If money and local obligations were of no concern, where would you live?

Lucca Italy

Years ago, a friend invited us to stay in a villa they had rented in Lucca Italy (about 30 minutes drive East of Pisa).  It was truly one of my favorite times traveling.

The villa (La Villa Forci outside the walled city of Lucca) was truly beautiful.  I’ll never forget preparing a small dinner of antipasto with fresh-picked figs from the tree providing us shade on the outdoor veranda, or floating in the infinity pool overlooking the olive grove.

We were there for two weeks and each day, we would drive to one of the local mountain communities and eat a big lunch at some of the most fantastic restaurants at which I’ve ever eaten and we’d also enjoy whatever landmark for which the particular village was famous.  We’d then do some local shopping in the city of Lucca, making sure we’d pick up some delicacy for a small dinner at the villa. I also bought some gorgeous merino yarn in the center of the city when I was there that was knitted into one of the few sweaters I’ve made that Thaddeus will wear.

My friend is readying to publish a book on his decades-long pursuit of becoming Lucchese and his pursuit of learning a language for which he has little to no aptitude.

I always used to tell this story about my friend Bob…it had been a couple of years since he had been to Italy when we visited him and so each time we’d go into a local restaurant, the host would welcome us and Bob would express in his bad Italian, “Sono due anni que mangiato!” which kind of means, “It’s been 2 years since I’ve eaten.”  Now Bob doesn’t look like he’s starving, so these poor unsuspecting Italians would look at him like he was crazy, so I would remind him that his sentence minimally required the word “qui” (“here”) at the end.  The hosts were quite relieved to find out he wasn’t insane.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn Italian and would like some guidance on how not to…or even better, if you ever have the desire to visit Tuscany (and specifically Lucca), you should sign up for Bob’s weekly blog...once you’ve registered you’ll be able to download a PDF of Lucca’s Insider’s Guide which I have begged Bob for years to publish…and it’s free.

I look forward to buying Bob’s book when it’s published…he’s enormously smart and funny and he has exquisite taste.

Current Knitting

I’ve knocked off another three coffee cup cozies.

This brings the total up to 31 completed and only 19 more to go.  I’ll see if I can make it through a bunch more between now and the next blog entry.  I’ll be glad to see this task completed.