Arriving in Levanto in a downpour and hearing tomorrow’s weather report of ‘more of the same’ we made the decision to turn around and go instead to Lucca, a small Roman town north of Pisa.
But first, we checked out Campeggio Acqua Dolce and Grill L’Igea that our friends, Joan and Andrew, highly recommended. They were right, the campground was charming with many terraced sites (too bad it was raining like cats and dogs).
The restaurant had many Ligurian specialties and fish dishes. With a pitcher of Ligurian white wine (vermontino grapes), we enjoyed seafood salad, fritto misto (fried seafood) and spaghetti with seafood – our last chance for seafood dining.
The drive to Lucca was treacherous with such an intense rain our wipers would not keep the windshield free of water. We made several stops to wait for brief letups. Travel information was entered in the GPS so we could find a place to stay in Lucca for our remaining 2 days in Italy.
We looked for signs with the symbol i which stands for tourist information. This led us to the ancient wall around Lucca and thousands of people dressed up as cartoon characters. This is the annual weekend Comics Festival and there were no rooms available in the city.
The very enthusiastic tourist director found us the perfect place to stay outside the city on the Strada Del Vino with a highly rated restaurant, Locanda Vigna Ilaria. The owners, Andrea and Elena, have only owned the locanda since April but the restaurant has already received an 80 (out of 100) in the 2011Gambero Rosso, the highest rating in Lucca. It’s easy to see why after our spectacular dinner:
Forest and Field Salad (picked by forager, Lia)
Risotto al Tartufo Bianco, Nebbiola wine
Trofie nel Pesce, Vermignon wine (vermontino and sauvignon grapes)
It was incredible, pure serendipity luck that we ended up here!
No comments:
Post a Comment