After Cinque Terre we had time for a half-day stop in Pisa before going to Lucca to stay with our family friends Jim and Deb. We ditched our bags for a few hours at the Pisa train station luggage storage, and headed out to see the tower and cathedral.
So, maybe this sounds stupid, but I didn't expect the tower to be quite so dramatically leaning. It really is amazing that it can still stand! And what a funny predicament for the Pisa tourist board - they have to spend tons of money on engineering fixes to keep this thing standing up (but not too straight) in order to keep the tourists coming. It's also amazing how old the tower is; it was started in 1173, and took over 170 years to finish.
Around the tower there are several other interesting buildings, including the baptistry: a big dome which has a beautiful external roof and a very simple, but peaceful, interior. Once an hour, a singer comes in and sings a three-part harmony with him/herself just using the echo. We happened to be inside when the singer came along; it was pretty awesome!
The other main attraction of the Piazza dei Miracoli is the cathedral, which is situated between the baptistry and the tower. Here's a view of the cathedral from a window upstairs in the dome of the baptistry:
We didn't actually go up inside the tower, because it was a three-hour wait for the next available entrance. Plus, what's the point of getting a nice view of Pisa without seeing the tower (because you're inside it)? We did, however, make time for some classic "hold up the tower" and "lean with the tower" photos. We had to do it!
We were cracking up about all the other tourists taking similar photos on this lawn. So many hands in the air holding it up!
After a great lunch in Pisa (Osteria del Porton Rosso, if you're headed that way), we hopped back on the train to Lucca. Before meeting our hosts Jim and Deb for dinner, we had some time to see the city. One of the cool things about Lucca is the fully intact city wall, dating from the Renaissance. Here's one of the gates that leads into the city:
Lucca is a pretty cute little city, and we had a good time wondering through the narrow streets. Here's one of the famous sights in town, the tower with trees growing on top (left). The photo on the right is the cathedral, also a really cool stop, with some of the black and white marble stripes like the ones the cathedral in Sienna is known for:
WP and I both really liked the facade of this church in one of the main squares:
Jim and Deb are friends of Will's parents from their time living in the UK, and have been living in Tuscany for a few years now. They have an adorable villa up in the hills above Lucca, and were kind enough to host us for a few days. After traveling for a few weeks, it was nice to be in a real home environment with such good company. Here's the view from their yard, looking out over Tuscany:
Their backyard is beautiful, especially with all the lavender in bloom and a very inviting swimming pool. While we were in Lucca it was pretty hot (getting up to at least 90 degrees every day), so we definitely got some good use out of the pool! We used our time with Jim and Deb to relax and recuperate before setting off on another batch of sight-seeing in Florence. It was perfect!
On our last night with Jim and Deb, we embarked on a pasta-making adventure. Jim, who is a great Italian chef (we already had the pleasure of tasting his lemon risotto!), set up the pasta-making table in the dining room for us:
Here's the maestro at work:
In order to get the pasta nice and smooth and to work out some of the gluten, we ran it through the lasagna noodle attachment on the KitchenAid several times. After a few times through on the "thin" setting, the noodles started to get pretty long!
Next came the rolling! As a thank-you gift to Jim and Deb we brought them a chitarra pasta maker. Chitarra is the name for a pasta shape and the Italian word for "guitar". It is named after the instrument, because there are a set of small metal strings that are tightened across the wood frame that cut the pasta into spaghetti-like pieces. Here's Will rolling it out:
After rolling the pasta out (with a lot of flour coating the pasta and the rolling pin), the metal strings cut the pasta and they fall through to the wooden ramp under the strings:
After a lot of kitchen-aid use, rolling, and flouring, we ended up with a beautiful bowl of homemade pasta!
Jim made a pesto sauce and a meat Bolognese sauce for the pasta, and with the salad, chicken and mushrooms, we had quite a feast. Staying in Lucca was so relaxing, and I'm happy I got to meet Jim and Deb, who I've been hearing great things about for years! Thank you again for a wonderful stay in Tuscany!
Since arriving here on June 13th, we've been getting to know a little town called Penne, located in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Penne is a VERY old town. According to Wikipedia, the Vestini people, a pre-Roman Italic tribe, were living in Penne from around 300 BC until they were defeated by the Romans in 89 BC (see the photo below). Penne today is a scenic town of about 10,000 people nestled in a range of beautiful hills under an hour drive to the Adriatic Sea.
