Centro Storico, Via Galli Cassi, Lucca

Centro Storico, Via Galli Cassi, Lucca
Monday 11 September, 2006

We arrived in Lucca (approx. 300 km from Rome and one of the most spectacular towns in Tuscany). It is the only walled city in Italy and is complete with tightly packed cobbled streets, small cars that whizz down the scarily narrow streets and an amazing bike track that sits on top of the city walls (it is a must to rent a bike and ride around the city walls).

After dropping our weighty suitcases off at our apartment we went in search of lunch. The first place we walked upon was Centro Storico with it's cute outdoor seating and terracotta pots lining the exterior. The menu looked OK, so why not?

We took a seat and realised we were surrounded by French tourists. They were stuck into the red wine that was served in the largest glasses I have ever seen and by the time we had ordered were red cheeked and raucous. Our waitress was lovely, she spoke some english and appreciated the fact we tried to speak some Italian.

We ordered a pizza (surprise, surprise) and a tuna salad to share. When it was delivered to the table we marvelled in the size of the salad - it was larger than the pizza. I went to take an olive with my fork and it flew across the dining space and hit one of our French lunch buddies in the knee. Well, this sparked fits of laughter by all parties and certainly broke down any language barriers - for a moment we all spoke the same language and it was hilarious.

We enjoyed our tomato, mozzarella, mushroom and basil pizza applying lashings of chilli oil but even more so we enjoyed the scene occurring at the next table with a local Italian couple. Not that we could understand a single word that was said, the power of body language indicated that they were seriously pissed off that they hadn't been served. So much so they stood up, threw down their napkins and stormed off in a blaze of Italian expletives. It was great to watch.

Centro Storico - Via Galli Cassi, Lucca