June 20 – 22

After relaxing at the apartment for a while, we walked the couple of blocks it took us to arrive at Trattoria Da Giulio Surl, where we had made our reservations the day before.  The restaurant abuts the outer wall of Lucca and most of the seating is outside.  We arrived just as they were opening and as we had a few moments to wait, we walked around the dining area and entered a tunnel that led us into the interior of the wall, which besides allowing one to walk a great distance inside, is also populated here and there with works of art. 

There’s been a wall here since Roman times, when there were four openings, one for each point of the compass.  It was rebuilt at the beginning of 1500 and took a procession of military architects 150 years to finish.  Its current incarnation has three doors (San Pietro, Santa Maria, San Donato Nuova), and a few that were opened later when defense was less of an issue.  Aside from these and the absence of the drawbridge or wooden fences, it’s the same wall that would have faced an advancing army from 1650 onward.

Sadly, for its builders however, this was never the case.  The dreaded Florentine attack never came.  After the restoration of the Republic in 1430 Lucca remained the only independent city in Tuscany, enjoying wealth and peace until the French invasion in 1799.  Napoleon gave it to his sister Elisa Bonaparte, and the Congress of Vienna in 1815 subsequently installed Maria-Luisa di Borbone as regent.

During the Medieval period, an attacking enemy’s objective was to scale a city’s walls.  Thus, walls were built for height.  It gave troops a better view over the surrounding area and made them harder to climb.  But the invention of the cannon changed all this.  Walls became shorter, squat and wide, less exposed and better able to withstand the constant barrage of canon fire.  Even the towers were made round so they were less susceptible to artillery damage.  Lucca’s walls are the only surviving example of a Renaissance defensive structure in the whole of Italy.

It was now time to begin our meal at this family run establishment, begun in 1945 to serve breakfast early in the morning to the workers who were in the area (at that time the neighborhoods were small towns and densely populated), and they were real meals: marinated anchovies, cheeses, cured meats, etc.  Soon the menu expanded to take-away that included those dishes of the local cuisine.  

The original owners, Giulio and Renata, handed the operation over to their daughter Emilietta and her husband Paolo (who everyone called Giulio) and in 2004, their daughter Marilina took over the reins.  And now, along with a dedicated team this successful place continues to operate, although Emilietta and Paolo, participated until his death. 

Seated, we ordered an 18-Euro bottle of red wine and after perusing the menu, which we had an English version to view, started with a first course (primo) of the Panzanella, which was very good, the bread soaked appropriately with olive oil, the tomatoes fresh and the red onions providing just the right amount of crisp. 

Next up would be our secondo’s and contorno’s (entrees and side dishes as it is all ala-carte here).  Joanna ordered the Veal Stew with Olives, and I went with the Veal in Lemon Sauce accompanied by a dish apiece of roasted potatoes and fried vegetables.  While it was all mostly good, I was disappointed in my veal as it was overly salty (as was Joanna’s) and the lemon sauce was cloying; I had to scrape most of it off to enjoy the good cut of meat.  The roasted potatoes were not up to snuff either as they weren’t really roasted, more like parboiled.  But that could have been a local interpretation.  Note to self: more local roasted potatoes need to be consumed to continue researching this issue. 

We did order the Panna Cotta for dessert and while good, the pudding like topping was again, a bit too much.  All in all, though, at a final tab of 67-Euros ($70.67) including a bottle of wine, we’d return if we lived in the area in order to work our way through the menu as it was extensive, and you could really personalize each meal.  Part of the problem may have been that we set our expectations to high, expecting some other wordily experience when this is simple food of the region. 

The next day would be a full one as we planned to use our Eurail Passes to head to Pisa to spend some time with its famous tower.  One word here about the passes; we found that on many of our legs no one checked our status, that is at least on one day we rode without validating, essentially buying us an additional day of travel.  Originally, we had planned to use eight of our ten travel days, but as some didn’t get marked as used, we could ride out to Pisa and would still end up with 2-3 travel days left. 

The ride to Pisa is a short one, not more than 30 minutes but one needs to make sure they take the train to the station closest to the tower complex, which is Pisa S. Rossore.  If you don’t, It’s about 3 miles from the Central Station, an unnecessarily long walk in both directions.  As it is you must walk about a half mile to the entrance to the large walled area that houses the tower and its many attractions. 

By the time we got there we were hungry and knew that it would be a long afternoon of sightseeing so, deciding to dip our toes into culinary adventure, we hit the large, modern McDonald’s right at the entrance to the plaza gates.  Faithful readers of the blog know we don’t generally eat much American fast food when in Europe as the fast food here is hands down superior.  But on long trips one gets the urge and although I rarely, if ever, eat a Burger King Whopper at home, I’ve delighted in them a couple of times during our many journeys to these shores. 

I ordered a chicken sandwich and Joanna went for a wrap, once popular at stateside locations but no longer, along with a large diet Coke to share.  What we think of as being relatively inexpensive food in the states does not translate here, with our total coming to 17.71-Euros ($18.95).  The food was good though, well prepared and given the need to pump up energy for the afternoon, I declined to get a beer, which is available at McDonald’s in Europe.  And so, tanks full, we were set to get our first real glimpse at the famous tower.  Join us in the next post for our afternoon there. 

Links

Trattoria Da Giulio Surl: https://www.trattoriadagiulio.it/