Tue. Nov 18, 2008 LUCCA - Final 40km Bike Ride

Today we took off on our last bike ride on this trip in Italy. For a last ride, this by far was one of our best. Everything was perfect (except for the weather). On a cool day with increasing clouds we went to the town of Torre just northwest of here. The owner of our apartment, Carlo also owns a large farm house up on the mountain. The house is surrounded by olive groves, and it is the harvest season. We thought we would surprise him with our visit. This was a hilly course ascending to around 500m of hairpin steep sections. The landscape was the best Tuscany could offer. Criss crossing vineyards, and terraced olive groves. The rest is pock dotted with gorgeous farm houses witht red tile roofs. Other large trees fill any non-agricultural space that is there. We failed to find Carlo, but met and had a long conversation with two elderly people (look who is talking...) who were harvesting their olives. The showed us their hill top house which they rent to visitors. The views are stunning with the valley below, and the town of Lucca in the distance. They pointed out to us a large villa that was used by Kathrine Deneuve, and Marcel Mastrianni in their heydays. Evidently Torre's seclusion and beautiful terrain attracts local celebrities.

We bombed downhill from here to climb back up to the town of San Stefano. Again, a beautiful road, with fantastic vistas of farmlands, old hamlets, etc. Tuscany showed us its beauty for the final time, and we didn't get disappointed. We looped downhill and on to our aprtment in the old city's east end: Primavera Apartments. We celebrated with a cup of coffee and a traditional chestnut pancake topped with sweet riccotta cheese. When we came back outside it started to drizzle. Good timing indeed.

Tomorrow we leave with the bike on the train to Venice. This will be our final train adventure. We have had interesting experiences with trains as one never knows where the bike car might be. It is not easy to fit a tandem in the designated bike compartments some of which have doors that swing the wrong way, or there is not enough clearance to get bike through with panniers attached. Stay tuned...

Back at our apartment for dinner, we discovered that we had a new guest next door. Up to now we had the place all to ourselves, and it was exciting to have someone new, a traveller. He was from New Zealand who came here to partake in the olive harvest, and do some serious hiking. Terry is a landscape designer, who also owns 200 olive trees in New Zealand. We sat at the dinner table drinking wine, sharing experiences and comparing notes. Too bad this was our last night, or we would sure be doing a hike with him.

Monday Nov 17, 2008 LUCCA - 77km Bike Ride

For the third day the weather has been cooperating. We decided with 18 degrees Celsius it was a good idea to go touch the Med. Viarreggio is a popular beach town in Tuscany. In summer it is abuzz with vacationers, but at this time the beaches are practically empty. The road was mostly flat, with only a few undulating hills. When we arrived at the beach, we walked the bike a few hundred feet on the boardwalk leading to the water edge. To the north we had a stunning view of the Apuane Alps. The water was too cold to swim, so we just sat on the send, all to ourselves and had our lunch. On the way back we enjoyed a different angles on forts, small hill towns, and beautiful forests. Riding over rivers, canals, and on narrow streets, we passed through lovely small hamlets with the usual churches, villas, and clock towers.

We did see an interesting roadside site and confirmed our thoughts with Carmine tonight. On one stretch of road were many scattered young African girls sitting with small fires, or buckets, cups, etc. We did not see that they were selling merchandise, but later learned that they were the merchandise, prostitution of which is legal in Italy. They were positioned on this side street, which paralleled a major highway. It is sad that this is their seemingly only option to make ends meet.

We had dinner at Carmine's apartment ( Carmine is a SERVAS host we had stayed with for four days here). Carmine had his daugher and two of her friends all giggling happily and involved in an art project of making soap. We tried our broken Italian with the girls, who were eager to teach us a few new words. Mauny did a couple of magic tricks, but none was as good as the magic of pasta cooked by Carmine. After a few glasses of wine, and limoncello, we walked back to our apartment for the night. We will cherish the great hospitality and friendship of Carmine forever!

Nov 15 through Nov 16 2008 Lucca Digital Photo Fest

Saturday and Sunday Pierluigi, and Sonia (SERVAS hosts we had stayed with in Perugia) drove up to Lucca with their camper van to join us at the festival. They must have brought the sun with them, as the weather was perfect! We visited all the exhibits, some photos of known professional like Alex Webb. The photos were taken by digital cameras, and some enhanced, and edited on computer software. There were surrealistic collages, animated pieces, street life, animals, and other unique subjects...some with very strong political and environmental messages. Lucca is a perfect place for such events since it is easy to navigate through. Small in size, it offers large spaces in old buildings, some hundreds of years old. Spending time with Sonia and Pierluigi was a real treat since last time we had seen them was at the biginning of our bike tour weeks ago.