Barga at Night

After dinner we wandered around some more and took some night shots on the way home to Lucca.

I drove us home in the dark, many sharp switch back turns on a narrow road downhill in our Alfa Romeo 6 speed manual car. And I didn't hit hit anything... just saying :-)

On the way home we stopped at the Devil's Bridge, much photographed and very striking. We were the only ones there and well worth the stop right off the main road.

  

 Night life..

The charming village of Barga, Italy

We spent the afternoon on Thursday last week in Barga, a small sleepy village, maybe a hamlet? near Lucca. Vic is doing the bulk of the driving and Christy is our navigator, together they are finding some great places! I think this is north of Lucca, but as I'm in the back seat with Rita, I couldn't say for sure. All the drives have been through beautiful countryside and I expect it will just keep getting better as we go south. Lots of small mountains here by the coast and usually we can see the tall range inland with the tops covered with snow. Spectacular everywhere you look!

 Spring time in Italy! We've had some nice warm days and some coolish ones, rain, too. The season seems to be ahead of Massachusettes by 2 to 3 weeks.

 Barga from a vantage point in Barga. Much steeper streets than Lucca, which is flat.

 Church on top of the hill.

 Inside.

 Our find of the day, Vic and Christy getting their shot...

 First car I have seen with mold all over it!

 Cute, isn't it?

 Choosing a color...

 Our choice for dinner this evening...

 inside and through the building to this little terrance overlooking the countryside!

Walking around Lucca, Italy

First a good breakfast of fresh bread, fruit and other goodies, then off to see what's going on in town.

And there is always something going on that I like to photograph, and so far no one has taken offense to our taking pictures. Most tourists seem to come in for the day to see the main round Piazza, even Italians from surrounding towns. Friendly people out and about, like us :-)

Breakfast in our kitchen, large windows and deep walls. 

 The water foundations are well used all over town.

Lucca, Italy in April

I'm so excited to be in Italy for 2 weeks with my friends, Christy, Rita and Vic! The trip was planned about 6 weeks ago, seemed like a great idea to all 4 of us, we bought our tickets to Roma and here we are! I booked the first apartment in Lucca through VRBO inside the walled town for our first week, Christy booked our second week in Montepulciano and Vic rented a great 4 door Alfa Romeo for our entire stay.. and we were ready to go. Arrived Wednesday, April 17th, left Boston at 5pm on April 16th. Lovely little ancient town we're in, everywhere I look there is another photo op, the colors, old buildings, and people are so beautiful.

 The wall promenade in Lucca, it circles the entire town and is actually on top of the wall.

 Lucca and laundry day.

 The main sight people come to see in Lucca, the round Piazza Antifeatro

Early spring, all the flowers aren't blooming yet, but it's much greener and warmer than Boston.

This morning I noticed that the flower boxes had been filled, the village of Lucca is well cared for on all levels, no garbage in the streets and homes are well taken care of.

 Vic

 Rita and Christy.

 Italian men doing their thing.

On top of the wall.