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Lovely Lucca Revisited

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We discovered Lucca on our last European tour and we were excited to come back – for a double celebration.

Our first visit was purely accidental, just after Charlie’s breakdown. We  were delighted to stumble upon the warm honey-coloured walls surrounding the town, dine on a sumptuous lunch in the Piazza dell’Antifeatro, and generally fall in love with the birthplace of Puccini.

Puccini’s birthplace

Lucca is one of the few remaining intact medieval walled towns in Europe, steeped in history as well as art. It also has a fantastic annual Music Festival as well as a Puccini festival and it was to these we were heading.

We were there to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at the Music Festival and a performance of Madam Butterfly at the Puccini Festival – a most fantastic Christmas gift from Geoff. The Lucca Music Festival is where all the cool cats play….

The Lucca lineup was pretty impressive

 

The man and his musicians

so of course, our Amsterdam friends Johan and Dorte Kuin were also there for Nick Cave and we were not disappointed! It was a great outdoor performance – hot, humid, full of passion and great music.

Purple phase

 

In amongst it

 

God is in the house

and when God is in the House (a reference to a Nick Cave Album), you had better stand up …. listen to Johan’s video to the end to know what we mean!

We were staying in a fabulous airbnb overlooking the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro.

Our quirky and ancient apartment in Lucca

 

Piazza dell’Anfiteatro

In the days between the Nick Cave gig and Madam Butterfly, we explored the city. The restaurant at the bottom of the steep steps to our apartment was owned and run by a heavily tattooed and pierced, but charming man Urbaldo. His style was more gothic than roman!

The neighbouring restaurant was run by quite a character

 

Keepin’ it real with Urbaldo

As well as the lovely buildings of the town, you can cycle the full 4km circuit on top of the intact walls and explore the ancient city defences below.

Cycling Lucca city walls

One of Lucca’s many fine houses

 

One of Lucca’s city gates

The Bell Tower at Lucca

 

The backstreets of Lucca

 

The imposing cathedral at Lucca

We found cafes to chill in atop the walls and striking art exhibitions in the caverns cellars below.

What a fantastic space to showcase your art

 

Who knows what you will find below the city walls

 

Vaulted ceilings in the tunnels below the city walls

We watched the world go by and listened as young operas singers practise their art among the trees. We wondered if we would be seeing them on stage in the coming days.

Young opera singers practise on the city wall walkway at Lucca

 

Beyond the city walls are still green fields and also other hilltowns to explore. We went exploring – which on some days took longer than others, thanks to a GPS taking our instructions very literally!

We told the GPS to avoid motorways!

We were unconvinced at the claims of Coreglia Antelminelli to be the prettiest town in Tuscany, although it was still very lovely…..

Coreglia Antelminelli

 

Cobbled backstreets

 

Peaches and Strawberries

but could easily see why the Devil’s Bridge got its name.

Hiking up the Devil’s Bridge in the heat of the day

 

Looking down the Devil’s Bridge

 

The Devil’s Bridge

And then it was time for Madam Butterfly. The venue is Torre del Lago a nearby town, by Lake Massaciúccoli, the place Puccini retired to, thought was pure paradise and of it once famously said : “I would like to come here and listen to one of my operas in the open air”.

We got to realise his dream on a warm Tuscan night a century later, with front row seats to watch the performance.

Looking across the orchestra pit during the interval

How the magic is made

It was magical. The set design was about as sparse as it can get – in stark contrast to the normal Butterfly sets full of cherry blossom and Japanese pagodas.

The minimalist set with the lake behind

 

Very minimalist set indeed!

It was also the first version we’ve seen where the crane is a mechanical, not feathered!

Set changes with cranes

But the very different setting did not detract from the beauty of the music.

Bravo!

We came home and toasted our good fortune once again under the moonlit Piazza.

The moon over the Anfiteatro

Lucca was lovely the first time around and gave us many fond memories to treasure. Our second visit was even better and Lucca will always have a special place in our hearts.

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Portofino Pit-stop

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From a tent and a 2CV to a hillside castle and a luxury yacht to rent for €170,000 a week. We only stayed a day!

But what a delightful day. We stayed a few kilometres away in Santa Margherita – in a what was termed a “family castle” on a hillside. Of course every family should have it’s own hillside castle!

