A Wisteria Walk Through Lucca

Lucca has to be one of the most wonderful places for walking. For starters, the renaissance wall surrounding the city provides a long path, a tree-lined beauty, perfect for both a passeggiata (stroll) and for people watching. Not far outside the city is an old aqueduct which provides several miles of walking path along its beautiful arches. Inside the historic center of town the streets are lined with medieval buildings, unique patterned brickwork, remnants of Roman civilization, churches, and piazzas. There is no shortage of interesting paths to take or beauty to behold.

The shadows cast by this wisteria are just as interesting as the blooms themselves.

And while just wandering through all of these fabulous sights is wonderful, sometimes I feel that I need a purposeful walk. Not purposeful as in needing to walk to the grocery store or bakery but rather a focused walk, one to discover something specific. Some days I go walking and try to find a street I’ve never seen before. Often I do a photography walk - last week I searched for and took photos of old, neglected doors. The week before it was door knockers and doorbells.

This glorious wall of wisteria is in Piazza Antelminelli. The church of San Giovanni is in the background.

In spring, my favorite walks are to discover what is blooming. In March I took an almost daily walk down Corso Garibaldi, a street in Lucca that is lined with Magnolia trees. They are beautiful, but they don’t last long. In the last couple of weeks I’ve watched the trees along the wall begin to sprout their leaves and right now the wisteria are blooming all around town. The wisteria (glicine in Italian) are spectacular as they tumble over walls and across trellises. It seemed as though the vines were bare one day and full of early blossoms the next. A week or so later they were spectacular in full bloom.

Less common here, but no less beautiful, are these white wisteria in Piazza San Giovanni.

My favorite stand of wisteria is in tiny Piazza Parigi. The trunks are old and thick and they twist their way through an old iron fence. The blooms spill over the top and fill the small piazza with a soft scent.

Watching the wisteria blooms unfold this spring has been a treat for me, even more so because last year I missed them as Italy was on strict lockdown throughout March and April, which meant no strolls through town to watch them bloom. That makes them even more special this year when I can freely wander through town to see, smell, and photograph them!

Tucked away in a small alley off Via Cenami.

Not all of the wisteria action takes place inside the walls. There are some beautiful villas, many in Liberty Style, just outside the walls and several are draped in blooms.

This Liberty Style villa, surrounded by wisteria, is just outside the walls north of the historic center.

Wisteria - a springtime gift from Italy.

The same wall of wisteria as in the top photo, but about 10 days later in full bloom.

A Spring Brunch at Home in Italy

Warning: this post may make you hungry !

The very small size of my Italian apartment, not to mention the lack of a real oven in the minuscule kitchen, makes entertaining a challenge. I’ve managed as many as 6 for a dinner but that took a lot of juggling and some very cozy seating around the table. And now, when social distancing is the norm, even 6 is way too many. But it’s spring, the weather is gorgeous, the markets are full of beautiful strawberries and asparagus, and I’ve been itching to prepare a meal for friends. When the pandemic rules limiting visitors were relaxed over Easter weekend I was able to invite 2 friends to my home for a meal. With that in mind, I happily started planning a brunch menu. Sometimes it’s fun to get a little fancy and this was one of those times. When you find me ironing a vintage table cloth, you know I’m about to get fancy! Pretty flowers, a nicely set table, the good dishes, and soft music set the stage.

Homemade lemon curd - nice and tart with a smooth as silk texture.

The brunch menu combined some wonderful Italian ingredients with some of my American standards and gave me chance to fix some of my favorite dishes.

Preparations started a couple of days beforehand with the making of lemon curd. This no-fail recipe from Fine Cooking magazine is better than any lemon curd I have ever purchased. (https://finecooking.com/recipe/classic-lemon-curd). It’s my go to recipe for a fancy brunch or tea menu. Using juicy Italian lemons makes it even better. The hardest part was setting it aside until the day of the brunch. I may have sampled just a taste (or two) beforehand.

Of course where there is lemon curd there must be scones. I prepped the dry ingredients a couple of days before; it was easy to finish the dough and bake them on the morning of the brunch. The scones and lemon curd paired nicely alongside a bowl of bright red strawberries.

The main dish was a crustless quiche, another Fine Cooking recipe (https://finecooking.com/recipe/crustless-quiche-with-red-peppers-goat-cheese).

These small tin foil baking dishes aren’t very elegant, but they fit nicely in my little countertop oven.

