God, Guitars, and Gelato

We had a quiet, pleasant Monday, J.D.’s first day in Lucca.  He slept in, trying to make up for the hours he lost and the sleep he didn’t get yesterday, so in the morning Shelley went for a walk while I put in some time writing. 

While out she stopped at the supermarket and bought stuff for lunch and restocked our refrigerator with beer and soft drinks.  She couldn’t find any coke products on the shelves, so bought what we thought was orange soda until we poured it into glasses and discovered that the beverage itself was lemon soda and that only the bottle was orange.  When I was in Italy in the summer of 2001, I don’t remember being able to find Coca Cola products, and so drank a fair amount of lemon soda, and the brand, Spumador, brought back memories.

For lunch we had leftover pizza from last night supplemented by fresh bread with pecorino cheese, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.  Since we’ve been here, the tomatoes have been as good as the bread.

After lunch Shelley took J.D. for a walk around the wall to help get the lay of the land while I stayed in the apartment and did research and planning for tomorrow’s planned day trip to Cinque Terre.

Late in the afternoon we went on an excursion with several goals in mind.  J.D. was interested in visiting some churches, and so we visited the Basilica of San Frediano and the church of San Michele.  San Frediano was built back in 1112 by the Pope as a counterpoint to San Martino Cathedral, which was the home base for the bishop of Lucca.  Lucca was apparently the first Italian stop for pilgrims coming from northern Europe, and San Frediano was intended to be a taste of the glories of Rome.  San Michele is smaller, but located in what has always been the heart and center of Lucca, the piazza named for the church and saint.

We then walked over to Piazza Napoleone to glimpse the preparations for this evening’s second concert in the Lucca Summer Festival, and evening of guitars featuring Robben Ford, the Tedeschi-Trucks Band, and a special guest revealed in the past couple of days, Jeff Beck.  The atmosphere was very different from last week’s Eagles concert.  There were far fewer people milling around, and the metal fences that kept spectators from seeing the concert last week were non-existent.  It looked like the concert might be free, because there was no way to determine who had tickets and who didn’t.  We grabbed dinner at a café on the edge of the piazza and were entertained with good guitar licks as the performers went through sound check.

We then crossed off one of the to-do’s on my list when we stopped and bought gelato.  I’m no Guy Fieri, so didn’t know the difference between gelato and ice cream, but apparently gelato contains less air, less fat, and is stored and served not quite frozen.  Regardless, the taste is sharper and richer.  J.D.’s chocolate was very chocolate, and my fragola (strawberry) was delicious.  J.D. was also feeling caffeine-deprived, so ordered an expresso.  He likes his coffee strong, so I guessed he would like expresso more than Shelley, and I was correct.

We decided not to hang around for the concert itself but didn’t need to.  The wind must have been blowing right, because I could hear the music clearly as I sat in the apartment. It was a good end to a good day, made even better because I could enjoy the music while out of the rain that was starting to fall as a storm blew in.