Easter in Lucca

My apologies for the absence in the last couple of weeks from this blog, the season is starting and it is good to see you coming in apartments and villas here, but there's a lot of maintenance works involved in the backstage after the winter.

Many of you will be spending Easter in Lucca and I thought that it could be nice and useful to know what's happening in town and around.



First of all, being mainly a religious feast, let's start with the celebrations:

• Holy (Maundy) Thursday April, 17th is the day that Christ celebrated the Last Supper with the Apostles. The Mass will be held at the Cathedral (San Martino) at 6.30pm and it will include the washing of the feet ceremony. The pray will continue till 11pm in the Santissimo Sacramento chapel. There will be another Mass in San Michele's church at 9pm.
• Good Friday April, 18th the Stations of the Cross (Way of the Cross, we call it in latin Via Crucis) will start at 8.45 pm from San Salvatore Square and it will go through Via Fillungo to reach San Frediano's church. 
• Easter Eve, Saturday April 19th Holy Mass at 9.30 pm at the Saint Martin's Cathedral. 
• Easter Sunday, April 20th Holy Mass at 10.30 am at the Saint Martin's Cathedral held by the Archbishop.
• Easter Monday, April 21th Holy Mass at 11 am Saint Michele's church. 

Please pay attention that in these churches opening hours can change, you may find them closed or just opened for confessions, so they won't allow visitors inside. 

If you have a car and feel brave to drive some mountain roads, on Thursday night, go to Castiglione di Garfagnana, for The Crocioni Procession. That can be a real and strong experience! After the mass, people will follow in a procession a man dressed as Jesus Christ, he will have chains at his bare feet and a heavy cross to bear on his shoulder. Nobody knows the identity of the man, apart from the priest: a long white hood will cover his head. Before the mass he will be hidden in a huge wardrobe. He will come out for the procession representing the biblical walk with the three falls, the roman soldiers and the apostles. The torch light, the drum rolls, the chains noise will make it very real and suggestive even because the village is a perfect medieval hamlet. At the end the man will go back inside the wardrobe, two soldiers will check and only later when everybody will be gone he will come out. You may wonder who wants to do such a thing, usually is a local person who makes a vow or he does it as a proof of regret. 

On Easter Eve and Sunday, we have the tradition to bring the eggs (chocolate or boiled) and the pasimata to be blessed by the priest. This is what you will find on the altar.

Pasimata is a typical sweet bread of Lucca, Garfagnana and Versilia that usually is prepared only for Easter, ask for it at the bakeries and pastries shop in town. It can be with raisin, almonds or candied fruit. The pastry smells of anise seeds and it is soft and tasty. It has a very long rising time. It can have the shape of a loaf of bread or it can be as thick as a panettone. Of course, you will have to enjoy it with a glass of Vinsanto (Holy wine) and dip it in! 

Most of the restaurants will be opened on Easter Sunday at lunch and dinner. 

At lunch time, maybe it will be better to book a table, we do not all celebrate at home, so they might be busy. Some of them will do a special menu (lamb and kid/goat are the main traditional courses) they will show it outside on a notice board some days before, go and have a look if you are interested.

If you plan to cook at your fantastic holiday home, then go shopping as soon as you can! Groceries, supermarkets and bakeries will be shut on Sunday and most of them even on Monday. 

During the weekend (Sat&Sun) you can spend some hours in one of the best Tuscan antiques market! It is quite big, the stalls will be all around in Giglio's square, Cathedral & San Giovanni's square, San Giusto's square, Via del Gallo and Bernardini's square from 9am till 6pm . Old books, prints, medals, stamps, vintage clothes and accessories, furniture, cutlery, china and unusual tools could be a unique souvenir from Lucca and an experience you should not miss! I love it!

Instead, this year from 18th till 21st in Corso Garibaldi (from 9am till 9pm) there will be a new market dedicated to Sardinia products: food, wine and artisan. I do not know exactly what you can find as it is the first time, but I am sure you will find delicatessen as cold cuts, great pecorino cheese, Mirto a typical liqueur, the carasau a very thin and crispy bread, Cannonau wine, sweets as seadas and biscuits. So if you forget to buy something at the grocery store, here's the solution!

If you have not visited yet the national Museums: Palazzo Mansi e Villa Guinigi will be opened in the afternoon (1.30 till 7.30pm) on Sunday and Monday. The first one is a beautiful example of a 16th century lucchese noble residence with frescoes and an amazing wedding bedroom, plus there's a painting gallery, too. Now the masterpiece is in Florence part of the Portormo and Rosso Fiorentino exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi. 