Our castle in Santa Margherita

We arrived in the late afternoon, enough time to stroll into town and admire the deceptive paintwork, masquerading as stone masonry on so many of the old buildings.

The majority of the buildings have the impressive painted detail

 

From a distance it looks like intricate plasterwork and stone masonry

 

Close up the detail is incredibly clever paintwork

 

Not stonework – paintwork

We dined in the old port as the sun went down

The blush of sunset across the harbour

and came upon an excellent Italian group signing Irish folk songs in the square on the way home.

Irish melodies in an Italian town

The next morning we headed for Portofino. The road into the town  is so narrow that campervans are banned from continuing all the way into the little seaside town. Of course Charlie was in his element!

Bikes, boats and Charlie on the road into Portofino

Pretty, pastel Portofino is the very essence of elegance and opulence.

Every corner of Portofino is a delight

 

Timeless elegance is what Portofino is all about

Everything draws you towards the harbour,

Looking across the harbour at Portofino

 

Pastel-pink Portofino

which is in part still an old working fishing port

Fishing nets drying at the working end of the port

The working boats of Portofino are not nearly as fancy as the visitors

and also an exercise in absolute excess.”Ferdy”  was one of the super-yachts berthed when we arrived.

Summer sailing doesn’t come cheap if you want to impress in Portofino

As it pulled out of the harbour we pulled it up on google. For a mere €168,000 a week – plus expenses – you too could cruise the Riviera! The other super yachts anchored off in the bay were even bigger and we presumed came with an equally inflated bill.

But for all that, it is an undeniably lovely spot. Atop the harbour wall is a small art gallery, although we were not convinced of the meerkat’s merit!

Not the latest trophy – but an art gallery in the harbour

 

We’re not convinced that fluro pink meerkats are really art

We preferred the natural art provided by the beautiful gardens that covered the hillside behind the harbour and the decorative houses that can even make wash-day look lovely!

 

Vibrant colours fill the garden that tumbles down the slopes behind the harbour

 

Waiting for a fare

 

It might be an historic building, but it’s also the laundry and bus stop

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Thanks for the picture-perfect pit-stop, Portofino!

 

 

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Celebrating Slow Food and Agri-Tourismo

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Last time we were in the Liguria region of northern Italy we happened upon a magical agri-tourismo farm tucked away in the hills. This time we headed straight for it!

Agritourismo is an Italian initiative to promote camping and B&B stays at small-scale farms, where high quality food production supports the Slow Food movement. There can be no better, more charming example of how it should be done than the Nardi family at Ca du Chittu.

Ca du chittu

Ca du Chittu translates to “the house of people who get up early in the morning and work hard”, and Ennio, Donatella and Mattia certainly live up to their name.

The Nardi Family

They have been hosting campers and lodgers at their farm in Liguria for more than thirty years. We came across them five years ago by accident and could not resist a return visit. The couple in the apartment next to ours had last visited the farm 10 years ago, when the apartments were still stables.

The draw is not just the beautiful hillside location,

Ca du Chittu valley

or the delightful stables turned into apartments,

The rooms are all named after the former, four-legged inhabitants of the stable block

More happy painted stables

 

The artwork on the end wall

 

The gas meter box even gets a make-over

or the simple camping among the orchards. It’s the family food!

The entire menu is a zero kilometres meal – everything that is on the plate was created from the raw ingredients raised and cultivated in the fields around the farmhouse.

Good gourd – look at the size of them

 

Everything grows in abundance

 

Delicious grapes hang off the vine

 

The planning, prepping and planting goes on all year

Everything from the pork to the grappa was grown within sight of the kitchen counter and the family table. The orchard has more than 500 trees, and the family work to cultivate old apple varieties almost lost in the region.

Hundreds of varieties flourish

 

The orchard glows with ripening fruit

 

Chickens rule the roost at Duck Lake

 

Not quite accurate

 

No need to guess who’s in charge

With all this bounty, it is hardly surprising that the family feasts are so good!

We tried our best to note the food, the wine, the vinyl records playing in the background.

Menu notes

Not surprisingly the scribbled notes became more animated as the evening wore on and I am sorry to say I was so wrapped up in the food, I didn’t take a single photo! But here’s the menu in printed form to give you a small taste of our grand feast.

