Lucca

I think our last day in Italy was my favorite. It seemed the most authentic. Also, this day was the day of the olive oil tasting, an event I had looked forward to since before we even signed up for the trip.

Wanda describing Chestnut flour. 

Our guide for the day was Wanda, pronounced Vanda. She was an amazing guide and a real pleasure to be around. She had grown up in Lucca, the town she was guiding us through, and her knowledge of the area and her pride in it were evident.

The first stop of the day was the Lucca farmer’s market—we were meeting our hotel chef to learn about where be bought ingredients for our meals. We were surrounded by crates of beautiful, local produce while Wanda explained some of the different items to us. Among the new and foreign goods were fresh olives, persimmons, chestnut flour, and farro. I had heard of all these things before, but I definitely was not able to identify them without her help. One of the farmers gave each of us a free clementine, with its stem and leaves still attached.

Sunshine clemies!

When we lived in the States, we had an extensive container garden. The area was in the shade, so we had a hard time growing lots of things, but peppers thrived. Home grown peppers are the most delicious peppers ever. I call them sunshine peppers, claiming the difference in taste is due to sunshine; you can taste the sunshine. The clementines the farmer in Lucca gave us were definitely sunshine clementines. They were juicy and perfect in every way, and now I want a clementine tree.

Fresh olives

Tomatoes!!

In Italy, we were about 12 hours (by bus) away from our destination in Germany. This meant that everything we bought had to survive first, overnight at the hotel without refrigeration, and second, in the underbelly of the bus, bouncing around with everyone’s luggage. Keeping this in mind, I bought some corn meal for making polenta and some dried dates for baking. These my mother-in-law kindly turned into my husband’s favorite Christmas cookies, so everyone was happy. Some people bought some crazy stuff though. Someone bought a crate of fresh lettuce. Another couple bought what must have been at least 15 cloves of garlic. A few bought tomatoes. Someone tried to buy fresh olives (to pickle at home in 3 days) but thankfully Wanda talked them out of that asinine adventure. The olives would have beyond rotten by the time we returned. I wonder if everyone was able to use their products before they went bad, though I kind of doubt it.

After loading the bus with everyone’s ridiculous perishable purchases, we bussed over to the main gate of Lucca, the walled town. 

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Photos from Our Trip!
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