The other museum is related to the art of the city and quite big: archeology, paintings and scuplture from Medieval till 18th century. Then, still here the exhibition The Furnace of Porta San Donato. The work of a potter in the 17th century in Lucca opened just recently. (free entrance)

For music lovers, on Sunday at 9.15 pm at the San Giuseppe Oratory (next to the Cathedral) the second concert of the Easter and Pentecost (Whitsunday) Festival  will take place. Beatrice Venezi at the piano will accompany the sopranos Fabiola Formiga and Melissa di Biasio. The program is dedicated to Tuscan opera composers: Puccini of course and then Catalani, Luporini and Mascagni, as well.
For info and bookings: tickets can be purchased at the San Giovanni's Church (10-6pm, every day) or you can write an email to info@musick.it. Price 20€ first sector; 15€ second sector.

The Italian tradition expects that on Easter Monday, Pasquetta, you have to do a picnic, a merendella/merendina at the beach in Viareggio, on the mountains in Garfagnana or in the lucchese countryside. If it is a sunny day there will be a lot of people everywhere! So you if would like to respect the tradition, a barbecue picnic can be arranged for you in a  local vineyard, please get in contact with Paola by Friday.

At last I would like to mention the Azalea Festival in Borgo a Mozzano, (Sun&Mon), you can reach the village by train from Lucca, check first the times as it is public holiday or better if you have a car it is less than 30 mins drive. Do not miss the Devil's bridge!

Hopefully, I have given you some ideas how to spend these days here in Lucca, so do not forget to tell me if my suggestions were good enough! 

Happy Easter! Buona Pasqua! :)

Weekly Market in Lucca and a Recipe

The last couple of posts were dedicated to Viareggio and Florence, this week let's stay in Lucca and go shopping at the market!

Unfortunately it was very cloudy and grey :(

In Italy, this is one of the experience I suggest you to do: go to a local market wherever you are to see the daily life, for "people watching", to find good bargain and of course, it is a lot of fun!! I love it! For me, it is very unlikely to leave without a bag, even a small one.

I have my strategy: have a look first to the whole market, ask for prices, see if there is anything nice and then on the way back I start to buy!

Usually the stall people do not accept credit cards, so make sure you have enough cash with you. 

You can try things on, but do not be too fussy ;) you are not in a shop so they do not have proper fitting rooms, so you will have to jump inside a van and get undressed on it (doors closed of course!), try on and look at yourself in a very simple mirror. 

You can ask for a different size, not everything is one size only. They might have it or not, their stock is not fully supplied as in a store.

If I am buying more things from the same stall, I try sometimes to bargain a little bit. People do not get offended, but remember they are not obliged to give you a discount. Prices are already quite cheap!

Keep an eye where you see lot of people around a stall, it can mean that there is a good offer or nice stuff. Then be patient, brave and curious and start to throw clothes up and down, go around the stall in every corner! It is  like a treasure hunt, keep searching and searching...

I've found 3 lovely summer dresses here for 10€ each :)

They had lot of things in silk and linen

A tip: while you will be busy searching, if you find something you like, put it on a side next to you, or ask the stall man to keep it for you for a sec. You do not want that, after all you efforts finding that lovely t shirt under many layers of clothes, it get taken by someone else, do you??

A last suggestion: in the last few years the Chinese have some stalls, too. Their prices are very low, but quality is not good at all. I mean it is good looking but after a few washings it's gone. So just think about it!

At last keep your purse in front of you all the times! These places are quite busy, with people pushing you and pickpockets know that you are busy searching, so be careful! 

The local weekly market in Lucca:

when: every Wednesday and Saturday in the morning from 9 to 12.

where: from outside Porta San Jacopo  then along Via dei Bacchettoni till Porta Elisa 

What can you find there? A little bit of everything:

Food can not be missing!

Flowers and plants

Leather: shoes and bags, purses...

Kitchen and homeware: 

Do you know all these tools?

Many many clothes and accessories...

This is one of my favourite place to stop. This is Bagnoli. It is a beautiful grocery store in Viareggio, but they do also local markets. In Lucca you can find him only on Wednesday. The van is close to Porta San Jacopo.

They have several kinds of cheese from all over Italy, really special ones! Lots of mortadella, prosciutto and salami and sausages...Then bread as Pane di Vinca, coming from a small village in Lunigiana, Massa Carrara province.