First Course
Lightly battered (like tempura) chunks of bread with herbs
Mini Roma tomatoes in pesto sauce
Finely sliced pork fat washed repeatedly in salt and aged in rosemary, thyme and other herbs
Served with a Bisson Golfo del Tigullio Ciliegiolo Rosé wine

Second Course
Tagliatelle pasta made with chestnut flour and drenched in pesto sauce
Served with a Bisson Golfo del Tigullio Bianchetta U Pastine White wine

Third Course
Oven baked roast pork ribs
Green garden salad
A vegetable cake (like an omelette) with herbs and veggies
I forgot to write down the red wine…

Final Course
Fresh raspberries and strawberries in their juice…and the smell was intoxicating (at least I think it was the smell!)

Then followed a tray of homemade grappa. We had the Elixir di Rose, liquor al arancia, Il Quore al cafe and Grappa di Bomber Harris!!!

All to the cool tunes of Eric Clapton, Nina Simone, Tracy Chapman and the Doors to name just a few we can remember.

Thank you Nardi family for such a delicious and delightful visit. We are happy to say that Ennio, Donatella and Mattia are coming to Australia this summer and have accepted our invitation to dinner at Lovett Bay. Enio is keen to try local foods especially kangaroo and crocodile – so if you have some good recipes please let us know, we have big shoes to fill!

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Cruising Lake Como

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The slender, wishbone-shaped waters of Lake Como are all that you expect them to be – a delight to the senses.

Surrounded by towering hills dotted with pretty pastel towns and villages, it is a perfect place to stop for a relaxing couple of days. We spent ours at Dongo on the north western shores.

Como is a deep glacial lake, one of the deepest in Europe and the third largest in Italy. Since Roman times it has been a haven for the famous and wealthy, radiating charm and elegance, so of course we were going to fit right in!

We sipped spritz by the lakeside, sailed across it and motored around it. Here as some of the snapshots from a day at the Lake.

 

 

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A Lap Around Lucerne

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If you wanted to design a perfect setting for your pretty town, then perhaps you would consider a lake-side spot, encircled by snow-peaked mountains. Well Lucerne – you nailed it!

After driving four passes in one day, a quick lap around Lucerne historic highlights on foot was a less elevated, but equally delightful day, especially starting with a short ferry ride across Lake Lucerne.

Our ferry across the lake

 

Heading into harbour and the town centre

 

Imposing buildings line the shoreline

The centrepiece of the city is the Chapel Bridge, or Kapellbrücke.

Kapellbrücke panorama

Built originally in the 12th century and spanning the river Reuss, the wooden bridge is angled across the river at the junction with an octagonal water tower.

The bridge is sharply angled across the river

 

The Water Tower

It is the oldest wooden, covered bridge in Europe and the oldest truss bridge in the world.

Many of the interior paintings along the length of the bridge were destroyed in a fire, but some still remain, even though they look pretty doom-ladened!

Chapel Bridge painting

The neighbouring wooden bridge – the Spreuer Bridge – takes doom to the next level, with a series of “danse macabre” images along its full length.

The Spreuer Bridge

 

One of the Dance of Death depictions under the eaves of the Spreuer Bridge

Between the two bridges is the Needle Dam or Nadelwehr, designed to manage the flow of the river, in order to maintain the level of Lake Lucerne through the adding and subtracting of a series of wooden panels. The Nadelwehr is one of the last remaining needle dams still in use today.

The ancient Nadelwehr or Needles, still in use today

 

The Nadelwehr in action

 

Looking back at the Nadelwehr and the Kappelbrücker

Strolling around the city, it is impossible not to see its history writ large all around. Houses painted with family trees, merchants advertising their wares – both ancient and modern – as well as simply beautiful decoration.

Just in case you forget your family heritage – paint in on the house

 

It’s more fun than just a poster to advertise your cafe

 

All kinds of scenes can be seen

 

It is almost as though the buildings are competing for attention

 

The house murals are also more modern – this dates from 1920s

Lucerne is not a big city and the historic centre can easily be covered on foot. Views from the city walls and towers are also a great place to appreciate the picture-perfect city setting.

The view across the river

 

From the walls to the waters of Lucerne

 

Looking down the length of the wall to the next tower

A short walk from the city walls is the famous Lion Monument. Carved directly into the rock, it is a mournful memorial to 600 Swiss Guard soldiers who were killed defending the Tuileries Palace in Paris during the French Revolution. Mark Twain said the massive carving was “the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world”.

