Pisa & Lucca

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!