ordered here, which is flavored with mint or something. I ordered the eggplant sauce instead, which was quite nice. But now I'm really looking forward to trying Tuscan Fried Chicken -- pollo fritto. Wheeee!
Tue May 13, 10:35am Just had lunch under large oak trees on top of the city walls. Megan has yet to call this morning and I hope she does -- it's been a few days. Spring is such a wonderful time here. Dandelion pods are floating on the air all over. The trees are lushly green, as are the lawns. The birds are quite active. In fact, just now I thought I heard a quite loud bird of a tropical sort, but it turned out to be a mother on a bicycle showing off the electronic warning alarm on her handle bars to her baby. So
today we walk around the city some more and scale the magnificent Palazzo
Guinigi tower which has trees planted on top. My kind of town! Mixing
horticulture with architecture!
I'll also try and buy an English-Italiano dictionary. Just what I don't need in my pack -- more weight. But I plan to send some things back home. Like the thermal underwear and fleece that are of absolutely no use to me. I have an umbrella which I keep forgetting to bring with me. The car charger for my video camera batteries will be useless after Saturday. As will my Tuscany guidebook. I'm sure glad I bought that map that came with the book, instead of bringing the one I checked out from the library. Mine already has a mayonnaise stain, and I doubt the Culver CIty Public Library would have appreciated me returning theirs in that condition. Okay,
time to go!
Tue May 13, 4:05pm, Piccioli The tiny town of Piccioli, located on a windy hilltop, is doing its best to raise tourist money. There's an impressive arrangement of block form letters off the highway with an electric digital sign. At the bottom of the hill there's a very modern parking facility with an elevator, around which you can still see the old support columns that form the basis of the underpinnings. But unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a lot to do. But here comes Uli. Perhaps he has news. He does! A shoemaker fixed his sandle with a nail! Huzzah for Piccioli.
Tue May 13, 9:15pm Today was a day of many firsts. I accidentally drove onto the superstrada It got us to Pisa in about 20 minutes, costing .80 cents for the privilege. We arrived at 12:45pm or so. Having read that the Leaning Tower and Cathedral is closed for siesta, Uli parked the car and I ran ran ran to buy a ticket. But nothing was closed for siesta. Instead, the drawbacks were that the tower cost 15 euros to climb, you weren't allowed to bring a backpack or anything, and you get an appointment -- mine was for an hour after I arrived. At the height of tourist season I'm sure the wait is longer. But then again, 15 euros is a lot of money for half an hour's entertainment and a view. But what a view! I absolutely loved it. It was exhilarating.
I loved the tug of gravity as I went around the stairs. I loved the worn marble where so many feet have tramped. I loved seeing the cathedral from above.
And the cathedral! Utterly wonderful, the best yet, even better than Florence's Duomo. I bought Uli a ticket (only 2 euros) because he was being an ass about me wanting to go to Pisa. [For the entirety of the trip, Uli was trying to convince me not to go to Pisa since that was one of the few places in Italy he'd already been at age 18.] He can be really, really selfish. But it was really important for me. My first image of Italy, besides there being a nation on the globe that was shaped like a boot, was the Leaning Tower on some school project map. Or maybe it was a McDonald's Happy Meal box.
In either case, I had to climb it, price be damned. My trip to Italy would have been incomplete.
I also had my first bit of driving through miniscule streets, ceremoniously scraping the driver's side mirror on the side of a wall. I had seen a sign for a trattoria, but I was wrong -- this little town on the top of a hill (they're all like that, really) had one barra and that was it besides a post office. I asked an elderly man if we could camp on the side of the hill, and he seemed to indicate yes. Meanwhile his two dogs were leaping on me and slobbering on my hand and pant leg as he raised his cane at them in a threatening manner. We went down the hill and stopped in at Trattoria S. Anna, run by an elderly couple. We seemed to have arrived early for dinner -- 6:30pm -- but they set us up, and two other parties arrived by 7:00. I had amazing crostini (one a pate, another a sauce-type topping, the third an amazing spicy tomato sauce, and the fourth a mixture of lima beans and tiny bits of bacon, I think), pasta with wild boar sauce, white Tuscan boiled beans and fried pigeon, which was a dark meat, almost like liver. Oh, and we asked for red wine, thinking the usual table wine, and were given a corked bottle of chianti, quite good, for only 6 euros. Uli said he was driving so not so much wine for him, so I drank the majority and now I'm a little sloppy. After dinner we looked for a campsite, and found a spot next to a fenced-in pit. I was wary of just driving off the road without asking the owner of the land. But since it was state or oil land, I'm not so nervous. In the last bits of daylight we hiked down to the end of the dirt road, trying to find the source of the river or creek sound we were hearing. But it was getting dark, and the river was farther than it seemed. Finding our way back proved somewhat difficult -- which got me nervous, but Uli found the way -- I hadn't been paying any attention. So now we've got Uli's tent set up next to the car, which is parked 30 feet from the pit. The pit itself smells like ass, but 5 feet away it's like forest and herbs. The tent zipper is broke, so I'm writing in the car, readying myself for a night of mosquito bites and strange rustlings in the leaves. Of course, that's what earplugs are for! Oh, Megan left me a message this morning, which I didn't receive until 3 or so. I'm hoping she'll call bright and early tomorrow as I do so wish to talk to her at length.
email:
ryan[at]monkeyduck[dot]com
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SIGNS ALONG THE Hollywood Pub Ghostbuster Caffetaria
Accommodations:
Lucca
Ostello
San Frediano
Eating
Out:
Somewhere on the Road --mixed
crostini, which is simply toast with a variety of toppings
-- the Tuscan appetizer staple. I had it at least three times on this
trip, and this was the best of them all.
--pasta
with wild boar sauce
--white
boiled beans, the most common Tuscan staple
--fried pigeon, which was really good
--the house wine was the best on the trip
as well! |