The sorrow is etched in every line on his face

Normally it overlooks a water pool, fed by the rain and river above, but the day we visited, the pool was drained and the lifeless lion was getting a clean up.

The Lion Monument gets some loving attention

 

The inscription reads To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss

Our day started with a ferry across the lake and ended with unusual encounters with two motorbikes. The first, was a fully electric sports bike we found tucked away between the wheelbarrow and bicycles, in the storage area of a fabulous city farm and eco-restaurant Hinter Musegg just behind the city walls. It would not have been out of place in any Star Wars movie.

 

What a machine

 

It looks like a prop from a movie set

 

A fantastic design

In complete contrast, as we headed back to our camp we met two delightful German travellers (sitting, laughing to the left of the picture), two-up on an Enfield, originally bought in India in the 1960s, but then substantially modified. Among its more interesting mods was the diesel engine, taken from an old hand-held dirt compactor.

 

We loved their story

 

When the travel bug hits, anything will get you there!

Despite only pushing out 8hp, it got the pair of them from Germany to Switzerland, both still laughing as they went. A testament to our low, slow travel theory for sure!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Four Passes in One Day

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At one point we were overtaken by a man on a bicycle – but that didn’t stop us mastering four Alpine passes in one day, chugging beyond the snow line and into the clouds, climbing up and up to nearly 2,500 meters.

After the rosy glow of dawn had cleared from the mountains around Lucerne we headed out to the first stop on the trip.

The morning sky over our campsite

The guide books suggested beginning the day long adventure at  Meiringen – a quaint Swiss town which claims to be where  meringues were born and Sherlock Holmes “died”.

Flying the flag for sweet treats

 

The flat valley floor gives no clue of what is in store

It’s the lowest altitude we will be all day and almost as soon as we leave the town, we get an idea of what is ahead.

Heading out of Meiringen

The first pass to master is Susten. At just over 2,200m it is the first road pass to be built specifically for cars, in 1945. The climb takes us along roads that drop off sharply and already we are up into the snow line – despite it being high summer.

Nearly at the snow-line

By the time we reached the pass we had swapped our shorts and sunnies for boots and beanies – it was cold up there!

Our first Alpine pass

But it did give us a chance to put some wine on ice to celebrate later!

Ice wine

Of course the other side of the pass is down hill all the way and we need to take it slowly, as Charlie doesn’t have the best brakes and they can overheat with overuse. Which is the point at which we were overtaken by a guy on a bike! In fairness to Charlie, he looked pretty fit, but suffice to say he made it down the hill a lot faster than we did!

The moment we were passed by a guy on a bike

Our next climb is the more famous Gotthard Pass. There is a tunnel as well as an old and new road. We took the road less travelled – along the original, lovely and still cobbled Via Tremola. It is not one for the faint-hearted, but it was definitely the right route for our classic chariot.

About to leave the tar and hit the cobbles of the Via Tremola

 

Charlie getting ready to run the Via Tremola and the Gotthard Pass

 

Falling away ahead of us – the Via Tremola

 

Looking down a section of the Via Tremola

 

Via Tremola on GPS

The pass descends into Airolo and from there the Val Bedretto takes you on the least scenic, but highest part of the day and the highest road pass in Switzerland – the Nufenen pass at 2,478m.

Charlie and Geoff atop the highest road pass in Switzerland

At the top of the pass – we found a delightful welcome party, although they were more interested in their salt than our ascent.

Licking salt from the side of the road can be a risky business

 

The Ibex has magnificent horns

 

High on a hill …..

The Alpine Ibex are an iconic breed of mountain goats in the Alps. Our presence barely raised a glance.  After a quick goat photo shoot and another with Charlie, we headed back down the hill toward the twisting turns of the road to Gletsch and the final pass.

 

No looking back for Charlie after scaling the highest road pass in Switzerland

 

The road to Gletsch according to the GPS

Although the Grimsel is not the highest pass, we were soon enveloped in the thickest fog. We had no alternative but to just keep going until we broke through on the other side.

Heading up into the Grimsel Pass

 

The Grimsel Pass from a different viewpoint

It was a long day, but with stunning scenery and fun driving. This is the route we took:

Four Passes map

There are extra photos in the slideshow below for you to enjoy and decide if you fancy the challenge yourself – by car or fast bike!