We had our last breakfast on the Terrace today, facing the Serchio Valley. A divine spot to start the day. We laughed at the newcomers who leave their food on the table to go back to the buffet and find out that the naughty sparrows will attack any unattended plates.
We said goodbye again to Joe and Janet as they set off to see the Mediterranean beaches and paid our bill, which when added on to the original booking worked out at $220 per day. We are very pleased with that for the luxury we lived in for the last week.
The reception ladies organised a taxi to Barga-Gallicano
and it took only 50 minutes on the train to arrive in Lucca. We arrived at our apartment building at 1:10pm and waited a few minutes to contact Rugiada, who showed us up to our third floor garret. Plenty of steps to climb again. Once again we have to duck our heads on the left side of the apartment. Everything is very nice, with a kitchen and dining room and Rugiada left us bottles of wine, beer and water, plus a bag of chocolate biscuits. She has arranged to drive us to the station tomorrow morning at 9am.
Rugiada made notes all over the town map she gave us, and we spent the afternoon following the leads she gave us. The personal attention you get from the owners of these apartments makes up for the difficulty sometimes experienced in checking in compared to a hotel.
The old town is surrounded by two stone walls that are still intact and the layout with narrow lanes spreading in all directions is similar to Regensburg, and there are plenty of tourists thronging the streets.
We lost no time in visiting the Puccini House as this town was his birthplace. It was a restoration of his home in the same style as the Goethe House in Frankfurt. Pride of place was given to the Steinway Grand Piano which he used to write his music on.
They even had the bed he was born in.
There were original scores in his handwriting in glass cases and in drawers under the tables. There was even a short film of Giacomo holidaying on a lake with his family. He stole another man's wife and married her and smoked heavily, dying of laryngeal cancer at 66, but his genius is honoured everywhere in Lucca. On one wall was a pastiche of the original cast and directors of the first performance of Madama Butterfly.
We gained permission to climb up a very narrow staircase to yet another garret. This room reproduced the one that Mimi occupied in La Boheme.
A final room had two costumes from the 1924 premiere of Turandot.
We had ice-cream from the Gelateria which works like the new self-serve yoghurt shops and called that lunch. Then we walked up to the Roman Amphitheatre, which was full of cafes.
Dinner was at the Delicatezze with lots of bread and San Pellegrini water, which we cannot get enough of in this warm weather.
At 7:15pm we were treated to a concert in the church of San Giovanni for 18 euros each. There was a tenor, a baritone and a pianist. They performed arias and intermezzos from Mozart and Puccini. In a word: Magnificent.
What a thrill to hear Italian music sung and played so enthusiastically by Italian artists in a large church of Italian marble; the notes reverberated for two or three seconds around us.
There is no room for trees in the crowded city but the Guinigi Tower that is almost next door to us has a few growing on the top. We ran out of time to do the climb up to the top of this one.
The back of Pop's head is not as interesting as Nana's.
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