Love Italian Style

During our three weeks in Italy we've found at least nine places we'd consider living for at least a year or two. I'd wager that this number is only restricted by how many places we've been able to see in three weeks. After a week in Verona and two weeks in Bologna, we're now settled into an apartment in Lucca, in Tuscany, for a week. Aside from taking in the sensory delights of northern Italy, we enjoyed having company yet again! Our Blackpudlian pals, Jules and Al, met up with us for over a week to get some sun before the cold English rains descend.

Exploring Veneto and Emilia Romagna

In November of 2019, thanks to torrential New Zealand rains, we met Jules and Al in a campground kitchen on the South Island. We met them because they were cooking dinner on the burners next to ours while we all also routinely made soggy dashes between our camper vans and the Hokitika campground kitchen. We soon learned that they were taking a year off to travel the world. We immediately hit it off with these lovely people. We've kept in touch ever since and it feels like we've known them far longer than 3 years (and only a few days in person). We were delighted that they wanted to get a last gasp of warm weather in Southern Europe in the same place we were planning to travel to. We both planned to be in Verona and Bologna so we tried to book accommodations near each other so we could hang out. When we got to Verona (a day before they arrived), we realized that they would be staying in the same apartment building we were in. And we soon learned that their place, run by a different family, was on the same floor as our place! We got to walk to their place in stocking feet. Together we explored Verona, Modena, Garda, and Bologna, ate many delicious things, walked many miles, and generally had a fabulous time catching up with them in person!

We've been so lucky this year to have in person visits from Amy, Georgia, Laura, and Jules and Al.(Question: How can we entice more people to come visit us?) Our nomadic lifestyle makes in-person company with old friends extremely difficult. We've been lucky to make new friendships during our travels (witness Jules and Al!) but it's soul recharging to be in the same room with friends and share food, drink, and travel. It was bittersweet to bid them arrivederci.

This part of Italy is incredible for easy travel. In addition to Verona, Bologna, and now Lucca, we've spent time Trento, Mantova, Ferrara, Ravenna, Modena, and on the coast of Lake Garda. Before we came to Italy we asked our Italian friends for a list of cities we might want to consider for a home base and all of these cities (and a good number of others) were on that list. As a side note, one of our friends went above and beyond by taking our desired quality of life characteristics and creating a spreadsheet in which she personally ranked each city on our criteria! Being Italian, she also couldn't help adding some of her own details, like the predominant color of each city, e.g., Bologna is brick; Trento is cream; Lucca is cream-yellow. And she's correct! These people care about aesthetics and art. How can we not love that?

It's impossible to do justice to each place we've visited. All are places we would be happy to return to and even consider living in, although Bologna's a bigger city than we are looking for. The mosaics in Ravenna are stunning, the Dolomites loom attractively over Trento, Verona has a beautiful river roping through it, and the walk from Bardolino to Garda along Lake Garda feels almost like walking along the sea.

Magical Balsamic Mystery Tour

One highlight of our time with Jules and Al was our visit to a balsamic vinegar producer just outside of Modena. Jules had suggested doing it and it was a mind blowing experience for all of us. A substance labeled balsamic vinegar is probably in your cupboard. We already knew that the cheap type most of us buy is a poor substitute for traditional balsamic vinegar of Modena. But we got a crash course in what makes it such an artisan product--namely, various types of wood barreling, keen tastings by a master producer who balances the three grape varieties, and looooooots of time. We got to taste vinegars of various ages, from just being turned into vinegar must to seven year old to over one hundred years old! The rooms they age the vinegar in are some of the most alluring smelling rooms we've ever set foot in, sort of like a cherry scented vinegar molasses. And we learned that families who work in this field have rooms that are basically dowries or inheritances comprised of extremely old balsamic barrels. This two hour tour was free, although how can you not buy some of this amazing elixir after seeing how much passion goes into making it?

Thy Name is Lucca

And now we're in Tuscany for the first time. How cliched is it to be charmed by this region? We're in yet another picturesque town, Lucca, with well-preserved centuries old buildings with great food, stylish people, bicyclists everywhere, and nice green spaces. How can there be so many livable places in this relatively small swath of land? We're here at least a week and soon need to figure out where we'll spend our Italian Thanksgiving. Whatever we end up cooking, no doubt it'll have a drizzle of the great balsamic vinegar on it.