Day Two - Capezzana Tour, Pisa and Luca

Even though I really wanted to sleep in Monday morning, I knew my dad was itching to get on the road and see some of Tuscany's famous cities. My dad does not vacation restfully. In the weeks leading up to our trip, Dad formulated a list of the cities and attractions he wanted to see while in Italy. On my dad's Monday itinerary was Pisa and Lucca - two towns that were about an hour and a half away from Capezzana. I hadnt been to either city so I was enthusiastic about our roadtrip.

Before we left, we had a 10am appointment to tour the Capezzana estate. Benedetta took us into the olive oil production area and explained the oil making process to us. During our tour, something she said struck me as funny and I smile to myself whenever I think of it. Benedetta was explaining to us the "first press" of olive oil. Essentially, the first press of olives yields the best quality olive oil because its the first time the olives are pressed. The oil is the freshest and most flavorful. This is the only type of olive oil that Capezzana produces. However, sometimes Capezzana will sell the excess junk (like the skin, spent olives, stems, etc. that are left over after the first press) to American companies and those companies will use it as the base for their own olive oil production. Because the olive junk originates in Italy, the American companies are able to package it as a "Product of Italy" and charge premium prices for what is essentially the throw away product that Italians would never tolerate. Someone in our group asked "You guys wont use that part of the olives?" and Benedetta absolutely scoffed at the idea. She said "Oh no. Americans may not identify the difference in taste but Italians wont tolerate the poor quality." She wasnt snotty about it; she spoke as a matter of fact. The crazy thing is that Capezzana olive oil has totally created snobs out of me, Matt and our children. Benedetta is correct: there is a HUGE difference in taste between the olive oil that Capezzana produces and the kind you buy on the shelves here in America. We never knew that difference until we came to Italy, but now that we do its difficult to stomach the American brands.

In addition to the olive oil production facilities, we explored the estate cellar where the Capezzana wine is stored and aged. As we walked down into the cellar, a couple of us remarked how it seemed unreal; like a set from the Pirates of the Caribbean or something. It was really dark, dank and spooky. As Benedetta unlocked a grim looking door, one might expect to find a monster chained up against the wall. Instead we were greeted with rows and rows of wine barrels and caskets. It was quite remarkable.


After our tour, we jumped in the cars for an hour and a half car ride to Pisa. Im going to cut the chase and say this right up front: Pisa was really impressive to me. Every kid grows up hearing about the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but I dont think you have the slightest idea how totally freaky the tilt of that building is until you see it in person. Pictures dont do it justice. In my humble opinion, it does not seem logical that that building is still standing. In my life, I read how the foundation of the tower was poor and that the building began to shift with the unstable ground. I read how engineers had to reinforce it several times throughout the years in order to keep it from toppling over. Dudes... that building leans at such a unbelievable angle that I found myself not wanting to walk in its shadow. Its absolutely mind blowing to see it standing there. It is a freak of architectural nature and absolutely mesmerizing to view.

Its easy to overlook the beauty of the tower while its sitting at such a crazy angle, but even in my shock I was able to recognize that the Tower of Pisa and its surrounding buildings were strikingly gorgeous. Before going to Pisa, I thought that the tower stood alone. In fact, it was on the same grounds as two other beautiful structures: the Cathedral of Pisa and its Baptistry. All three of these buildings created the Piazza del Duomo. The architecture of these buildings was masterful and demonstrated a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic styles. The detail and mathematical accuracy of the ornate buildings was totally impressive. The Tower, Cathedral and Baptistry along with the orignal village of Pisa were contained behind a medieval wall. You couldnt see any of it from the street. When we first walked in through the gates into the city, I was immediately struck by the picturesque view of the all white marble buildings. It was a vision! I was sooo not expecting Pisa to be that beautiful.



A couple notes abou the Pisa photos: 1.) Even though it was sunny, there were dark clouds in the distance while we were in Pisa. The clouds made for some very dramatic photos of the tower. 2.) I love that picture of me and Matt with Seamus' face peering in on the side. It cracks me up! Matt and I enjoy taking pictures of ourselves with Matt's point and shoot camera. On the first shot, Seamus snuck into the picture. We laughed it off and took a second shot that didnt include him. Turns out, the one with Seamus humored us so much that Matt and I preferred it over the one with the just two of us. And 3.) I accidently left my glasses at the Villa on this day. It was sunny so I bought some cheapy blue glasses outside the wall at Pisa. I do not normally wear neon blue sunglasses.

After Pisa, we decided to head out to Lucca. The city of Lucca was on the way home and it was on my Dad's list of "Things We Must See in Italy." Lucca's claim to fame is that its an old medieval town completely surrounded by a large wall and moat. Even though it had been a long day and some of us were wanting a rest, we humored Dad and drove out to Lucca. At this point in our trip, there began to be some personality conflicts.

Even though both cars had a GPS, Matt usually assumed the lead while driving in Italy. Chris would follow behind in the second car. As I said in an earlier post, caravaning in Italy is problematic. Not only is it difficult to stay together, it is also impossible to know what the people in either car are thinking while driving. Upon arriving in Lucca, I consulted with our Rick Steves guide to figure out where to park. Rick Steves specifically stated in his book NOT to drive into the walled city. He suggested parking outside the city and walking in, so Matt circled around until we could find a spot. However, Chris' car (which included my dad, mom, Miranda and Seamus,) didn't know that. Chris and my father were getting impatient and increasingly pissed off that Matt kept passing the gates into the city in lieu of circling the perimeter. They didnt realize we were trying to find parking outside the city. As Matt approached the beginning of our loop, he paused and asked me to find out how close we were to a parking lot and at that point Chris (apparently encouraged by my Dad) cut in front of us and drove headlong into the city. Astonished and against his better judgement, Matt had no choice but to trail along. What followed was a stressful and apparently illegal pleasure ride into the streets of Lucca. What an adventure! Chris navigated us into a "pedestrian only" area of the city where we slowly crept through the narrow streets alongside walking tourists. Even though we were careful not to hit anyone, people glared at us as if to say "You do not belong here." We saw the sites from the comfort of our cars (which was nice) but after a quick pit stop realized we could not park or stay. It seemed that you needed a special permit to park inside the city walls - an item we did not have. As quickly as we had driven into Lucca, we drove out.

Before we got back into the cars to head home, Seamus came up to me asked to ride home in our car. He had heard an earful of complaints and protestations about Matt from my dad and Chris on the drive around Lucca. I explained to him it was all just a misunderstanding and that people say and do things they dont mean when they dont fully understand whats going on. Dad and Chris didnt know what we were doing and they got pissed. Its natural; not personal. That seemed to comfort Seamus some. Still... I know how my dad is and I can totally imagine the words coming out of his mouth while they impatiently followed us around the walls of Lucca. Im glad I wanst in that car during that time.

We were late getting home and the Pam (aka: grocery store) was closed when we arrived. Chris' car drove home, but we continued into Bacchereto in the hopes of scrounging up some food for dinner. Bacchereto is a very small village next to Capezzana. When we were in Italy in 2007, we often walked down to Bacchereto and had food and drinks with our friends at Bar Sport - a small cafe. Thankfully, Bar Sport was open and we were able to pick up some sandwiches and pasta for dinner. Valerio and his son, Gianluca, own Bar Sport and Valerio was behind the counter when we entered. Gianluca came down to help with our order and after some prompting remembered Matt from three years ago. It was really neat to see their familiar faces again.

All in all, it was a very eventful day. :)

Coming next: the Uffici Museum in Florence and our train ride into Rome.

Happy Wednesday.