Curious Llama in Italy Part Three: Bennabio

Blogger is still struggling to upload photos, so this will be another short post. Above, you can see part of the town of Bangi di Lucca, about 20 min away from Lucca. The entire place was sunny except for the one day I decided to try to take photos. Bgani di Lucca literally means 'the baths of Lucca'. The baths refer to the hot springs that are in the area. The hot springs are a bit outside of the town and are now part of a resort. Bagni di Lucca is where we eventually ended up by train from Pisa (change at Lucca). Robert arrived (avec biciclette) the morning after I did. I met him and the bike at Pisa train station and we went to Bagni di Lucca. We were told that there were infrequent buses and also taxis. At the station, we enquired about taxis and were directed to some phone numbers. Thank goodness I brought my mobile phone (we get euro roaming for our phones. That is, our local provider has an agreement with Euro providers and we get picked up by their network (at a higher cost than normal). We were picked up by taxi driver Roberto. Not only was Roberto from Bennabio, he knew exactly who our key lady was. Talking with Roberto was an experience. He spoke Italian and French (badly) so somehow between my French and bad Italian, we managed to communicate. One thing I will say about Italians is that they normally travel with the largest suitcases you could ever imagine. So, no one flinched at the sight of Robert and me and his bike in a bag (you can see the bag just behind the bike in the last post). Italians also have great respect for bicycles (This is bicicletta in Italian, but everyone calls them bici (sounds like bee-she). So Roberto looked at our large bag. I said that it was a bici. He said: 'Ah' (in a reverent tone) and then gently placed it into the back of his taxi. He also gave me his card for the return trip to the station.
Above, you can see a cute little mini truck (three wheels). This person clearly adapted it for kids. So, in the back there is a plastic garden bench with the feet sawed down and a metal bar to keep kids in place. Note the roof welded on top that has been painted like the Italian flag. Cute. Our front door is just behind the truck. It is the one with the vaulted archway in the corner (partially hidden by the pillar). Welcome to Bennabio.

I don't have any photos of Bennabio apart from the one I posted yesterday. It is a very small village. Yet, it has the basic requirements of any small Italian mountain villlage: several churches, a tabacchi, an alimentari, a restaurant and a pizzeria. A tabacchi sells tobacco, newspapers, postcards, stamps and other random items. An alimentari sells groceries. Our alimentari lady was lovely. I told her that we were staying for a week. She explained how things worked. While there were vegetables in the shop, the main time for fruit and veg sales is in the morning. Locals bring things in in the morning and they sell out fast. So, if you are there when a farmer brings down his strawberries, you pounce, because they won't still be there later on in the day. The alimentari baked its own bread. Again, while it was possible to buy bread in the afternoon, but you needed to order your bread in the morning if you wanted to have some put aside for you after the morning baking. I placed my morning daily order for a half loaf of bread. The alimentari also sold desserts. The desserts that appeared were very random. I later found out that women from the village bake stuff and then bring it to the alimentari for sale. Robert's birthday was on April 28. I went to the alimentari but didn't see any cakes. After a discussion with the alimentari lady, I found out how the whole baked goods thing worked and realised that I should have asked for a cake a couple of days previously. In the meantime, I had the candles I brought from Glasgow, but no cake. I did, however, bring some chocolates. So, with a bit of innovation, here are Robert's birthday chocolates.
One of the bummers about being 50 is that you can't actually fit 50 candles on a normal cake for two people without having the butter in the icing melt and the icing slide off the cake (mistake made with 49th birthday). So, I have resorted to ways of indicating Robert's birthday that use a fewer number of candles. I saw the Happy Birthday candles in our local grocery store and thought: Yes!.

Back to the rest of Bennabio. The restaurant/bar was only open early in the morning (for coffee), lunch and supper. I bought a bag of ground coffee at the alimentari. Our apartment had an expresso coffee maker. The alimentari lady, clearly realising that I needed enlightenment, explained that most people didn't make their own coffee in the morning, but simply went to the bar (where they read papers purchased from the tabacchi). I thanked her for this advice and bought the coffee anyway. You have to love it when shop owners try to talk you out of buying something.

Now, something that I don't have photos of (only videos) is the arrival of Betsy and Riccardo. Riccardo is Robert's Economist cyclist friend. Betsy is his American wife (who he met while working in the States). They live in Bologna (my next post). Robert had invited them to stay with us and do some cycle training. I met them both last year: the first time that Robert did the Dieci Colli. They said 'si' to our invite and cycled from Bologna to Bennabio (well over 100 km). They set out in the morning and arrived late afternoon. They stayed two nights. On their second day, all the cyclists went out on a tour. I marked essays. It was interesting to get the different views of this day. Robert didn't want to stop for lunch. He just wanted to keep cycling. He said that cycling killed his appetite. Riccardo said that arriving in a nice place and having lunch was why one cycled. Robert was out numbered. So, Riccardo and Betsy settled in for a nice lunch somewhere. Robert hung back, drank lots of water, but didn't eat. I am in the Riccardo and Betsy camp on this issue. Riccardo commented that Robert should have trained more prior to the event. Poor Robert. He had intended to train but was so loaded down by work stuff that he hasn't had a free weekend in weeks. I guess that if you are cycling fit, you get hungry after a mornings' touring.
On their last night, Riccardo called my attention to the spectacular sunset over the hills. This made me think of the colours of some of Jackie's yarn. The photo doesn't pick up the shades of purple very well.

My time line in telling the story of Bennabio is a bit out of whack. Betsy and Riccardo had come and gone before Robert's birthday. At the end of our week, we packed up for our trip to Bologna to meet back up with Riccardo and Betsy for the cycle event. Robert decided to cycle to Lucca and meet me there. This left me with my baggage and the bicycle bag. I had phoned up Roberto the night before to book our taxi. When he arrived in the morning, he wondered what had happened to 'my man'. I explained that he had cycled to Lucca and would meet me there. Roberto was very sweet. Not only did he insist on helping me carry the bike bag to the train platform, he stayed until my train arrived and helped load the bike bag onto the train. I did remind him that my train wouldn't arrive for 20 min. He said that 20 minutes was nothing and waived his hand in a dismissive manner (this exchange was all in a mixture of French and Italian). I had already paid him at this point, so he was just helping me out of the kindness of his heart. Grazia Roberto!

I have to admit that I like the whole pace of life thing in Italy. Betsy has a different view. She works as a research scientist and says that Italians are hopeless to work with. So, she set up her own consultancy company. She must be doing well at it as her 'company' bought a flat on the French Riviera. Robert and I have an open invite to stay there.

The next post(s) is(are) about Bologna and the Dieci Colli.