Walkabout: Lucca: Goodbye for Now

Who would of thought we could get so attached to a place in just a week? It's hard to believe, but this is our last day in Lucca. Tomorrow, we move on to Austria, our next stop.

When we first arrived at our department, I have to admit I was wondering if I was going to be out of my mind with boredom after a day or two. We had been experiencing planes, trains and automobiles across Europe with only brief stops so the prospect of staying a week in a place that seemed nearly deserted when we arrived was a little daunting. But, we found the Lucca lifestyle agreed with us. Sleep in, go to the corner pastry shop where the locals catch up and have a coffee and a pastry filled with tomato, have a late lunch of something fresh and amazing, bike, hike, take a few photos and then have a late dinner. After dinner, it's down to Piazza Napoleon to hear The Killers and Mark Knofler, who are here performing for the Summer Festival. When Saturday arrived, so did a town-wide antique market and we saw stores open for business that we didn't even know existed here earlier in the week. Lucca comes alive for Saturdays.

Virtually every meal has been an occasion, because Tuscan cooking is more about the ingredients than complicated preparations. A lunch of pasta with Porcini mushrooms, which are everywhere here right now, turned out to be about 50 percent pasta and 50 percent fresh porcini mushrooms with a little bit of herbs and butter to combine everything. For the 10 Euros it cost, I couldn't even afford half the mushrooms it took to make the dish back home...and that would be with those dried out mushrooms that have been hanging on store racks since the Clinton Administration. Lunch of bruschetta was a simple affair of toasted bread covered with fresh, blood red tomatoes with some fresh garlic, basil and olive oil. Pappa al Pommodoro soup turned out to be crushed tomatoes with crusty bread and garlic...wonderful! The kids have done their due diligence on the pizza and gelato here and they give it all thumbs up. The local wines have been just as great...and incredibly inexpensive. It's going to be hard to go back to paying $30+ for a bottle of wine in a restaurant that's not amazing. Around here, 10-15 Euros easily puts you in the amazing category of the wine list.

Well, before we lose the Lucca Lifestyle and its relaxed pace and plunge back into planes, trains and automobiles again, I wanted to give you one last glimpse of Lucca. These pictures were all taken just a few blocks from our apartment. Lucca, goodbye for now.   

Walkabout: Florence: Whose Europe is this Anyhow?

Who lives in Southern Europe and who shops and eats in Southern Europe?

The answer may surprise you. So far, we've made two stops in Portugal, two stops in Spain and yesterday was our third stop in Italy, Florence. We've wandered around, talked to locals who are far better at English than we are at attempting even simple dialog in their languages ("Me beer good, please!"), and taken some tours, some with small groups and some not so much. 

What we've seen is a reoccurring theme. We pass the same stores in each city, whether it's H&M, Foot Locker, Cartier, Bulgari or Chanel. The locals and the tour guides point them out with pride that they have such high-end shops adorning their city. They also point out the five-star eateries and bars to stop and sip prosecco, sangria, eat sardines or whatever the local choice is for an afternoon refreshment or snack.  But then, when they are honest, they admit something that's kind of disturbing. "We don't shop there." "We don't eat there." "We don't drink there." 

Southern Europe is in a massive economic crisis. While I've seen that on CNN back home, it really doesn't hit you until you are here and a local tells you that she used to shop on the street that she's showing you, but can no longer afford to go there. She used to have coffee at that coffee bar, but can no longer afford the 5 Euro it takes to sit down. If she goes in now, then she can get a quick coffee up at the counter for 1 Euro, but only if she keeps standing and doesn't take a seat.

So who are taking those seats? Well, it's mainly Germans, English and a smattering of Australians and Americans. Even the Asian tour groups that used to be so prevalent in Europe in the '90s are hard to find, because much of Asia, Japanese tourists in particular, are dealing with their own economic problems. Sit in a Southern European coffee bar or restaurant and you are more likely to hear German than any other language these days. After all, the German economy is the rock in Europe that other nations are turning to for help. 

Southern Europe, at least during tourist season, is not really for Southern Europeans. 

But, what about Florence? Can we get away from the economic blah, blah, blah and actually talk about where you went?

Fair enough! Yesterday we took a day trip to Florence and it was almost Renaissance Overload. Everywhere you turn you go, "Wait, didn't I see a picture of that in high school humanities?" In just a few square blocks, you are immersed in the heart of the Renaissance. 