Our friend Ben's family has a beautiful two-bedroom apartment in Penne, and we have been lucky enough to stay here for a while and experience the "real" Italy. We've learned that means the Italy of relaxing, taking walks, and buying lots of fresh produce and pasta from the local shops. The streets in Penne are perfect for wandering around. In Italy you're often in danger of getting lost on winding alleys and streets, but in such a small town it is easy to find your way back to the main square, and from there, the apartment.
Ben was with us for the first four days of our stay here, but then he had to head back to New York, with a stop in Dublin on the way. The reason Ben's family has a place in Penne is because of their Italian heritage. Ben's great-grandfather was Francesco Federico Falco (Triple F, as we came to call him), and was a well-known guy around Penne. FFF was a renowned doctor and intellectual who participated in the first Cuban revolution against Spain. There is a street named after him in Penne, and this plaque in the courtyard of the city hall building, pretty cool!
The Falco-Tarnoff apartment is located in the city center, a short walk from the main square and all the little shops around town. This big church is right next to the apartment, though these days it is out of use and not open for visitors:
Our first night in Penne was a festival for the town's patron saint, so there were a ton of people outside for a concert and carnival games. It felt like we stumbled into town just in time for Penne's Garlic Festival equivalent; you Gilroy folks know what I'm talking about. Here's the stage where we stopped for a few minutes to listen to a (pretty bad) Italian ballad:
We even took this short video for posterity, enjoy!
The main entrance to the city is this large gate, which they had decorated with lights for the festival:
On our second day in town we walked around with Ben's family friend, Emilia, an Italian (Abruzzo region native), who speaks perfect English and has helped the Falco-Tarnoffs get accustomed to life in Italy. Emilia is so sweet and insisted on taking us around the town to all the shops to pick up some food for the house.
One of the most exciting purchases we made early on were these raviolis! They were filled with ricotta and came from the pasta fresca shop just a few blocks from the apartment:
Emilia gave us some sage from her garden and we made a delicious sauce of butter, sage, garlic and fresh tomatoes:
After eating restaurant food for a week or so, we were happy to cook at home and make something (relatively) healthy! Though overall, restaurants in Italy always have a lot of vegetarian options and vegetables available as side dishes, contorni.
During our walk with Emilia we ran into a funeral procession, which was led by a marching band with a bunch of the locals walking behind the hearse.
I took a really short video just so y'all could hear the music they were playing:
Some tourists (mostly English) make it to Penne, but in a lot of ways the place is still very traditional. As the funeral procession made its way up the narrow street, each business it passed closed their doors (or pulled down the metal grates outside) and turned off their lights as a sign of respect. They also put up posters around town announcing who has passed away. Here's the notice for the procession we saw, apparently he was a well-loved professor who was only 76:
At some point I lost track of the days here, but we took photos around Penne almost every time we walked around. The houses here are right next to each other, and in some cases, large medieval palaces have been divided up to become apartments. People decorate their houses with lots of flowers, and a lot of the time will even line the public streets with plants and flowers. Here's one house I thought was particularly beautiful:
This is a fairly typical street in Penne; this one happens to be up toward the top of one of the hills, so these people have pretty amazing views.
From one lady's front terrace, we took some fabulous photos of the mountain scenery that surrounds Penne. The old lady came out of her house as we were taking these photos, and I thought she might tell us off for being on her property. I was wrong! She was so kind to us, asked if we were traveling through Penne, and encouraged us to take more photos. People here seem really proud of their country and have been so nice to us. I think everyone knows tourism is valuable for the region, but it also seems like people here are just friendly.
Here are a couple more photos we took after talking to the Pennese woman:
I think this photo of Ben is great! He is an author, and we were trying to convince him that he should use this for the photo on his next book jacket. :)
One of the more memorable nights we've had here was dinner at one of Ben's family friends' houses. Luciano and Maria invited us over for dinner, which started out with an aperitif and snacks on their terrace, which has a fabulous view:
Here we are on the terrace, with all the snacks! They served us delicious olives (seasoned and brined at home), salami, sausage (homemade), two types of bruschetta (tomatoes and truffle), and a few types of local Pecorino (which comes from the word for "sheep") cheese! This could have been a whole dinner for me, but I had to pace myself for the courses to come.
