Friday June 3 rain forecasted, only a small amount arrived.
Possibly but only possibly substituted gorgonzola.
Laundry day. Mop up day for items missed in town. QB with italiano coccolare posti
Afternoon QB bruschetta ordered with gorgonzola. No blue veins, mild to no blue cheese taste. Substituted or served the dolce version? Restaurant insisted it was gorgonzola, just gorgonzola.
Dinner at Celide : a fine Chianti with fine food.
Thursday 2 June
Rain forecasted, delivered intermittently, but heavy at times.
Both the lemon and the chocolate versions of this rice based torta. The filing makes an excellent gluten free snack.
Tuscan bread soup, perfect with some extra olive oil, even without.
Tagliatelle with white truffles, better for devine aroma than taste. Somehow the pasta is made so that an extraordinary amount of butter adhere to the surface. Mopping up pictured.
June 1 Wednesday
Rain forecasted delivered.
Lucca wall from last evening.
Parmigiana at $8 per pound at the supermarket.
A local pastry: bucellato is pictured. Has Bobby made one? Now on QB list. A favorite confirmation gift as well as a favorite of the ancient Roman army. Apparently made, at times, the size or a Roman cartwheel.
The southern route on the Via Francigina :. Followed the signs and my .gpx file to head towards Rome. Urban path until one gets to the lovely path along the river. Very peaceful and scenic with a lovely pedestrian bridge for the river crossing.
May 31
Rain promised. Occasionally delivered in small amounts.
Useless pin and chip cards. We have several. None work on the train system. None. No trouble with the wireless credit card. Have not seen apple or Android pay.
A day of contrasts. First a visit to Pistoia, and then a Puccini arias concert in a very bright church, church of San Giovanni
Pistoia Italy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistoia
As we travel from most to least touristed we find Pistoia mostly deserted and closed. Duomo does not open until 15:00. Few people in the square, us and a few others.
San Zeno of Verona is the namesake of the Duomo here. 10 th century with lots of further work.
Another old architecturally interesting church: San Bartolomeo
In summary: Pistoia is a good 3.5 to 4 hour visit.
Rice torta, rice with creme, local speciality. Thought it would be lemon until I tasted it. Was on the breakfast table.
Puccini, from Lucca, concert of arias from operas. Program can be found on Flickr account. The venue, a small cathedral with bare walls, no thing at all to absorb sound, is to say the least bright. In a good way.
The soloists were singing at partial throttle. The soprano was singing with her arms lightly crossed as it was effortless; indeed it sounded effortless and clear.
May 30
Rain promised, not delivered
QB in fine American regalia.
Walked around the fine wide wall, about 3 miles around.
saint martins cathedral lucca, nicely decorated 11 th century forward.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucca_Cathedral
Dinner: branzini
May 29
Rain, glorious rain promised but hardly delivered. Later a bit of thunder and cloudbursts.
Lucca
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucca
Ancient and medieval with a tortured as well as a cultural past.
Church san Michele in Foro, 11-12 century with many renovations over the ages.
Dinner: Tordellini lucchesi con ragu di chianina Al Chianti, a local variation on cesear salad, lots of oil, a fine minestrone.
The parts here has salt and eggs. While normal for us the local Tuscan population was historically poor, few eggs and little salt. Lucca was very rich due to trade. Eggs and salt.
Fagoili ucceletto
A potential customer for lazzari, the wood fired pizza oven at the restaurant.
May 28
Another perfect day. The great art gallery, uffizi, earlier the admin offices well explained in link.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffizi
Enormous. Hundreds of Roman statues, endless Italian paintings, overwhelming in scope. We spent 2.5 hours and had to rush through done sections. A highlight for both of us were the carved wooden statues. Starting with Donatello cross,croce, piece. Fifty out more full sized, mostly painted, carvings. It was a new special exhibit.
And a visit to see the David, only briefly glanced 40+years ago. For uncompleted large carvings by Michaelangelo for the tomb of Julius II
Musical instrument museum fitted in on the ground floor.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galleria_dell%27Accademia
Ah the David.a colossus up close. Upstairs alter pieces from 14th century.
A champagne snack before dinner, the hard life!
Osteria dinner.
May 27
Sleeping late was a necessity. Then where to start and even harder where to stop. Our usual city wandering with each twist and turn finding beauty, history and interest.
We were here 40+ years ago. Camping. A very different experience.
Some highlights, liked by all tourists.
Visit to Strozzi plaza, architecturally famous, work late exhibition spaces. Much modern art here.
Cathedral di Santa Maria di fiore, and it ceiling. Another great cathedral.
Battistero di S Giovanni door by Giberti. A famous for with a famous history. Right across from the cathedral.
Church of orsanmichele. 14th century, charming
Piazza del Signorina. A great square near the river and the ponte vecchio .
A nap was needed before tapas, champagne and dinner.
A visit to Flickr of this date recommended.
Dinner at il profeta:. Ribolitta, a Tuscan local popular soup. And a secret recipe that they would would not even tell me the ingredients; I fell for it. Posts with an exceedingly rich sauce.
May 25-26
Warm
The adventure begins. First stop: Florence aka Firenze – and the lathe sinkhole
Florence Italy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence
SFO to Heathrow and then Gatwick to Florence. Gatwick is a dump, especially before security.
We are staying right along the Arno, the famous river that runs through the historic city center. Yesterday a pipe that runs parallel to the road and river became the cause of a large sinkhole. Will visit it tomorrow after some sleep.
Lovely dinner of Tuscan soup and pasta with a bit too much wine. Arrived in time for a glorious sunset MN
May 20. Rain
Early departure, required, from the ship. Then a day in Seward before boarding the scenic evening train to Anchorage.
SeaLife center, aquarium, marine study place, hosts an aviary with among other species, tufted and horned puffins, two of their four species. Great, outstanding, close up on surface and underwater views.
SEWARD, ALASKA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seward,_Alaska
SeaLife
http://www.alaskasealife.org/aslc_resident_species/26
Then, off to the Seward museum. Local memorabilia.
Train goes from Seward to Anchorage, a distance of 79 crow miles but almost four hours by train,127 miles.
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