If you are traveling with teenagers, this is the spot to go. This is what they are studying in middle school and high school. My daughter, a high school junior, was thrilled to be rereading parts of Dante's Inferno in Dante's house. She was literally taking pictures of the drawings inside the house with her phone. Who would have thought someone could be downright giddy about standing where Dante once stood? She was and it was awesome to see.

My son, an eighth grader, has been studying Michelangelo, Da Vinci and the Renaissance. And there he was, pointing out the statue of David. Walking around the piazza filled with original statues, he knew more about them than I could conjure up from memories of high school and college courses.

One of the funniest things we saw was a piazza with a sculpture of the mayor of Florence placed next to a sculpture of Neptune, God of the Sea. The egomaniacal mayor had his face carved as the face of Neptune so visitors could see that the mayor looked amazingly like a god and could in fact be Neptune. Apparently, Florentines still find this to be offensive and refuse to call the statute that of Neptune. They can't imagine a city mayor being that much of an egomaniac. 

Well, coming form the city that has had both Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom as mayors, it's not really that much of a stretch for me to imagine a mayor with such a large ego. That's pretty much par for the course in San Francisco.     

Walkabout: Lucca: First Glance

Lucca is a lifestyle, not necessarily a destination. 

Reading the guidebook on the train to Tuscany, I couldn't help notice that only about 10 pages were dedicated to Lucca. The book bluntly stated that there are no real "sites' to see for tourists in Lucca. You don't come to see the cathedral or the bridge or tower or the (fill in the blank) that you travel to other European destinations to see. You just come to be part of it. 

The pace here is slower and more rewarding. You find little places that are beautiful without feeling like they've been staged for tourists. It's just a snapshot of the Tuscan lifestyle captured behind 4 kilometers of wall. Lucca is one of the last Italian cities still surrounded by a wall. Where other cities took theirs down to provide better access to cars, buses and the tourists they bring. Lucca left its in tact in an effort to preserve a simpler, quieter lifestyle without the need for many traffic lights. It worked. What's left is a wonderful village to wander around that's very proud of being home to Puccini.

The food here is wonderful as well. From the melons you pick up from the farmers' market set up on the piazzo in the morning to wonderful pizza and brochetta. Totelli is a Lucca tradition and can't be missed. It's stuffed pasta, but not really ravioli, that's covered with a meat ragu. The penne arribiatta is also a real treat. Lucca is also well known for its meat and pork and I look forward to trying those as well. Still, pasta was a must first stop for me after spending nearly two weeks eating seafood and tapas. 

Europe so far has been sort of a Goldilocks experience for me. Some cities were a little too big. Some cuisine was a little lacking in flavor. Some places felt a little too economically depressed with people begging for help seemingly every time we stopped for a breath. We've seen some fantastic things on this trip so far, but it really wasn't until we reached Lucca that I felt like we had found the spot that's "just right" for our family. We don't feel like we are passing through to snap a few pictures. We feel as though we are actually living here and that's not something we've felt since we left home.

If you are traveling with teenagers, as we are, then Lucca has the added benefit of being safe, friendly and enclosed by a wall. It's a place where you can set them free on bikes with some Euros and let them do whatever they'd like and then meet back to have dinner together. After being in some of Southern Europe's larger cities, it's nice to be able to relax a little bit as a parent and let them have the freedom they need. After all, when you were a teenager, could you have imagined traveling with your parents nonstop for a month? Me neither. 

So much has already been written about the sights, smells and tastes of Tuscany that I just wouldn't do it justice. Let's just say that, ya, it pretty much looks like it was pictured in that "meet cute rom/com" you saw filmed in Tuscany and that, ya, the tomatoes really are that much better than you get at home. If you can get yourself to slowdown a bit and enjoy it, you might find that "Tuscan Time" agrees with you.

Walkabout: Venice

If Barcelona was about little tastes and experiences, Venice is about big views, big tastes and big crowds. It's about experiencing Italy by a firehose, not a trickle. If you are wondering where much of Europe goes on its vacation, look no further than Venice. No wonder the city is sinking. You can't add a million people to a propped up island and not expect to lose an inch or two every July.

We found the perfect amount of time to experience Venice in July is about 18 hours. We wandered our way in to find the Hotel Moresco, a hotel that's not yet a year old, and enjoyed a glass of prosecco while they checked us in. After quickly dumping our luggage in our rooms, we dove into the city. Somewhere, under layers of tourists posing for updates on their Facebook pages, we saw the Rialto Bridge and the other sites of Venice. 

