A Day on Giannutri Island

Last Sunday, Melanie and I went on a daytrip to the island of Giannutri.  We'd read about the excursion in a local magazine, organised by a local group 'Friends of Melograno' - still not sure exactly what the group is about, but we must be friends too as they've since invited us to future events.

So at the ungodly hour of 6-30am, 50 of us depart by bus from Lucca and head south for a 2 and a half hour trip to a small port.  From here, after a quick coffee to recharge, we take a 1 hour ferry and arrive at the island at 11am.

Giannutri Island is small - just 3km by 1km - and with 7 other nearby islands, is part of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park.  It's rocky and arid, but has 2 beaches, which we head off to as its 33C today - the 10th consecutive day over 30C; phew, life's tough here in Tuscany!

The beach here is a mixture of pebbles and sand, sort of a cross between an Australian beach and an Italian beach.  We find some shade, while most of the others sunbathe on the many flat rocks close by.

Later, we head off on a guided walk to the south of the island, where a historic lighthouse is being restored.  The calcareous rock means the water drains quickly, limiting the fauna to hardier plants - although the guide points out rosemary, juniper bushes, a wild olive variety, and a few more.

It looks a lot like Wilson's Prom, minus the ti-tree.

Here's the view back to the harbour we arrived at.  The safe anchorage attracts plenty of yachties, who can resupply at the single shop on the island.

On the walk, we see in the distance the island of Montecristo, the setting for the book and movie 'The Count of Montecristo'.

The landmass in the background of this photo is the island of Giglio....more on that later.



 

Here's an abandoned Roman villa, the only building (apart from the lighthouse) on the southern half of the island.

Melanie says she wants to buy it, renovate, and get on 'Grand Designs'.

The lighthouse is the barely visible column behind the red and white building.  This is as close as we could get, as the area near the lighthouse is restricted due to a breeding ground of the endangered Corsican seagull - sounds like the  'endangered growling grass frog' story from Melbourne, all over again.

After returning to the harbour, and another swim, we depart Giannutri on the 4pm ferry and head back to the mainland.

In the background is Giglio island, which the ferry takes us past, about 4km away.  The tiny white horizontal speck at the right tip of the island is the remains of the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that sank in January 2012 with the death of 32 people, due to the incompetence of the captain.

The photo below of the Costa Concordia is from a website.

We take the bus home, arriving just in time to watch Italy beat England in the quarterfinals of Euro2012 - which is great, except that half of Lucca then drives around honking their horns in celebration until 2am!

Introducing Zita the Vespa

We now have a Vespa! We’ve named her after Saint Zita, the patron saint of maids and domestic service, as we all know she has her work cut out for her lugging us around! Saint Zita is also a local saint; her mummified body is on display in the Basilica di San Frediano here in Lucca. I also thought it wouldn’t hurt to have a saint with us on those narrow and winding roads!

Back to Zita the Vespa. Until now we’ve been reliant on our push bikes and our feet, which whilst they’re getting a good workout – only get us so far. Lucca is surrounded by hills on all sides so it will be great to get a little further into them, especially as it heats up so we can escape to the cooler hills.

Speaking of heat! We are in the grips of a heat wave; today we’re expecting 33 degrees, our 10^th consecutive day in the 30’s! Thankfully we’ve had Zita to get us out of town and over to the coast to check out the local beach scene. A friend we met in Florence recommended we must experience the Italian Bagnos (beach clubs) as it’s very different from any beach experience in Australia.

 So we head on over to Lido di Camaiore, our nearest beach.  It's a 45min Vespa ride from home, on a pleasant secondary road through the hills and over to the coast. A Lido is a long stretch of beach with 100s of beach clubs (or bagnos as they are called) side by side, the only difference being the name and change in colour of the many umbrellas and deck chairs. Lido di Camaiore is just north of Viareggio the Surfers Paradise of the Tuscan coast. 

Here’s a little of what we found ........

On the first of our 2 beach days, we select Bagno 'Moby Dick' as they have a restaurant overlooking the beach, well, overlooks the mass of umbrellas and beach chairs on the beach, more to the point! They also have Spaghetti Vongole on the menu which we’ve been hanging out for. Disappointingly, the Spaghetti Vongole was nothing to write home about!

We head home, pleased that Zita has performed admirably on her first outing.

On the next day, we hunt down Bagno Cavallone (thanks Trip Advisor) which recommends this family run establishment and restaurant where you can eat with your feet in the sand – yay! Thankfully, it's a better choice than our previous day’s adventure. Bagno Cavallone is a little more refined, more our ‘cup of tea’ or glass of wine which we enjoy with our second attempt at Spaghetti Vongole! We negotiate a deal on our umbrella and 2 sun lounges, €25 for the day, and here we prop from 10am till after 6pm (got to get your monies worth). A most pleasant day was had by all, except for the man that dropped dead at the water’s edge of our Bagno. The poor guy was just strolling the beach on his own and literally dropped dead. We wondered what all the fuss was about and wandered down for swim and look. The Croce Rosse (Italian Red Cross) just had him lying there on the sand covered with a sheet! So obviously a dead body!

