So, many of you have asked to ‘see’ our neighbourhood; the place we now call home. Friends and family want to picture where we live while we chat on the phone. Customers of Lucca bread Kitchen want to remember this beautiful spot after their holiday is over or maybe you’ve just booked a class with us and want to get a sense of the place before you travel.
We always knew we wanted to live inside Lucca’s walled city, in centro storico, that’s where the action is, where the beauty is, where the history is. We kissed a lot of frogs before we found our current apartment. Our first place was full of Lucchese charm with marble floors, high ceilings and huge shuttered windows but oh my lord was it cold. It had no view. It had pigeons. The landlady was a mare. But you live and learn, to stick with your ‘must have’ list. We were’t just looking for a home but needed a big enough kitchen-diner so that we could teach around our table. The ‘baking at home’ experience was always at the heart of what we wanted for our school.
This apartment has a dreamboat of a view, the old guy next door practices jazz clarinet everyday. Beautifully. The local cafe’s, bars and shops are friendly. Our neighbourhood bar has vino della casa ( house wine, people) at €2 a glass and the famous Lucca walls are minutes walk away, so you can literally rise up above the city and walk around it. We have a view of the walls from the kitchen; it connects me with the world outside the city, with Tuscany itself. One of the perils of living within a walled city is that it fast becomes your entire world and you can easily forget that you’re part of something bigger. I walk the walls every day. In a small walled city like Lucca you’ll go stir crazy if you don’t. On the walls you feel free of the old stone, the narrow streets. You are surrounded by hills, trees, vast swathes of green. You can walk for 4.2k around the top of the city walls ; in fact not that long ago you could drive around the city that way. These days the walls are what Lucca is famous for other than Puccini ( look him up ). Le mura di Lucca are for walking, running, cycling, rollerblading;….mostly an avenue of trees; lots of olive, oak and my favourite, Linden or Lime, with their intoxicating scent in June.
So come walk with me, let’s stop for a caffè and a torta di riso, a tiny mouthful of rice pudding in a pastry case. We’ll walk through the old medieval archway, Porta Dei Borghi, past the ceramica shop with his crazy insect obsessed plates, the button shop, Casa del bottone, where the women inside will tell you the exact size of button you need for the old linen pillow cases you bought at Lucca’s monthly antique market. After our walk around the walls we can drop by Gino Frutta, the greengrocer and deli for some bites for lunch; carciofi (artichokes) are in season now; we can eat them finely sliced in a salad for with some of the local Percorino cheese and peppery olive oil that Tuscany is famous for. It feels like Spring today in Lucca so why don’t we stop off at Ciclo Divino for a glass of vino? It’s warm enough, so let’s take our wine, maybe with a ciccetto or two (famous bite sized, open sandwiches from Venice topped with cheese, fish or meat) and sit outside on the street and watch the world go by. After all, that’s why you came to visit isn’t it?
