Italia - bellisimo ...!

It seems ages ago since I last posted.  Anyway we are back from our holiday and had a lovely time in Italy - here is just a taster of our Tuscan adventure ~

The drive up the mountain to our casa in the tiny hamlet of Buchignano took us up a single-track road winding its way through dense forest.  We passed a few houses on the way precariously built into the side of the mountain.  It felt like a white-knuckle ride at first but by the end of our holiday we had kind of got used to it.   Nonetheless I sighed with relief as each journey safely deposited us at the top, and indeed the bottom!  The views from the house were stupendous so it was more than worth it.

To the right of this photo we could glimpse a view of the sea.

Olive trees below the lower terrace to 'our house' ~

The iconic image of an Italian beach with its regimented lines of sunbeds and umbrellas at Lido di Camaiore was just a 20 minute drive away. We discovered a lovely little cafe on The Pontile - a modern art deco style pier. 

Viareggio is a charming laid-back seaside town with a great restaurant called La Darsena which served excellent seafood.

We took a tour of the composer Puccini's lakeside home at Torre de Lago which was wonderful and  also the gardens and gallery that make up the outdoor arena where the Pucciniano Festival takes place each August.

Don't forget to click on the collages for a more detailed view ~

Another day we drove to La Spezia and took the hop-on hop-off passenger ferry to the Cinque Terre beaches.  We managed to squeeze in three of the five - Riomaggiore, Manarola and Monterosso.  They have a tangible old-fashioned feel - like something from a 1950s film or a vintage Campari advert!

Having a great interest in the Romantic Poets, a trip to Portovenere was a must. Percy Bysshe Shelley lived with his wife Mary Shelley in the village of San Terenzo, and tragically drowned when his boat was hit by a storm on his way home late one night.  His friend Lord Byron (a very strong swimmer) would often swim to visit the Shelleys on the other side of the gulf.  The grotto from where Byron would set off on his frequent swim across the gulf is at the base of the gothic church of San Pietro.  The cave has sadly partly collapsed but the OH managed to scramble down and take some photos.

Virginia Woolf and George Sand were also frequent visitors.  However it was the dramatist Sem Benelli who in 1919 referred to the gulf for the first time as the 'Gulf of the Poets'.

Portovenere is beautiful with a real sense of history and atmosphere.

 

We had two days in Lucca taking in all the sights and stopping for coffee and cake at the lovely Art Nouveau Caffe di Simon - once patronised by Puccini who would tinkle the ivories at the piano in the dining area.  Lucca is a wonderful gem of a town, perfectly well-preserved and completely surrounded by wide, grassed and shady 16th century ramparts.  You enter the town via four portas, its tantalising vias and piazzas welcome you in and wrap around forming a perfect  circular grid of streets.  Lucca is the only town in Italy to be completely enclosed by walls.  Before entering through the Porta St Pietro we hired bikes for a leisurely ride around the walls, just like any self-respecting Lucchese!

There are so many wonderful medieval and Renaissance buildings it was difficult to choose which photos to upload from the dozens of photos we took.

We also went to Bagni di Lucca, a Regency spa town with some lovely buildings flanking the River Lima at the foot of the Appenines.  Just down the road is the unusually shaped hump-backed Ponte della Maddalena majestically spanning the Serchio - you can't really get the sense of how steep this bridge really is from the photo but I can tell you it was a hike getting up there - especially in 37 degree heat!

We had a wonderful time in Tuscany and in between all the sightseeing took time out to just relax, enjoy the warmth, eat good food, read and listen to music.   As with all good holidays we felt a tinge of sadness when it was time to leave such a wonderful place but with our batteries re-charged and happily sun-kissed, return home we did.  We had a trip to North Norfolk to look forward to and tickets for an outdoor theatre production of Sense and Sensibility at Holkham - so all was not lost!
I hope everyone has enjoyed the last days of summer despite some inclement weather recently.  With Autumn rushing headlong towards us I look forward to days of mellow sunshine and misty mornings ....

Links:
Information on Lucca
The Cinque Terre
Puccini Festival

Hope to catch up with everyone over the next few days.

Jeanne
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