Stale bread in Lucca

Italy does plenty of things well, but one of the best is its ability to grow flowers. Sniff the Lucca air in the mornings, as I did when eating an outdoor breakfast, and the atmosphere smelt rich with oleander, but jasmine in particular. Jasmine has an especially strong perfume, which is just as well, as mixed in with its aroma was another, unmistakeable pong. Dog’s pee. The locals love their canines, but the animals love squatting and lifting their legs. It may be on a street corner, a lamp post, or even an upmarket Porsche, but in Lucca’s background there is always the odour of dog. No wonder jasmine is popular. I see it around doorways, up walls, poking through fences, and sometimes in isolation. I suspect Luccans grow jasmine for protection, not just because it is attractive.

We walked the walls of Lucca today, a classic that all should do, as it is a good way to see the area, and the hills around. Although the walls were initially built as a defensive rampart, they are now where people go to exercise and, of course, to be seen. The walk does not take long and took us roughly an hour. Locals jog it in 20 minutes, scoot it in less, cycle it even faster, and we never saw a horse. You do not feel you are on a wall as you walk them, because they are not especially high, and the path is compact-surfaced and broad. If you choose to ride a bicycle, your false teeth will still be in place by the end and will not have shaken loose.

Lucca is seriously old and is what the Italians called a Città d’arte thanks to its intact Renaissance walls. It is in good company, as this category is also held by Turin, Florence, Genoa, Verona, Perugia, Rome, Naples, and plenty more besides. Lucca has existed since at least the 3rd Century BC and is twinned with all sorts of place, including South San Francisco in the USA and Abingdon in the United Kingdom. Abingdon? Now there’s a strange twinning as the two places are so different.

Apart from making coffee and pizza, at which the Italians excel, even if their coffees are tiny, the nation sets itself apart with its ice cream. Italian gelato is second to none, as I rediscovered in Lucca’s Gelateria Venata.

I overdosed on ice cream in Lucca's Gelateria Venata

The ice cream is made by four Luccans in a special kitchen that stands next door, while the queue for the gelateria’s many flavours can seemingly go on forever. When my turn came to stand in line, I behaved the courteous Brit and allowed an elderly lady to go before me. I should not have done that, as she then spent 15 minutes ordering eight flavours, while talking to the shop’s owner about football and the weather. By the time she had finished, the queue was out the door and halfway down the street. Yet the moment I began to order, my natural gluttony took over, so I opted for a Maxi portion, no Piccolo for me, and squashed in four balls of chocolate and three of fruit tiramisu. Not content with one helping, I then went for two. This time it was creamy vanilla and more tiramisu. I could have stayed in the Gelateria Veneta a full day had it been possible, but it was time to find a post-box and send a postcard to Blighty.

Finding a post-box sounds simple, but in Lucca it is not. Generally, they are red and found perched on a city centre wall. Lucca is no place for the standalone design seen in the United Kingdom.

A Luccan postbox, but beware they can be emptied from below

A Luccan postbox loads from near its top but is emptied from underneath, and therein lies a problem. I posted the card as one should, through a silver slot as instructed. The postcard went in with a click, there was a brief rustle, and I saw it drop to the street through the open bottom of the post-box. The problem was two bicycles that had been leaned against the box. Somehow, and I could not work out the mechanism, they had levered open the post-box, so that everything put in at the top fell straight to the ground. I looked down at the pile of largely postcards, to addresses right around the world. Plenty others had been before me, with the same experience, but it seemed none had noticed the problem. Basically, the post-box leaked. I picked up my postcard from the street, placed it back in my pocket, closed the bottom of the post-box and reposted the postcards I had found. I can only hope they reach their destination.

We found a magical place for dinner, in a central Lucca courtyard and surrounded by lemon trees. Sounds marvellous? The location may have been, but I earned the staff’s displeasure by returning their basket of bread. It was stale and verged on being like toast. Yet to be fair, the very moment I spoke, the basket was swiftly removed and replaced by the freshest bread Lucca could provide. The waitress, who had initially protested, was moved to another table and the restaurant owner took over. He even gave a cheery “Ciaio!” when we left, but nothing from the bill.

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Stayed at:

Palazzo Dipinto

Piazza del Palazzo Dipinto

55100 Lucca

Tel: +39(0)583582873

Web: www.palazzodipinto.com

Email: info@palazzodipinto.com

Bought a book at:

Libreria Pensieribelli

Via Vittoria Veneto 46/48

Lucca