Lucca.....the walled town

September 19, 2012

• Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, Central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the province of Lucca. It is famous among other things for its intact Renaissance-era city walls.

The wall is literally a stone wall but has now been made into a sweet promenade of sidewalk and landscaping. We rode bikes around the whole town on the wall one glorious, sunny afternoon!

the sweet facade of our B&B....always so unassuming on the outside; yet, so precious on the inside!

crazy Lisa prolly telling sweet Cindy some hilarious story!!

and on the foyer table, beside all the brochures of the town, lay a few dozen fresh eggs for breakfast next morn!  That was so crazy to me!

There were six bedrooms in the B&B and our group had them all.  It was like a big slumber party for 3 nights cuz we were all bunked up with a kitchen and dining room to hang out in. Our room was the sweetest and faced the main street below. Alot of time was spent hanging out this window just watching Italian life go by!

the view outside our window.....to the left

to the right...where on the left thru one of those arches was the most happening bar. Crazy night life out in the streets! 

directly across from us.....a deli, a ceramics gift shop (where I found my lil lady!) and a clothing boutique

Of course, my job was to find wine.  And since that neat bar was just across the street, I set out on a mission once we got in our room.  Found great bottle of Merlot, but me, oh my....we had no glasses nor corkscrew!  What's a lil american gal to do?  Well........work my magic and the CUTE bartender let me borrow glasses and a corkscrew as long as I promised to bring them back before we left town.  DONE!

And with my lucky traveling Buddha on the windowsill....we were ready for the next days of fun!

Dinner this night was at a place that Lenora was familiar with...

with what was becoming a very familiar site at mealtime!

the bread was very different tho.  It is made with no salt.

"One of the great joys of eating in Italy is munching on fresh Italian bread. Yet when you bite into your first piece of while visiting Tuscany (and also much of Umbria), you might be surprised at what is missing. It might take a moment to realize that there’s no salt! This type of bread is called pane toscano.  So how did the Tuscans miss this key ingredient that you will find in breads in other Italian destinations?

The most popular historic theory for the lack of salt in Tuscan bread is that age-old social menace: taxes! In the 12th century, Pisa – an independent republic – controlled access to the sea and in a bid to extort more money from the Florentines, raised taxes on salt. The people of Florence wouldn’t bite (no pun intended) and local bakers began making bread without salt.
Another theory is that food in Tuscany has always been flavorful from the salty meats to the spicy sauces to the bite-yPecorino and powerful olive oil — and the bread was developed as a complement to these strong flavors. No matter what the reason is, Tuscan bread has been salt-less for many centuries and won’t be changing anytime soon."~~ kathy mccabe

the end of another jam packed, fun filled day!!