i love The Wanderer’s Guide to Lucca….

I had a ticket to Italy and a friend with an apartment in Lucca, where I could stay for free, so I went there.

The plane ticket was the gift of another friend who insisted that I and my wife had to go to Italy.

He said we would love it.

He was right.

Taddeucci

Why the interest in Lucca?

Why not another part of Italy?

My favorite part of the book?

The parts which open readers’ eyes, whether to notice an art work they would have passed by,

or to glimpse the life of Lucca while looking at a Palazzo and reading about the family,

or to notice an architectural detail, an arch of decorative brick, a faded fresco, or to have an enigmatic inscription deciphered.

My other favorite part of the book is the map, since that came first.

I wanted, above all, a good map of Lucca.

Once that was done, the book could proceed.

I’m glad you appreciated it.

A good map is the first thing I want when I go somewhere and a good map too rare.

The Family part—I wish I could have written more, and intend to do so. These are the stories of Lucca.

Angel at San Michele

I go to Lucca as much as I can.

I lived in Florence for a few years, working there, so getting into Lucca was easy.

When returned to this side of the Atlantic ,I scheme for a way back.

I have too many good friends there to stay away long.

Lucca Cats..

I accomplished the least while living in Florence since I was busy working, and decided to spend my spare time more appropriately, making a map of Florence.

Santa Croce, Firenze..

What is your favourite local dish?

My favorite local food!

Ah, you shouldn’t bring up food.

As soon as food is brought into an Italian conversation you are lost (but then saved.)

Farro is the classic local dish. It’s made from the grain on which the Roman armies marched.

It’s a soup, no, too rich for a soup. My wife could live on it. I need meat. There I would go with rosticciana.

It is the dish I most associate with Lucca, it always brings me back.

For pasta, first of all, tortelli Lucchese. I could eat it every day.

If you have no objection to eating rabbit you should try a fresh one from the Garfgnana.

If a restaurant offers coniglio fritto, try it. Among the top local classic dishes I would have to list tartare al cavallo, with green sauce, from Da Giulio.

The idea of eating raw horse meat offends some sensibilities, but the practical inhabitants of Lucca welcome sustinence where they can find it, and are thankful.

My personal local addiction is acciughe marinate, marinated anchovies.

My favorite are, again, from Da Giulio.

The perfect appetizer, they don’t fill you up at all and are intensely flavorful.

Pollo al mottone, chicken under a brick.

The focaccia from Giusti’s. Go there around noon, or six pm.

The best focaccia in the world.

Lucca Focaccia..

Your Favourite church?

The piazza of San Michele. How could it be otherwise?

This is the center of town, and has been for two thousand years.

My second favorite place—on the walls, looking down on the city, or across the hills towards Pisa, or north to the snow-capped Alps, inviting and forbidding.

My third, standing in front of the Cathedral, gawking at it, and then entering inside, to the world of Matteo Civitali.

To anfiteatro...