This is a versatile recipe because it is so easy to vary the ingredients. I have only a small countertop electric oven (two steps above the Easy Bake oven I had as a kid), so I divided the quiche base into two smaller pans. In one, I used the red peppers and goat cheese from the original recipe. In the second pan, I crumbled crisp pancetta, sautéed mushrooms, and fontina cheese. My tiny oven only baked one pan at a time but, covered with foil and set on top of the oven while the second one baked, the first one stayed nice and warm. And they were delicious - soft and light as clouds. All the credit goes to this fantastic recipe - it’s a snap to make and always a hit.

I couldn’t resist the fat stalks of asparagus I found in the market. Cooked quickly and drizzled with a lemony vinaigrette they made a simple and tasty addition to the menu. Both asparagus and the quiche go well with some slightly salty prosciutto, so I added a small platter of that and the meal was complete.

Is there a better combination than fresh spring asparagus and prosciutto? Well, maybe a summertime prosciutto with melon, but that’s a few months off yet.

Well, almost complete. We were celebrating spring so mimosas made with Prosecco and orange juice made brunch even more festive.

Good company, good food, and lots of laughter. A good way to welcome spring !

Pasquetta - Easter Monday in Italy

The day after Easter is officially the Lunedì dell’Angelo (the Monday of the Angel) but I’ve never heard anyone here in Lucca refer to it by that name. Here it is known simply as Pasquetta (little Easter). Pasquetta is a national holiday and one that marks the beginning of the spring season. Traditionally, it is a day for Italians to venture into the countryside for a day of picnics and outdoor fun. But not this year. For the second year in a row, Easter celebrations are limited by COVID restrictions. Last week, all of Tuscany (along with much of the rest of Italy) was declared a red zone. For the last three days, over the Easter weekend, the whole country has been “in the red”. For now, it is not possible to leave one’s home city and we are supposed to stay at home except for necessary things like trips to the pharmacy or grocery store. That means no trips to the countryside for Pasquetta and no picnics either.

Traditional Easter Colomba (dove) cakes, in fancy tins by Dolce & Gabbana.

All but essential shops are closed. Luckily, chocolate shops are considered essential (one more reason to love Italy). This is a good thing - can you imagine an Easter without chocolate?

How cute are these? Chocolate chickens are much more common than bunnies here at Easter. These are from the artisanal shop Chocolat in Chiasso Barletti, Lucca.

Even the local woodwork shop has a window decorated for Easter

It is still permissible to go out for a walk, though the guidelines include a vague statement about staying “close to home”. The wall around Lucca remains open (unlike last Easter when it was off-limits) and it certainly qualifies as close to home for those of us who live within its embrace. But don’t forget to carry your self-certification documents!

Fortunately, the rules were relaxed a bit for the 3 days over the Easter holiday (the weekend of Easter plus today’s Pasquetta holiday). For these 3 days, we have been allowed two persons to come into our homes for a visit or meal. I took full advantage of this, cooking an Easter brunch for 2 friends. A pretty table, good food, great company, a little Prosecco, and lots of laughter made for a wonderful Easter morning. Today I will celebrate Pasquetta with a long walk along the wall, enjoying the new green leaves on the trees, the wildflowers, and the views of distant hills.

Despite everything that has occurred over the past difficult year, life goes on. Shops are decorated for Easter, people wish each other “Buona Pasqua” in the streets, we are enjoying some beautiful spring weather, the gelato shops have opened for the season (gelato is the perfect take out food), the wisteria are blooming, and the church bells ring. There is reason for optimism and everyone is looking towards next year when, hopefully, I will be able to host a big group for an Easter luncheon.

Buona Pasquetta !

Spring 2020

Spring is perhaps the most glorious time of year in Italy. The sun shines, plants bloom in sequence, beginning with the magnolias and then on to the wisteria. Later, the hydrangeas bud, blossoming as summer begins.

Magnolias in early bloom, just before the lockdown began, March 2020

Trees also bud and then begin to leaf. Wildflowers grow along stone walls throughout the countryside and Le Mura (Lucca’s historic walls) have their share of wildflowers as well. Flowers appear in window boxes and on terraces as people shop the traditional spring garden markets. Locals and visitors alike begin to revel in mild temperatures, enjoy walks along Le Mura, sip coffees at outdoor tables in pretty piazzas, make excursions to the countryside, and trips to those spring flower markets.

