From there we moved onto to the walled town of Lucca, a place I know well as I buy every its famous olive oil and balsamic oil from Lidl which I like to sprinkle generously on my bruschetta and mozzarella dishes. The city is a old medieval town that has a huge walled fortress surrounding it from all sides forming an uneven but formidable protection against would be invaders of old. The town itself was very small and while thankfully flat was easily walked in 30 minutes. It’s buildings were obviously well taken care of over the centuries and the amazing Piazza Del Mercato in the hear of the town and San Martino cathedral with with its fascinating gabled facade wit three tiers of ornate columns all of which were individually carved demand careful concentration when studying it.
After two nights in Viareggio and the day trip to Lucca it was next to the enchanting town of Florence (or Fianze) as the locals like to call it in their own tongue. There with grammar book firmly in hand and tongue in cheek i tried my hand at plenty of hand gesticulations and dodgy Waterford accent ridden, Portuguese froth, Italian. Surprisingly, the man I asked for directions understood me and I even managed to ask for a recommendation for a nice restaurant for the night which in hindsight turned out to be just what he promised: “Belisimmo”. Unsurprisingly, Italian is hugely similar to Brazilian and Castilliano. The “ch” sounds and the “g” are different but with plenty use of “are’s”; “ere’s” and “ire’s” instead of the more familiar “ar’s”, “er’s” and “ir’s” of Brazilan and Castillano I could form some simple sentences. It may be time to spend some extra lunch time with the Italian’s in work to see if I can pick up some more basic phrases for my next trip to this beautiful country.
We stayed only 1 night in Florence in a strange 3 star hotel where we slept in one hotel and had to have our breakfast in another 5 minutes walk away. Never again. We won’t have taken it only for it was late in the day when we arrived and we had plenty to see before we left early for Siena. The highlights for me was seeing the Duuomo, Campanile and Baptistry in the city center, the Piazza della Signoria with its brilliant collection of huge statutes and of course the Ponte Vecchio or old bridge that was built in 1345 and the only bridge to stay up in WW11. Plenty to see here that I didn’t have to visit and will need another visit.
Next, the beautiful setting of Siena which we arrived into by train as unbelievably all 3 car rental locations we visited in Florence where flat out of cars. Siena, with its vast networks of windy streets is on a steep set of hills and is set off by the fantastically elliptical hollow cobblestones of the Piazza del campo and the over lording presence of the massive Torre del Managia. While there we drank, ate, walked, shopped, ate, drank and watched a beautiful local knight in armor and flag bearing soldier parade. Well worth a trip for those aficionados and gourmets of the palette who want to sample some of the best Italian food and Chinati wine on the planet.
The trip ended with the leaning tower. A weird looking protuberant white snooker table leg type thing that looks like something the cat brought in after a few towers decided to go out on the town and get sloshed. We stayed 10 minutes on the way to the airport and if you ask me while worth a look at 10 to 20 minutes would be enough for me.
And so back in Dublin greeted by the news of the US failing to ratify their 700 billion get out of jail clause for the rich and the Irish government running round frantically to stop the flood waters that once like Florence when the waters of the Arno cruelly burst its banks threatening to destroy all around. As someone quiet rightly put it today “privitisation of the profits and the socialisation of the losses”. One has to wonder how "might" ever became "right" and how capitalism unfettered is as dangerous as a pitfall left in a room with a new born babe.
Next stop China 2 weeks time.
