The clocks changing couldn't have come at a better time after the late night on Saturday - I think we all got to bed by 2a.m. after a good couple of hours catching up. Of course, geese and cats don't get on board with the whole clocks-going-back-an-hour thing, so Helen was up at 6.45am to feed the cats and release the geese. In fact, we were all awake before 9am, so we all gathered on the patio after the boys had had a good look around and climbed up the terraces, and we soaked up the warm morning sunshine with plenty of coffee, croissants and cereal while Lee and Rob enjoyed the view. When the boys arrived late last night, they could see little more than the orange street lights of the village below us and the faint outline of the ridge way above it, so we were pleased that this morning they were greeted with a clear blue sky and the view from our house in its full splendour.
After breakfast, I decided that I should make the short trip into Lucca with Lee and Rob to give them a little taster of the city before coming home to sit on the patio in the sun for a while. Helen, on the other hand, had decided to stay at home and cook up some soups and biscuits in readiness for the coming week.
The three of us all enjoyed a sunny ride down the Lucca road with the car windows fully wound down while I fielded questions from Rob and Lee as to what was what, what was where, and what was that. It was all was going well until we came to a blockade in the road: a barrier and a couple of people directing traffic, sending us north towards the mountains. No big problem, I decided I would just make the next left turn and head west towards Lucca again. That didn't work though, as we soon came up against another barrier. After turning around and trying another road further up, we met yet another barrier and this time a load of runners and a sign for the Lucca Marathon! No matter how we tried we couldn't manage to make a turn westwards, so I decided to head to the Autostrada and get into Lucca that way. We went through two or three more diversions while attempting to do so, and were eventually dumped back onto the main road to Lucca again. We were now the right side of the closed roads though, and heading the right way - result! Or so we thought... Within half a kilometre, we were in a stationary queue of traffic again, and the cars driving the opposite way (effectively back towards Pescia) were all beeping their horns and flashing their headlights, clearly trying to warn us of something. After about 5 minutes of not moving, we finally decided to give up on trying to get into Lucca - after all, the city itself (if we ever got there) would in all likelihood be hosting the finish of the race, and therefore not only hard to get into but also too busy to enjoy.
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| Two-way traffic sharing one-and-a-bit lanes while runners used the rest. |
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| Hmmmm, balloons, a fun run? |
After managing an about turn, I decided to turn off the road and head for Montecarlo so that at least the boys could see a bit of something.
When we arrived at the pretty hilltop village the car parks were FULL - I'd never seen it so busy. It seemed as if something was happening here too, and for I while it looked rather like we were going to have to abandon this visit as well! I drove right through the village, out the other side and down the hill back towards Pescia - everywhere there were cars parked along the road sides. I eventually spotted somewhere we could abandon the bus though, so a short uphill walk later, we were entering the town through the Porta Fiorentina. The dialogue at that point went something like "WOW!" and "Oh wow!". It's safe to say that Lee and Rob were both stunned by the beautiful little town, and rightly so!
We wandered the streets of Montecarlo, and took in the views from the different sides of the town. We realised that there was something happening in the church - we decided it must have been a funeral (hence the busy car parks), and it seemed that the church was so full that a couple of dozen of people were having to watch proceedings from outside on the steps. The little town was buzzing today, and everything was open - whenever Helen and I have visited before, there has always seemed to be a good proportion of the shops closed, but today nothing was closed. We decided that we should probably have a drink and a snack of some type on the terrace of the pizzeria, as it was the only place in the sunshine, so we parked ourselves at a table for a very enjoyable spot of lunch: a starter each and a pizza between the three of us sufficed, washed down with cold beer and wine.