Pane di Vinca and a super multicereal focaccia! 

They can make you a sandwich right away. The walls are very close, just above you, so you can go there and relax after all your shopping!

Try these onions cooked in the wine: they are as sweet as cherries! I love them!! 

Isn't this gorgonzola tempting?

This was my shopping and my yummy lunch:

Cereal focaccia as you can see there's already bite ;)
mustia ricotta and Tropea onions 

Pasta with Mustia, Tomatoes, Rucola and Nuts.

Mustia is a salted, smoked ricotta cheese typical of Sardinia.

While you are waiting for the water to boil, you can melt the mustia in a dish adding a little bit of hot water ad mash it with a fork. It has to become soft and thick as a cream, not too liquid.

Add a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and some Parmesan cheese.

Cut some cherry tomatoes and put them together with the mustia ricotta, keep mixing everything together. You can add some salt and black pepper, if you like. Be careful the mustia is already quite tasty, so check it before! It can be already fine.

Throw pasta in the boiling water with a little bit of salt and leave the dish with the mustia and tomatoes on top of your pan to keep it warm.

In the meantime cut some rocket salad (rucola) and some nuts.

When the pasta is al dente and you have drained it, you can add the mustia with tomatoes, the rucola and the nuts. Mix, Mix for a few minutes and Buon Appetito!!

you can turf off the stove, you can mix it easily in the warm pot 

Buon Appetito!

Pontormo&Rosso Fiorentino an extraordinary exhibition in Florence

I think that Palazzo Strozzi is one of the best reality in Florence and generally speaking in Tuscany for exhibitions, art and events. I am always keeping an eye on what's going on and what will be coming next.

Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino "Diverging Path of Mannerism", an incredibly beautiful exhibition opened just a couple of weeks ago and it will last till July, 20th.

This is a list of reasons and suggestions, just my personal advice. Of course, if you will go, let me know your thoughts!

I appreciated very much how the exhibition has been set up, you can really understand the meaning of the title Diverging Paths. Two twins artists till a certain point (they both were trainees of Andrea del Sarto and lived in the same period in Florence), then each one has followed his own way. So at the end I got to think which one did I like the most?

Still nowadays we are astonished by the genius of Michelangelo, Raffaello and Leonardo, but have you ever tried to put yourself in the shoes of an artist that tried to succeed immediately after those three masters? I mean, how can you handle the comparison? Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino took that challenge and the exhibition will show you how they reacted and what they realized. 

A thing I will never forget: the bright, glazed colours of the Visitation by Pontormo, those four massive women occupying almost all the scene in front of you, you perceive that they are mysterious and so gentle at the same time. (look at Saint Elizabeth). And pay attention everytime, how these painters use the colours: sharp, shimmering and vivid. 

It has just been restored, so this image has nothing to do with the original!

I love when you can see also the sketches and drawings! Here, there are two rooms completely dedicated to them. Have a look at the architecture of Rosso Fiorentino, it is just perfect and it makes you understand how talented and careful he was. Instead it seems that Pontormo is just painting himself all the times? 

Paintings can be a document of a period of time. How was to live in Florence in the early 1500? Would you be with or against the Medici family? The artists had to choose which side to stay and the portraits are a great evidence. Anyway, you will be surprised that some of this men are so ordinary, they could be your neighbour! 

Do not miss any expression of the faces: saints, angels that look like animals, monsters or demons but even the sweetest thing in the world! 

Why not a young and curly blond Saint Joseph? 

Seize that moment! Maddalena catching Jesus' feet preventing them to touch the floor, her red mantel blowing up and the awkward position of John. Doesn't it seem just a quick snapshot, does it?  

If you can, book a guided visit, it is so worthy! This kind of exhibitions are huge and you usually end up at in the last rooms quite overwhelmed by all the paintings, papers, books, panels, people around etc..and you do not remember how you started! Instead, the guide will help you a lot to go through the rooms selecting the most important works, you will notice details, you will be given the right tools to appreciate what you are seeing. Another positive point: you have a question, you can ask and hopefully ;) receive an answer! Then after the tour, you can stay longer at the exhibition, go back to see that painting, meditate on it at your own pace. It's the ideal! I enjoyed the exhibition so much with Isabella, that I hope I can go back as soon as possible. 

For further information on Florence, Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino exhibition please get in contact with Paola.