Village Italy 2024
Strolling along the wall in Lucca.
Lucca
DAY 9
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Leaving our serene hilltop hotel we traveled to the Florence American Cemetery. It was a somber experience seeing a field of crosses and Star of David honoring Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Many families wanted their soldiers buried here with their comrades instead of bringing them to their hometown.
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After paying our respects we went to Pistoia, a sleepy village with fun art everywhere. We wandered, found a place to eat lunch Surprise! I didn't have pasta or pizza but I did enjoy a great beet salad and, of course, a gelato. Cristina has so many friends in the villages on our tour that she was always giving us tickets to redeem for a treat.
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DAY 10
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Lucca has been a walled city since the 2nd century. Today the wall has become a community path for walking and biking. Our local guide showed us around his city and explained the artwork carved in the stone on the outside of San Martino Cathedral were lessons for the people who couldn't read.
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La Visona olive oil co-op was next on the agenda. We tasted olive oil, learned how the co-op worked and had a tasty lunch complete with dipping biscotti in a sweet dessert wine.
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Back in Lucca the afternoon was ours. We decided to do laundry. We had washed a few things by hand along the tour but since we still have a post-tour journey, we took advantage of the lavanderia. We even ran into some of our fellow travelers doing the same thing.
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Our hotel had an aperitif for it's guests so after enjoying some sparkling wine and snacks we
weren't very hungry. We wandered the streets, shopped and ended up enjoying delicious bread soup in the town square. Our waiter was quite confused that we didn't want to eat anything else.
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Tomorrow, the Cinque Terre!
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Florence American Cemetery
This shell in Pistoia tells travelers it is part of the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage route since medieval times.
Pistoia town hall. Pistoia lent it's name to the pistol which was once manufactured here.
Cristina and Sue at the olive oil co-op.
'Around the Sun', this statue in Pistoia is of three blind men carrying light in three different directions.
Biscotti dunking at La Visona.
Laundry was 5 tokens to wash (except we ended up needing 10) and 1 token for 8 minutes of drying. Each token was 1 Euro.
This lion is from the Roman amphitheater which is now the old town center.
San Martino Cathedral
To amble an alley in Lucca is lovely.
The road in front of our hotel.
Mother and child playing with bubbles.