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| Time for another DIY haircut I think! |
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| Not a bad view from the terrace of the pizzeria. |
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| The indoor area of the pizzeria had the same view, but without the sunshine. |
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| Chilled and VERY refreshing! |
Once the bill had been paid, we walked back up to La Buca - the little establishment we had sat in with Allison and Q last week. The boys wanted to buy some wine and maybe some ham or salami, and I knew this would be the perfect place. The shop is tiny inside, and the three of us pretty much filled the place. When I went in, the owner (who I now know to be Alessandro) recognised me from last week - we had a brief 'how are you?' exchange while Lee and Rob started fumbling around in the fridge full of cheese and meat. Mara (who I assume is Alessandro's wife, as the carrier bag we left with bore their names in such a way as to suggest a relationship that was more than just business) then arrived and asked if we wanted to try some of the produce and started slicing meat before we really had time to reply. We sampled the cured peppered pork fillet first, followed by the bresaolini (beef cured in red wine), then the 24-month-old prosciutto, followed by the 48-month-old prosciutto, oh and then the 26-month-old parmesan! It was a feeding frenzy, and by now they were both slicing away at things and we could barely eat it all quickly enough! It was all very tasty though, and of the highest quality - the difference between this and the stuff you get in the supermarkets is staggering. The boys, Rob in particular, were getting increasingly nervous as this seemingly overly generous tasting session progressed, and wanted to buy something quickly so as to stop the tasting process feeling like the more we tasted the more they felt they had to spend. I'm fairly certain that there is some element of marketing/blackmail in the generosity of their offerings, but nowhere near as much as us Brits would think - last week, after all, Alessandro seemed to give us meat and bread to accompany our wine free of charge. Anyway, the tasting came to a natural conclusion after the cheese, and then while Mara and Alesandro quized me about where I lived and what work both Helen and I do, the guys went back to the fridge to choose some cheese. Pecorino with truffle won through in the end, and they also bought 100g of the peppered pork, bresaolini AND the 24-month-old ham, plus 4 bottles of wine!
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| They must be married, surely? |
After a thoroughly enjoyable trip, we headed back to the house to get the last couple of hours of sun on the patio, with the clocks changing we are now losing it behind the hill opposite at about 4.40pm. We got home to find that Helen had cooked a batch of ginger biscuits, a celery and celeriac soup for the freezer, and a batch of pumpkin soup was on the go. While the boys and I set ourselves up at the table on the guest patio, Helen traipsed up the terraces to try to do a bit of tidying - this time the back breaking and horribly frustrating job of raking down the piles and piles of cut acacia. We've decided that before we go any further with the lopping and chopping and pushing on up the hill, we need to bring all of the clippings, branches, trunks and so on down to the bottom in order to keep some level of tidiness and control. Moving a mountain of cut acacia trees from one terrace to another is easier said than done though - either the pitch fork slides through the branches and picks up nothing at all or it picks up the entire pile, which is all tangled up and impossible to lift. Throw in some brambles and vines and once you think you have a manageable 'forkful' and pull it away to throw down on the next terrace, you realise it's firmly attached (via the vine/bramble) to the entire rest of the pile. After an hour and a half of it, Helen had added several more cuts and scratches to her collection and given her back and arms a thorough (and probably not entirely healthy - certainly where the back is concerned) workout.
Meanwhile, the boys and I sat and chatted some more, then Lee and Rob decided to watch the Manchester United vs Chelsea game on Lee's laptop while we all started on the wine they had bought. Needless to say, one bottle turned into two or three or more, and when we went indoors to escape the chilly evening air, we started on the meats and cheese they had bought too. The idea of going out for a restaurant meal was now out of the window so I cut some fresh bread to accompany the protein and we ended up watching three hours of stand-up comedy with many belly laughs. Helen dropped out after Michael McIntyre though, as Frankie Boyle isn't her cup of tea at all. She went to bed and attempted to get to sleep to the sounds of Frankie Boyle and our belly laughs shaking the house.
After Frankie had finished his last gag, we went outside for a quick look through the telescope which was waiting for us but as the moon had now set and no planets were in view it didn't last long and we all retired to bed before midnight, having had a little too much wine but a thoroughly good time.
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