Blog # 3: Italian Food, Countryside, and Amazing People

Wednesday

Italian Food, Countryside, and People

Considering a Move to Italy 

Beginning about 4 am there is a huge thunder and lightening rainstorm.  We wake up to wet, grey and cool Seattle-like weather.  John heads out for the patisserie for his double espresso while listening to opera music, reading the New York Times and downloading Impressionist Art on his I pad (He is reading book about this). Joan and Andrew do crossword puzzles and plan the next phase of their trip, Julie reads PD James and I work on my photos and blog.  Late morning Julie, Ted, John and I go into town to get John’s sweater forgotten earlier at the pizza place.  We decide to have lunch there again and this time Ted samples a less salty pizza and seems happy with it.  On the way home we grocery shop for more breakfast food and hors’d oeuvres and I search for olives.  The sun comes out and we have pre-dinner drinks and snacks again on our deck.  On this evening John and Julie have searched out a great dinner restaurant ~ Antica Locanda de Sesto which we all highly recommend.  I had an eggplant dish, Andrew had rabbit and others had osso bucco.  

Despite the poor weather it has been a satisfying and lazy day.

Thursday ~ Each to his own version of fun food

By now we have learned a lot about each other’s preferences, dislikes and idiosyncrasies.  I know that Joan likes greenish bananas (not ripe, yellow ones) and tea (but not coffee) and doesn’t like arugula. Andrew likes non-alcoholic beers and meat such as veal, duck, rabbit, and boar and rarely eats vegetables except for potatoes. He also seems to like digestive cookies with cheese.  Julie does not like olives but loves chocolate as does Ted.  John is addicted to pasta and double espressos and finds he likes boar but doesn’t like arugula.  I am secretly eating digestive cookies and cheese whenever possible and ask others for drinks of their wine.

Sneaking away for dessert while Julie, Joan and I shop 

Hiking in the Hills



On this sunny day we stay at our Casa and hike up the hills behind our place. 

Add caption

It is a gorgeous walk where we sample purple grapes, which are sweet and ready to be eaten. 

We debate whether to steal a bunch of grapes to take back to our casa but restrain ourselves.  

We see gardens with large ripe tomatoes, and hills of purple colored hydrangeas.  

Olive trees are everywhere and we see the nets to gather them.

At the top of the hill we find a lovely restaurant with a fantastic view ~ a wedding is about to happen so we cannot get lunch reservations. 

Add caption

Instead we return and prepare a lunch picnic outside with melon wrapped in prosciutto, cheese, olives, arugula salad and tomatoes.  We swim in the pool surrounded by olive tress and enjoy the sunshine. Everyone but John leaves for Lucca about 5 pm so that we can try a final bit of shopping before leaving. Andrew and Ted find a place to have more coffee and people watch.  Joan buys shoes and Julie and I buy leather purses. 

Ted and Andrew people watching while we shop

Dinner in an Italian Home

We meet up with John and head off for dinner with an Italian family.  This family ~ Danielle and Graziblla Del Beccardo and they their son Michele are friends (or distant cousins) of an Italian friend of Andrew’s living in Vancouver. This friend of Andrews has told this family we are coming to Lucca and they have invited all of us to dinner. We are very touched with the generosity of this invitation and Andrew suggests going out to a restaurant but they insist we should come to their house. We meet this very interesting family plus another couple and enter their 19^th century house with high ceilings and antique furniture. We start our meal with hors d’oevres of goat cheese, salami, ham, chicken liver and fresh olives and proseco in the living room.  All 11 of us sit around a long table adjacent to the kitchen and are served two enormous bowls of pasta with lamb and beef sauce and the local red wine.

 I think this is the main meal and is surprised when this meal is followed with a huge platter of potatoes plus beef spiced with sage and rosemary. 

Desert is biscotti dipped in a liqueur accompanied by grappa. 

Biscotti and grappa 

Conversation is lively as we share travel experiences and talk about Italy. We are told that 40% of young adults Michele’s age (25 years) are unemployed in Italy and that the economy in Italy is continuing to decline, while countries such as Spain and Portugal are improving.  Michele has applied for a visa to work in Vancouver and they are hopeful he can go there for better income and opportunities. It saddens us to learn this about Italy.  It turns out they have been to Seattle and have a picture of themselves taken at Kerry Park overlooking the Space Needle; a cousin is a physician at Children’s Hospital. We hope to return their kindness one day.