We found a good way to get around when not just walking was to take the bus, which of course is a boat in Venice. It's about 7 Euros a person and moves faster than the gondola you would have paid 160 Euros for. As they packed us in and the boat swayed from side to side to side again, I couldn't help think that maybe the Costa Concordia wasn't such a fluke after all...that maybe there is a reason that if you study history there isn't a lot of mention about Italy's Navy. Watching the water taxis dodge the bus, the gondolas and each other sort of looked like a water ballet put on by a high school football team. It worked, but it wasn't pretty.

After our kids took in a Da Vinci exhibit and we took in some prosecco, we headed back to the hotel and got cleaned up. Taking pity on us for our overdose of Eurotourists, our hotel manager made arrangements for us to have dinner at a restaurant well off the beaten path, which is an achievement when you are on an island with buses and cruise ships parked around it. There were only eight tables and we were tended to by the owner/chef and what appeared to be his wife and a helper. The restaurant turned out to be a quiet oasis in all of the chaos that's Venice we enjoyed a easy going meal of fresh house-made pastas served simply with a little seafood, some very fresh caprese salad and some balsamic eggplant. Dessert was also not to be missed.

The next day, it was breakfast at the hotel and then off to the train station. We really weren't in Venice long enough to have any great revelations. It's beautiful. You probably should see it once in your life. But, at least in July, it's sort of like seeing Orlando, Florida and thinking you've experienced America. Venice isn't Italy. It's Venice. Take a look, take a taste and then get back on that train.

We've established our next base camp in Tuscany and we can already tell life is a little slower, a lot less crowded and that's just fine with us. 

Walkabout: Barcelona: A Little Goes a Long Ways

Singing for Flamenco dancers sounds a lot like birth. That's not to say it's not moving. It's just meant to convey as much guttural feelings of pain and anguish as possible. When a man performs it, it's sort of the like a harmonic kidney stone. When a woman performs it, well, all I can say is I've heard that really deep groan/scream before and it involved the arrival of our kids.

Flamenco dancers don't really smile. They are passionate and proud. At the end of the dance, which involves a lot of stomping and clapping, they look at you with the same sort of look that Eminem gives his audiences before he throws the mic to the floor in contempt. "Ya...I just did that. Clap if you want. I don't care." That's sort of the message you get.

Barcelona is about little great things. Walking around the Bario Gottik you constantly find little squares with little gems of places to sit down and take in musicians, gymnasts, fire dancers, etc. My daughter's favorite by far was the gymnasts that used nothing but the concrete beneath them to put on an amazing show.

The food is the same way. Your best bet is often Tapas. They are little bits of goodness that depend on what that particular establishment serves. Often, they are stacked on top of the bar in a tapas bar and you get to walk along and point at what looks good to you. Add some sangria and you've got a nice snack to hold you so you and your family are ready for a 10 p.m. dinner. 

Is Bigger Better?

We've visited a lot of churches on this trip so far, from an impressive monastery in Lisbon to a quaint neighborhood church in Venice. In Barcelona, we saw a city trying to decide if enough is enough. The Cathedral Barcelona is big and beautiful. We were accidentally lucky enough to be the first ones in for the tour of the day and a nice worker adopted us and rushed us over to an elevator we didn't even know exist. A few minutes later and we were way up, I mean way up, on scaffolding bridging the roof of the church. It was quite a view and I was proud of my son for overcoming issues he's had in the past with heights and just take it all in. We toured the large cathedral and found it steeped in history and beautiful. 

Next, we went to see the Segrada Familia which is still under construction and will be for a very long time. It has a construction crane hovering over it, which is kind of strange to see given most of the churches we've seen on this trip didn't involve cranes or powertools. It's big, really big. But, I have to say that to this non-architect novice, it just doesn't have the power and depth that the traditional Cathedral Barcelona across town conveys. It's got lots of twists and turns and liberally uses colored light, but it seems to lack the message that you find in the Cathedral. It feels a little like the church recruiting Vegas developer Steve Wynn to build a "mega church" and it just got a little out of control. As I noted before, I know nothing about architecture and I'm sure there is a long line of Spanish experts with clubs lining up to tell me what I didn't quite get during my visit.

If Barcelona has a message, from a razor thin shred of Iberia ham to a small stage full of Flamenco dancers, it is "keep it small and keep it good. The rest will work itself out."