Buying flowers at the traditional Santa Zita Flower Market April 2019

At least, that is what spring is normally like here. This year, however, is anything but normal. I know it is spring because the calendar tells me the spring equinox has passed. And, in late March, Italy changed to daylight savings time. Easter has come and gone, though without the usual festivities. The days are longer and warmer. But, spending most of my time indoors, I find few visual clues to remind me that Mother Nature is shrugging off her winter sweaters for more colorful spring garb. It seems as though I am missing seeing spring unfold because of the quarantine restrictions. Judy, although she lives not far from me, is having a different experience both because of geography (she can see Lucca’s walls from her street) and because she has a dog and the rules here allow a bit more liberty for dog walking (see her post from last Monday for her perspective on spring). I am spending the lockdown in a relatively small (though lovely) apartment in the center of town (no views of the walls) and my outdoor walks until this week have been limited to the couple of streets around my apartment. For the most part I have only been able to imagine what is unfolding outside. Missing spring’s beauty hurts, but in light of the bigger tragedies unfolding around us it seems a small sacrifice.

A stone wall, somewhere in Tuscany, spring 2019

I do catch glimpses of spring as I walk to the market for groceries, across town to the cleaners, or around to my mailbox. And, I am lucky to have a view to a pretty courtyard and garden just across from my apartment.

Joanne feels lucky to see these pretty photinia bushes from her window.

More fortunate still are those who have a little garden space of their own, a huge bonus in a city like Lucca, especially during this quarantine. My friend Michael has such a garden and I am thankful that he shares photos of emerging bulbs and greening trees - it’s a sort of mental oasis! (Photos below by M. Boyd, used with permission).

So, to celebrate this unusual spring, I thought I would post some photos of springs past and present in and around Lucca. And - good news - as of May, because the lockdown has worked to decrease the spread of the virus, we are once again permitted to go for walks throughout Lucca. Today the walls will reopen. Joy! The wisteria may have faded, and we may all be wearing masks, but there is still a lot of spring to be enjoyed! -post by Joanne

Spring flowers in the Cinque Terre, spring 2018

Wildflowers along the fosso (canal) in Lucca, spring 2018

The Miracle of the Flowers

 If I were ever made a saint (highly unlikely), I would wish for two things: to have Lucca as my final resting place and to be remembered each spring with beautiful flowers. Alas, that version of sainthood is already taken by someone far more deserving. But at least I get to enjoy that saint’s feast day each spring.

Flowers outside of San Frediano church to celebrate the festival of Santa Zita

Santa Zita is the patron saint of Lucca. She was born nearby, in the 13th century, to a poor but devout family. As a girl, she entered service in the home of a well-to-do Lucchese family, the Fatinellis. Unmarried, she worked for the family for 50 years until her death in 1272.

Memorial to Santa Zita on the street where the Fatinelli home once stood (Via della Fontana, Lucca)

Zita was known for her devotion and good works, especially in caring for the poor. This, however, did not always sit well with her employers or co-workers, especially because her good works often included giving away their bread, leftover food, and sometimes their clothing. It’s also said she sometimes neglected her morning bread baking duties to attend daily Mass (saintly, perhaps, but most annoying to her co-workers).

As the story goes, the other household servants were jealous of her goodness and reported her “theft” of bread to the head of the family. One day, when he asked her what she was hiding in her apron (which was, of course, the bread she was taking to the poor), she answered that it was just flowers (luckily, this little white lie did not preclude later sainthood). When he demanded to be shown, she opened her apron and out tumbled flowers - a miracle!

Santa Zita is remembered each year with a flower market in late April. This display was part of the 2019 market.

There are other miracles associated with Santa Zita, including the notion that angels staffed the Fatinelli kitchen, baking the bread while Zita went to church at nearby San Frediano.

Santa Zita flower market, 2018

Legend has it that when she died, the bells of San Frediano began ringing on their own. Zita was buried soon after and her legend quickly grew. Several hundred years after her death, her body was moved from its grave to her own chapel in the church of San Frediano (the chapel was built by a later generation of Fatinellis).  When exhumed, it was discovered that her body had not deteriorated but had spontaneously become mummified, another miracle.  In 1696 she was made a saint by the Catholic Church.

The body of Santa Zita is moved to the center of the cathedral of San Frediano during her annual celebration.

Today, her remains lie inside a glass coffin in San Frediano. Once a year, to mark the April 27  anniversary of her death, her coffin is moved to the central part of the church, where it is surrounded by flowers and candles. Small bunches of flowers are sold in the church and people hold them as they pass by her body, reverently laying their hands on the coffin. Whether religious or superstitious, it seems to me very good luck to join in, lightly touching the glass of the coffin, and wishing to be back in Lucca for the next celebration.  So far, that has always worked for me!

Flower market, 2019

As part of the Festa di Santa Zita, there are also floral displays in the piazza in front of San Frediano and a colorful flower market inside the nearby amphitheater square, making the week of April 27 a lovely time to be in Lucca.          -post by JMB

Flower market (2018) in Piazza Anfiteatro for the Festa di Santa Zita