Lucca

The tourist office made a reservation for us at a villa outside Lucca, but didn’t mention how very difficult it would be to find the villa using the tourist map. After many wrong turns (through beautiful country) we found our way to this spectacular home high on a hill.

The restaurant served us a delicious (if mysterious) dinner. Speaking almost no Italian makes ordering from the menu something of a crap shoot. But generally it’s all good, and Ria got a fabulous trio of little puff pastries.

We spent the next day lying by the endless pool with endless views of the Tuscan countryside – a perfect re-creation of my childhood memories spent in the hills outside of Lucca, a pool replacing pine nuts. Thom went running, Ria played with the manager’s three-year-old daughter, Jade, and I read about renovating a riad in Casablanca – a story Thom sees as a cautionary tale, and I as a challenge. Thom will prevail, of course. He suggested that we pull Ria out of school at the beginning of spring break next year and spend two months in a rental villa in Italy, Spain or France. I have no objection to that.