 We stop by a church on the way home, Zita has a few quiet moments, Marino and I head next door to the winery and order 2 dozen bottles for home. Lucky for us (and Zita) they offer home delivery to Lucca. We are all happy!

Walking in Chianti

Chianti, Tuscany! Gorgeous isn’t it!

We’ve both been to Chianti on a previous trip but there's nothing like the experience of walking through the Tuscan countryside.

 In late May, we did a 3 day walk in the Chianti region. Approx. 60km in total, starting in San Fabbiano walking through Greve in Chianti, Radda in Chianti and finishing day 3 in the small town of Vagliagli. Perfect weather, perfect countryside but unfortunately not enough Chianti wine consumed!

Here’s me refueling in Montefioralle, a tiny medieval town outside of Greve in Chianti (our first night). We had a great room overlooking the main piazza, thought we were so lucky until the church bells woke us at 1am …. then 1.30am …..then 2am …. then 2.30am ….. you get the idea.

Oh well onwards and upwards, Chianti is of course very hilly and most afternoons finished with a climb of some sort (all good for the calves).

It’s cherry season!

A few for the road won’t hurt …..who’s thumb is that? …… Marino!

These 12^th Century churches come in handy for a cooling rest.This little church is just outside Radda in Chianti (our night 2 stop) on our way to Vagliagli.

The weather was perfect, low to mid 20’s each day. There’s no way we could do this walk in Summer!

Marino where he is happiest! in a vineyard…

Actually I think he’s happier drinking the wine!

Marino with his Uncle Vito who was good enough to pick us up from our endpoint (there was only a limited bus service).

We spent the night with them in Rosia, just south of Siena and had dinner at a pizzeria with Vito and his wife Anna Maria. The pizza was not as good as the one in Trieste!

Villas of Marlia

The villas of Lucca or rather palaces, are historical summer residences built by wealthy Lucchesi merchants between the 15^th and 19^th centuries. There are more than 300 throughout the hills of Lucca. 

We are fortunate to have 3 of the best only 5km from the Centro Storico (Historical Centre) - that’s a bike ride away! So off we go: bikes, picnic and wine and head north along the Serchio River before heading inland and uphill to our first villa.

Villa Reale was once the home of Napoleon’s sister Elisa Bonaparte (the short lived ruler of Tuscany and sovereign of Lucca). 

 

Unfortunately there’s no access to the house, however the 17^th century gardens have been fully restored and are quite amazing. Complete with a sculptured hedge open-air theatre!

Next stop Villa Oliva, built around the 1500’s.  Again no access to the main house only the 5 hectares of gardens. The highlight of this villa is its loggia, with its vaulted ceiling and each column made from a single block of stone - I think every house needs a loggia!

If you like the look of this villa, you can stay as there’s apartment style accommodation for a mere €3000 a week!

A picnic lunch and quick siesta in the gardens before heading off to our next villa.

Villa Grabau – yay we can finally check out the inside of one of these houses!! Circa 1500’s this is my favourite. Access is restricted to the downstairs area, where all the walls are painted with landscape scenes and images of draped fabric. A decorator’s heaven!

The gardens, a mix of English and Italian style, date back to the 16^th century, the French may have their Orangeries, but the Italians have their Limonaias. The limonaia is where the lemon trees are moved over winter; this one houses over 100 lemon trees in ancient terracotta pots.

All ‘food for thought’ in the planning of our tree change.

Melanie as Bronze Sculpture

Marino as Bronze Sculpture

L'infiorata

Here we are back in Spello.
We were fortunate to be invited to join in this year’s L’infiorata di Spello, a religious festival held each year.  At the heart of this festival are the locals, who are all involved in decorating the narrow streets with floral designs, mostly of a religious theme.  The designs are made entirely from ground flowers.

Here's me at a lookout at the edge of town, which is surrounded by olive trees.








The crazy part of Infiorata is that the flower laying begins after dark (our group got started at midnight) and must be finished by 9am the next morning.

Here's our group's handywork. We finished this 27m long design at 4am.  The green is fresh ground fennel fronds and the yellow is chopped up broom.  All the flowers were collected from the surrounding hills by our team members. The centrepiece of our design (our token religious element) was a masterpiece in the making - this alone took about 2 hours! Of course the 10 or so critics were of no help!

Many of the designs are incredibly intricate; this was one of my favourites.

Thousands of tourists descend on this tiny town to view the designs, and smell the pungent air which is incredibly fragrant. It's no surprise it's the best trading day of the year.

Not long after dawn, the designs are judged - there are various categories, including Under 14, Carpets etc.








A Mass is held the following morning in the main church, we missed this as we were sound asleep.  This is followed by a procession through the streets (and over the beautiful floral carpets) where the Bishop ceremonially walks over and destroys the designs.  Amen

Another great weekend in Spello, thanks for the invite Lyn and Bruce, and the rest of our team.  And thanks also to our new friends Barbara, Mario and Mimmo!