We moved the party inside for dinner, and they made us a feast! First they brought out bow-tie pastas with a mushroom, sausage, onion and carrot sauce (and a portion for me without sausage, so sweet!). After the pasta course, they brought out a chicken and pepper dish, cheeses (fresh mozzarella, more pecorino), green salad, smoked red pepper salad, and probably other delicious things I can't remember!
I quickly learned not to leave my plate empty, since I was sitting next to the mom, Maria, and she kept telling me to eat (mangia mangia!) She also kept pinching my cheek and telling me I'm too skinny; I really got that Italian Mother experience! She didn't speak any English, so a lot of times her daughter helped translate and I did my best with Spanish to communicate. Maria's husband Luciano was also a character. He was very jovial and excited to see Ben and to meet us. He spoke English and also some Spanish, and we got along great. Luciano is a retired government worker, and was one of the first people Ben's mom contacted years ago about her Penne roots. He was full of great stories, but mostly just seemed really proud of his wife and daughter, and that they were all happy together. They might actually be the most adorable family in the world. So glad we got to meet them!
Luciano is far left in this photo and Maria is the one between Ben and WP. Their daughter is on Ben's other side and the other three in this photo are Andrew, Francesca, and Emilia, Ben's other close friends in Penne. Emilia and her husband Andrew will be moving to the UK soon (Andrew is English), but have been in Penne for many years and have been wonderful neighbors, guides, and friends to the Falco-Tarnoffs and to us.
One of our other big social engagements while Ben was in town was going over to (yet another) family friend's house for an aperitivo. Ben, WP, and I met Emilia and her family before heading the one block over to Ugo's house. As you can see, Emilia is quite petite, and when she first met me and Will she was visibly shocked by how tall we are! We're tall for all of Southern Europe, but maybe particularly so for rural Italy. Sometimes that can cause problems for our heads and doorways...
Ugo and his daughter Alessandra (she's about 16 years old) live in a beautiful old house in Penne, with a fantastic view from their terrace. If you haven't noticed yet, terraces are big in Penne! Here we are on the terrace:
And here's the view looking out towards a nearby monastery and the mountains:
Hugo and Alessandra are a very nice family, and are getting ready for a trip to the U.S. this summer to check out California and Las Vegas. They both speak great English, and it was fun to recommend some places in California for them to check out.
After about 10 days traveling together, it was time to say goodbye to Ben. Being the great friend that he is, he agreed to take home one of our suitcases for us to pick up in the US. Thank you, Ben! I swear, it's not actually that heavy...
After Ben's departure we've still managed to make it out and about in Penne, and the other day we took a trek up to the other hill in Penne. Tiny cars like these are everywhere in Italy (this one is a Fiat 500, one of the most popular Italian cars ever), and I think they are so adorable! They do kind of make me look like a giant though, right?
There are two big hills in town that used to be separate villages, but have long since joined to become Penne. There is still some surviving rivalry between the two hills, and in August they hold a competition for the "most beautiful woman." Each hill presents their contestant, and somehow one of the ladies is chosen as Penne's "most beautiful"! I actually wish we could be here to see this festival in person, since it sounds hilarious, and dates back to medieval times. These photos are from the "other" hill. The buildings on the other side of the trees in the background of the photo on the right are near the Falco-Tarnoff apartment.
Speaking of our neighborhood here, Emilia and her family have been so nice to us! Even after Ben left, Emilia has been keeping in touch with us and inviting us to hang out with her and her family. A couple days ago, we all went up to a mountain villa outside of town to take a dip in the pool. The house is a rental property that Emilia and Andrew take care of, and since no one has it booked until July, they are enjoying the pool and doing some projects around the house to keep it in shape. Lately it has been between 90-95 degrees Fahrenheit around here, so getting in the pool is almost necessary to cool down! Here's the pool, seen from the balcony:
The house itself is also very nice. I think they said it sleeps up to eight people, and has two second story balconies.
John and Mary, an English couple living in Abruzzo, gave us a ride to and from the house, and hung out with us there, which was a lot of fun. As the day cooled down a bit, Francesca and her friend (both 10-year-old girls) got tired of swimming, and we all ate a delicious Italian barbecue dinner (including lots of grilled veggies, cheese, bruschetta, and salad for me) together outside. It was a very relaxing day, and we were so thankful to be included.
The next post will be coming soon about our day tour to some other parts of the Abruzzo region. We saw lots of old towns, including one laid out on a grid that dates back to Roman times, a national park that they call "Little Tibet", and a really awesome castle! Here's a sneak peek:
