Thursday, September 26
Croce a Uzzo, Pistoia, Toscana
Highlight: A personal tour of the village church
Lowlight: Missing out on a side trip to Lucca
After another fitful night, I awoke in Tuscany of all places to a cloudy day with light intermittent rain, not unexpected given the forecast. Fortunately, the rain stopped early, leaving us a cloudy cool day. During the night, some other extremely loud bird, perhaps a faraona (guinea hen), joined the vocal fracas with the dogs and bellowing Red Deer.
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| Outside our Window in the Cool, Cloudy Morning |
Neal and Lyn had a whole day planned for us: a tour of the local church from the caretaker, a neighbor; lunch in Pistoia; an afternoon walk on the ancient walls of Lucca; and finally, dinner in Lucca before returning to Pistoia. During morning discussions, I think the order may have changed: lunch in Lucca, an afternoon walk on the walls, and dinner back in Pistoia.
After a cup of Neal's excellent coffee, we all got dressed for our 11 a.m. appointment at the local church with Angelo, their neighbor and caretaker. The church, La Chiesa di San Lorenzo, is situated perhaps a minute from Lyn and Neal's house. As we pulled through the gates into the courtyard, their friend Angelo was waiting on the wet pavers to greet us.
From the outside, the church looks quite simple with beige stuccoed masonry walls that clearly have been repaired many times, terra cotta tile roof, and a simple square campanile on the near corner. There were no clues from the exterior that the interior would be pretty special. Angelo greeted us warmly in Italian and showed us past the campanile and into the sanctuary.
I really was not expecting such a pretty interior with diagonal black and white marble floor tiles, simple oak furnishings, a vaulted apse, an organ loft over the front door, and beautiful frescoes on the half-round vaulted ceilings. As Angelo explained the history of the church to us in Italian (so I only caught the gist of the conversation), it was clear that he takes immense pride in his church, clearly beaming when he talks about it.
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| La Chiesa di San Lorenzo di Uzzo |
From what I remember of the history recounted to us, the campanile dates to Roman times and the main church structure sustained some Allied bomb damage in WWII because it was on the bombing run line for the heavy industry factories down the mountain in Pistoia.
I was very moved that Angelo took time out of his day to show us his baby. I would rather have seen this simple and beautiful village church than all the grand cattedrali in Italy. Our brief stop to meet Angelo was the highlight of my day and that is saying something: our day would prove to be one of the most memorable of our vacation in Italy.
Taking our leave of Uzzo, we drove down the mountain the back way, the crazy winding route through Validibrana into Pistoia where I got a lesson on purchasing parking passes from the little ticket machines: your license plate number is generally required. Except, the particular machine for our space would take neither cash nor credit card. Go figure.
We wandered into the central piazza and after walking around for a few minutes, we headed to a little pasticceria (Banci) run by friends of Lyn and Neal. Just glancing through the display case, it seems to me that this is a pretty good pastry shop, though I do not really partake. We got some pastries and coffees and sat out front on the piazza, just opposite the Chiesa di San Bartolomeo in Pantano.
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| Chiesa di San Bartolomeo in Pantano |
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| Detail on San Bartolomeo |
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| Sitting on the Piazza |
By the lunch hour, our plan for the day had become a bit more solid: lunch in Pistoia, dinner in Lucca. For lunch, we had a reservation at Fiaschetteria “La Pace” around 13:00 so we wandered over that way, taking in more of downtown in the process.
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| Chicken Liver Spread, Best Dish of Lunch |
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Tagliatelle with Porcini, a Shadow of the Same Dish at Gargantuà
Neal Has Pappa Pomodoro, Tuscan Bread and Tomato "Soup" |
Neal booked at this little restaurant because he and Lyn have had good experiences there in the past. It became clear during our lunch that the quality of our food was not what it could or should have been. We still had a great time though. It also became clear during our lunch that Neal was not up to par; he had just got out of the hospital before we arrived and clearly, he was doing too much too soon.
That settled the afternoon plan, then. Ann and I were beat and jet lagged, much more tired than we expected to be, and Neal was feeling poorly. Ann and I were quick to say that we wanted to skip going to Lucca and go back to the house where we could all rest. I know that Neal would have soldiered on, but we did not give him that option. Though we did not know it yet, our change of plans would be rewarded later that evening with a fantastic night on the town in Pistoia.
After lunch, I took the opportunity to take a bunch more photos of the downtown of Pistoia. Although the masonry on the main church, the baptistry, and the allied churches looks black and white in the photos, it is really made from deep forest green and white marble, an exquisite thing to see in person.
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| At La BotteGaia |
When we arrived early for dinner in Italy, around 19:30, we were pretty much one of two tables in the whole restaurant. By 21:00, it was getting busy and by 23:00, it was pazzo pazzo. I had a good look at the large international wine list, but in Tuscany, I'll be damned if I'm ordering French, Spanish, or American wine. I'm not even going to order from another region of Italy. When in Tuscany, I'm drinking Tuscan wine and so I ordered a Brunello.
We ordered two antipasti to share among us, having already had a pretty sizeable lunch: a porcini-filled pastry in a parmigiano sauce and a slice of country terrine. Both were good enough, but not mind-blowing. At the end of our trip, we would have a liver terrine in Firenze that was mind-blowing.
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| Beggar's Purse of Porcini Mushrooms in a Parmigiano Cream |
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| Pork and Chicken Liver Country Terrine with Caramelized Red Onions |
Ann ordered pasta with a duck ragù for her dinner. A sucker for pici, I ordered a bowl of pici for a primo, then because I'm in Tuscany, I wanted to taste some of the local wild boar (
cinghiale) for a secondo.
After dinner, we walked about downtown where I was able to take some night shots; I loved the way that the cathedral was lit at night.
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| San Zeno by Night |
On the way to the car, we happened a random bar that seemed like it was happening and we snagged a table out front for a nightcap to close out our last night in Pistoia. This was so much fun and so not Bend, the town that rolls up the sidewalks at 21:00. A guest bartender was in for the night doing pop-up Scotch-based cocktails. I got one with Fernet that was interesting but could have used a squeeze of acid.
And speaking of the common Tuscan wild boar, nearly back to the house in the hills, we saw an ugly tusker in the glare of the headlights on side of the road. We got back just about midnight, ready to head to bed in anticipation of starting our drive north in the morning.
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| Someone Made Herself Comfortable in our Absence |
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| View of Pistoia from Bedroom Window |
I fell asleep fairly quickly despite the insistent bellows of the bucks looking for a little female companionship just outside our windows.
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