Italy 2023
Giorno Quatro
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FA CALDO (IT IS HOT)
Non abbiamo camminato a causa del tempo. (We do not walk the wall because of the weather.)
We used the air at night and only in our bedroom. In the 13 years of coming to Lucca only the last 2 years have we used the air.
Abbiamo mangiato il pranzo al Osteria VispaTeresa. (We ate lunch at Osteria VispaTeresa.) It is under new ownership and the waiter that we knew for years is not there. Probably retired but, we are not sure. We were disappointed not to see her -she always remembered us! The food was good but, not that old style that it used to be. When we first discovered this Osteria (over 12 years ago) they had hand written menus. For the first course I had pappardelle with cinghiale (wild boar) sauce. Second I had the fried eggs with truffles. Dow had pasta with ragu and second eggs with truffles. Not many times do we order the same thing.
On the way to Osteria Vespateresa we saw this sign in the window of a wine shop that said “cantucci di Lucca. We looked at each and said what is cantucci? Cantuccio is an old Italian word that literally means "little place", "nook", or "corner" but that, in the past, was also used to indicate a little piece of bread with a lot of crust (usually the first and last slices of the loaf, the "corners"). The word biscotto, is used in modern Italian to refer to a biscuit (or cookie) of any kind.
In the evening were going to meet Katia & Andrea at an outdoor bar. We get together every year. These are friends here that we have been seeing since 2011. We met them thanks to a fellow colleague at Spencerport, Bonnie Seaburn. When Bonnie was teaching in Boston she had Katia as a student. (Katia's father was working in Boston at the time.) We returned to Spencerport for a retirement party and while talking with Bonnie she mentioned that she'd been in contact with a former student who lived in Lucca. We have met every year since and visited them in Boston when they made a trip back to Boston a few years ago. We have watched their family grow up. Famiglia fantastica! (Fantastic family!)
However they had to cancel as Andrea was stuck at work. Che Peccato! (What a shame!) Katia called but we were on our way to Café Turandot and could not receive the call. As soon as we arrived and used WIFI at Turandot we were able to contact her. We plan to meet this weekend.
Night cap on balcony. Buona notte
