June 20 – 22

Today would be a long and somewhat complicated day of travel, with three stops, Nice to Ventimiglia, then to Genoa, then to La Spezia Centrale, connecting to Viareggio and finally landing in Lucca.  We chose this route primarily because it didn’t require any seat reservations and wasn’t any shorter a trip than those that required them. 

We had time to stop for a nice breakfast at a small café just down the street from the hotel, and then a couple of blocks from the train station I found a bakery where I purchased what would turn out to be two much needed sandwiches.  We boarded our first train of the day, and all went well during our first couple of legs, but the trip went sideways on the train out of Viareggio when we began to run late, eventually causing us to miss our last leg of the day to Lucca.  Fortunately, there was another train out a hour or so later and the only downside was we arrived in a little later than originally anticipated.

We grabbed a taxi at the main station as we weren’t quite sure where our Airbnb, Apartment Via delle Conce, was located inside of Lucca’s walls and on the way the driver mentioned that during our stay we absolutely had to eat at Trattoria Da Giulio Surl, which was just around the corner from the Airbnb.  After he dropped us off, we entered the unit which turned out to be large and well appointed, with two bedrooms upstairs, multiple rooms downstairs (including an additional shower and toilet) and a nice kitchen with attached dining room. 

We would enjoy our stay here with a couple of minor inconveniences.  The first being inconsistent flow of hot water, particularly to the shower.  The owner of the property spent a considerable amount of time with us trying to diagnose the problem to no avail, but we managed to get by none-the-less.  The second was that the electrical adaptors we had, although correct for Italy, didn’t match the older outlets in the apartment, indeed we could find just one that was compatible. 

With the owner’s assistance we would locate a small electronics store nearby and eventually secure a workaround for most of our devices.  Unpacked and hungry, we closed up shop and walked the couple of blocks to the Trattoria only to find out that they were booked up that night and so we made a reservation for the following day and set out in search of dinner. 

Undaunted, we retraced our steps to what would become a very familiar route during our stay, that is to turn right on Via Galli Tassi and continue until we hit Via S. Paolino, where we would make a left turn and continue to the center of the town.  This day, we hit a little square in front of the Basilica minore dei Santi Paolino e Donato, a small Catholic church whose roots stretch back to 738.  There we would find a couple of small shops from which we could provision for breakfast and snacks, and best of all, Pizzeria Itaco where we would dine that day and once again before we left the city. 

Our friendly waiter chatted us up as we ordered a half liter of the house red wine and a bowl of soup to start, the wine as we so often find here in Europe just seven euros.  For entrees we split a lasagna and a bowl of carbonara.  As is the custom in Italy, a cover charge, the coperto (a small per head cover charge that is included in some restaurants for servings of bread, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper at the beginning of the meal) of 1.5 Euros per person was levied.

It was a beautiful evening, temperatures starting to cool after a long warm day.  Sitting outside, the Basilica providing shade from the sinking sun we sipped our wine and savored the delightfully prepared food before us.  A challenging day had ended as it so often does, recounting the mishaps, relishing the solutions, and enjoying a good meal and glass of wine.  The tab? Just 34.50 Euros ($36.44), proof yet again as to just how inexpensive Europe can be. 

The next day we would set out to explore Lucca to get a feel for this small, but picaresque city.  One might ask how we decided to spend time here when Italy has its share of great cities to visit (Rome, Florence, Siena, Venice, etc.) and the answer is a simple one, we’ve been to those towns.  But the real motivation was to join our friends Cathy and Tony here on their last stop of a three-month retirement cycling trip to Europe. They would spend their first month, April, in Girona, Spain, a town where many pro cycling teams train during the offseason, then spend May in Il Sur La Sorgue, the town in Provence we spent time in during 2017 and then month of June in Lucca, where we would join them for four nights. 

Imagine our shock when another cycling friend, Erik, who was staying with them, texted me to let me know that Tony had died in his sleep in the early morning of May 15^th, the day he was to finally do his cycling ascent of the iconic French summit, Mount Ventoux, where Cathy would eventually spread his ashes. 

As the shock diminished slightly, we understood that we would need to make alternative plans for the time we were to spend with them.  After some consideration, we decided to go ahead and stay in Lucca after all, but for one less night and use that night to extend our stay in Innsbruck, our next stop down the road.  And so, I quickly got online, booked the Airbnb we were currently staying at and moved on with the trip, our hearts a little sadder for the loss of a good friend. 

We closed out that first night, glad to have arrived and looking forward to two more nights in this timeless city.  We’d fill both days with sightseeing but miss the bike rides we would have taken had Tony and Cathy been there.  As the saying goes, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, and we sorely felt that loss.  Embrace your friends and family.  Never hesitate to tell them how much they mean to you and how much richer they make your life.  We can’t always know how long we have with them, so cherish each and every moment. 

Links

Apartment Via delle Conce: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/35361550?source_impression_id=p3_1672068053_AXnkwq4jNxq068K6

Basilica minore dei Santi Paolino e Donato: https://www.luccatranoi.it/chiese.php?id=6

Pizzeria Itaco: https://www.yelp.com/biz/pizzeria-itaco-lucca