A Lucchese April

April can be a fickle month here in Lucca. After a few warm days in late March, the kind of days that almost trick you into packing away the winter sweaters, April barged in with colder days, wind, cloudy skies, and rain. The rain is much needed after a dry winter, so I won’t complain. And if the saying is true, and April showers really do bring May flowers, then Lucca should have a most colorful May.

This stand of white wisteria was an early bloomer this spring

Despite the early April chill, the days are growing longer, the first leaves have appeared on the trees, and the first blossoms throughout town hold the promise that warm spring weather will soon arrive.

Verde Mura is the perfect place to buy pots of herbs for the garden.

Perhaps the best harbinger of spring is the return, after a two year COVID-related pause, of Lucca’s spring garden festival - the Verde Mura. This wonderful event showcases all things needed to plant and tend a garden. It doesn’t matter if your garden is just a few pots on a terrace, a couple of window boxes, or a large orto (vegetable garden), the Verde Mura has what you need. The festival takes place up on the walls that surround Lucca’s centro storico (historic center) which means that the views are part of the fun.

Garden art at Verde Mura

Local gardeners pull wagons through the many booths, collecting everything from rose bushes to fruit trees to annual flowers and herbs. Need a tractor? Well, Verde Mura has just the one. Same with shovels, clay pots, bug sprays, fertilizer, seeds, and outdoor grills. In addition to these garden necessities, this is the place to find whimsical garden art, herbal products (soaps, teas, spices, syrups), fragrant spices, and a variety of crafts.

It is always fun to see traditional craftsmen at work; I especially love watching the basket weavers and broom makers.

Of course there was food (this is Italy after all). In addition to booths serving coffee and sweets there were plenty of vendors of local meats, cheeses, honey, pasta, and breads - most offering an assaggio (a taste). One booth had mounds of beautiful spring artichokes, bundles of aspargus, pretty Tropea onions and ripe strawberries from the south of Italy.

There was even the cutest little wine truck!

A break in the rain allowed for a slow morning wander through the many booths and displays of plants.

I came home with some herbs which are now happily planted in my window boxes as well as a colorful bouquet of ranunculi for my apartment.

I may have needed a warm coat, a scarf, and a hat against the chill but there was still a hint of spring in the air. I am looking forward to seeing the season unfold.

Today I Walked to the Mailbox: Quarantine Day 3,427

Okay - so I exaggerate just a bit.  It isn’t really day 3,427 of the quarantine lockdown here in Lucca.  But some days it sure feels as though it is.  

The days take on a sameness, which feels a bit like living in the film “Groundhog Day” (and who would have thought that possible at the beginning of my exciting Italian adventure?). It feels especially long because the tentative end date has just been pushed out again, this time from April 15 to the new tentative date of May 3. There is logic to this new date - the curve of disease cases has flattened but not quite enough to return to normal and there is fear that the April holidays will encourage too many big gatherings. These April events include Easter and the day after, which is also a national holiday, the Sunday after Easter when the celebration of Lucca’s liberation from Pisa takes place with all of its Medieval pageantry, Liberation Day on the 25th, marking the end of Nazi occupation in Italy, and right on to the first of May, which is another national holiday.  So, waiting until May 3 to begin to loosen the restrictions makes sense.   

Last year crowds gathered to celebrate the liberation of Lucca from Pisa in the 1300s. No such gatherings will take place this year.

The people I know are mostly in good spirits here and have taken to heart the two Italian sayings: Io Resto a Casa (I Stay at Home) and Andrà Tutto Bene (It Will All be OK). And yet, we are getting restless with days that center around mundane tasks masquerading as big outings - taking the trash out, going to the laundromat, grocery shopping. Worse, the days seem to go from “what can I have for breakfast” to “is it time for a coffee” to “oh good, it’s time for lunch” to “hey, is it too early for a cocktail” to “what’s for dinner” and, worst of all to “oh my gosh I’m out of cookies.”  This focus on food (a natural side effect of combined anxiety, sadness, and inability to leave the house I’m told) is worse due to our marked decrease in outdoor activity and exercise. One can only walk circles in the house and hoist cans of tomatoes as ersatz weights so many times a day. We live in fear of gaining the Covid 15 (or should that be the Covid 19?).

A pretty terrace above old brick walls, out by my mailbox

Today, because I’m expecting a package, I made an excursion to my mailbox. There are two ways for me to get to the mailbox. I can go through the lobby of my building, down a hallway, out the room where the bikes are stored and then out the portone (big door) to the back of the building where the boxes are. This requires three door keys and a flashlight for the dark part of a hallway.  Or, I can go out my front door, walk half a block down my pretty street, turn up a tiny covered alley (top photo), and through a pretty outdoor space to the back of my building. Option 2 is much more inviting!    

The outdoor space behind my building is a hidden gem. It isn’t an official piazza and it has neither a name nor a designation on my map. But, like so many hidden corners here in Lucca, it is a fascinating and charming space. 

Quintessentially Lucca, the small courtyard behind my building

There are balconies and large terraces to be seen, beautiful brick work, pretty and neatly tended front doors, graceful street lights, and mysterious old wooden doors. 

What’s behind these old doors ? I keep thinking it would be a good spot for a table, some chairs, and an outdoor reading space. I don’t think my condo association would go for that idea though.

I enter through the small alley with an arched roof, at the other end of the space and just around a bend is the back of a little church (now used as an exhibit gallery). 

Santa Giulia Church, from the back. This church sits across from the Boccherini Institute and is now used as an exhibit space.

Take a few steps further (permitted if I’m heading to the grocery story after checking the mail) and you get to two of my favorite views in Lucca - the Piazza Suffragio in front of the Boccherini institute to the right and the Vicolo dell’Altopascio to the left.  All this just steps from my apartment’s mailbox.  

Vicolo dell”Altopascio

I might still be in lockdown here, but most days I’ll make at least one trip out to check my mail. With scenes like this, the quarantine is a bit less difficult.

Wherever you are during this challenging time, I hope you are safe and hopeful. And I would love to see you here in Italy when the day comes that we can all travel once again. -post by Joanne

Looking down onto the Piazza Suffragio in front of the Boccherini Institue