Lucca

We decided to start off our trip to Lucca the best way possible, with gelato! Upon the recommendation of our B&B host we went to a place called I Gelato Di Piero and it was one of the best gelatos we’ve had so far! Their ricotta and fig flavor was my favorite, and I also really liked their cookies and cheesecake flavors. We then decided to orient ourselves to the city by walking the walls of Lucca. During the Medieval and Renaissance times, fortress walls were built surrounding the entire city for defense. Since Lucca has not been under attack for a long time, the walls have been repurposed as a park with a wide path perfect for activities such as walking, running, and biking. The walls span about 4K which is pretty crazy since the outer loop around Rice is 5K, so Lucca is smaller than Rice! The path is absolutely beautiful with great views of the city on the inside and of mountains on the outside. For dinner we went to really funky place called Trattoria Da Ubaldo. The place is covered with creepy decorations. Some of my favorites were a coffin surrounded with Christmas lights, four armed baby dolls, skeleton bones on the backs of each of the chairs, and a picture of the owner and his family dressed as vampires while his wife breastfeeds their child. The place was a lot of fun and I’ve never been somewhere quite like it before! After dinner we went to see the Piazza dell’ Anfiteatro which is a cute medieval plaza. On the way home we got another round of gelato then called it a night to prepare for our big day of cooking the next day! The next day we spent most of the day at Lucca’s Extra Virgin cooking school. The day started with us going to various markets and shops to pick up fresh ingredients for the day. We then worked together to cook a three course meal. What was on the menu for the day was zucchini blossom timbale with baby greens and heirloom tomatoes, Florentine gnudi with spring spinach and fresh ricotta simple tomato sauce with basil, carnatolli risotto with Tuscan leeks ad white truffle butter, and Lucchese “buccellato” with lemon vanilla custard and fresh berries. All of the food was absolutely amazing! My favorite was the leek and truffle ricotta, it was so good that I want to learn how to perfect it at home! I also really liked the zucchini blossoms. They were beautiful looking and delicious! The class was tons of fun and the whole thing felt like I was in an Italian cooking show for a day. After the cooking class we went to the top of guinigi tower. The tower is really unique because it has trees growing at the top of it! It had a great view of the city and we could hear the opera singers practicing for their performances while up there which was really cool. After that we went to the botanical gardens which were a bit small and would have been more exciting if I knew more about different types of plants. Next we rented bikes! Dad and I biked on the city walls for an hour. After that Dad went to take pictures for two hours while I continued to bike more. I biked on the city walls as well as in the city itself. The city is know as the city of 100 churches, so I saw many churches along my ride. One cool aspect of the town is there would often be modern art in front of the old churches which created an interesting mix of young and old. Lucca is a very bikeable city since there are practically no cars which made biking a blast! After my bike ride and Dads photo fest we went to get gelato at a place our cooking instructor recommended. The place was called la bottega del gelato and it somehow managed to be even better than the other amazing gelato place in Lucca! They let me sample many flavors which was really nice. I decided on the salty pistachio and the milk and eggs with were both crazy good! For dinner we also went to a place recommended by our cooking instructor called La Buca di Sant’Antonio. We had truffle pasta (okay I may be a little obsessed), baby goat, and dark chocolate mousse for dessert. It was all delicious! I felt a little bad eating baby goat, but I guess not enough not to try it. We then walked around the city more and had another round of gelato. Lucca was such a lovely and quaint city! If I were to choose a city to live in out of the ones I’ve visited on this trip so far, I would pick Lucca!Read more