A Valentine from Italy

Happy Valentine’s Day! Actually, it is Saint Valentine’s Day. The Italian San Valentino was an early Christian priest in Rome, so it seems appropriate that I am spending this Valentine’s Day in Italy.

According to legend (and the site Catholic.org), San Valentino died a martyr to his faith on February 14 in the year 269. During his priesthood, San Valentino performed Christian marriages (forbidden at that time), which no doubt helped him become the patron saint of happy marriages, love, and engaged couples. He’s also the patron saint of beekeepers, plague, and epileptics – things for which I have no explanation. Legend has it that he once left a note, to a girl he cured of blindness, signed “your Valentine.” And so it began …

Ti amo - I love you - in chocolate

The feast of San Valentino is celebrated in Italy, as in the U.S., with flowers, chocolates, and gifts of jewelry. 

We hope you enjoy browsing these brightly decorated shop windows with us!

Baci - kisses - for Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day from Two Parts Italy.

While chicken is not typically a romantic gift, this butcher shop, which specializes in chicken, has a gaily decorated window.

Perhaps the most unusual Valentine window in Lucca features these gorillas.

An Italian Christmas

Christmas in Italy is enchanting. Cold days and even colder nights bring out shoppers and strollers wrapped in colorful scarves, hats, and, in many cases, fur coats. Here in Lucca the streets and squares are strung with lights and filled with greens. Even the smallest alley glows with Christmas magic.

Shoppers on Chiasso Barletti

Lucca’s Piazza Anfiteatro at night

Shop windows are magical at this time of year, decorated with holiday goodies and winter scenes.

The window of this chocolate shop is one of my favorites.

Christmas trees fill shops and squares. Small trees, decorated with white bows, line the street on which I live. Between the trees and the overhead lights, walking along my Via Mordini is beautiful day or night.

This simple tree sits inside the old mercato alongside a small art show.

Greens are everywhere - wreaths and swags and clusters of mistletoe – they cheer up doorways, fill restaurants, and make a beautiful sight against the stone walls of the buildings in this Medieval city.

There are also Christmas concerts and carolers and, from the shops, mostly American music (an unexpected sound and a surprise to me).  Piazza Napoleone is holiday central with its outdoor Christmas market, ice skating rink, and lighted sculptural tree.  Even the carousel is decked out for Christmas. 

Foods are another important part of the season.

Chocolates, biscotti, nuts, pandoro and panettone all make for interesting shop displays.  

While the traditional panettone is made with dried fruit, this pistacchio version sounds delicious! 

Pretty decorations in the courtyard of a favorite restaurant, Osteria Via San Georgio

There is much to see, taste, smell, hear and experience, and all of it is new to me on this, my first Italian Christmas. As I walked through town the other evening, admiring all the lights and activity, all of my senses were tuned to Christmas. And I was joyful.  -Post by JMB

From both of us at Two Parts Italy, we wish you joy wherever you may be this holiday season.

Buon Natale.  Buone Feste.

Merry Christmas.  Happy Holidays.                                             

A pretty window in Piazza San Salvatore, Lucca

A Stylish Italian Wedding

I marvel at the style that Italians have, that timeless "bella figura." Even as day-to-day style has become increasingly casual over the past decade or two, Italians still achieve (seemingly effortlessly) a look that is stylish and classic. And when an occasion calls for dressing up, well, no one does it better. This is true throughout Italy - from grand cities to smaller towns. 

This style was certainly evident at the matrimonio (wedding) that I saw in Italy recently. The large crowd, gathered outside the Church of San Michele in Lucca, was elegant and beautifully dressed. And oh - those hats! The hats were a surprise to me, as hats are something I always associated with the British, but this group of Italian women wore their hats with great style - the hats were as varied as they were beautiful.

The men were just as well dressed, especially the wedding party in gray pinstripped pants and jackets with tails. Even the young boys were fashionable!

And of course the bride was stunning and the groom handsome.  This is, after all, Italy!           

-post by JMB

Talking Trash, Italian Style

The Italian word spazzatura sounds so much nicer than the English word "trash," which is perhaps just due to the magic of the Italian language. But trash is serious business in Italy and, when renting an apartment here, it's important to understand the Sistema Ambiente (which regulates and collects trash). To complicate matters, the rules and practices vary from region to region and town to town - so the rules in Livorno are likely to be different from the rules in Lucca. It's important to look for an explanation of local requirements in any rental apartment. 

Keeping these narrow streets trash free is no small task. 

The instructions should include how to sort and bag the trash, where to place the trash for pickup, and the days of trash collection. Depending on location, there may be door-to-door pick-up (porta a porta) with specific items collected on assigned days (i.e., paper goods on Tuesdays, organics on Wednesdays) or there may be central pickup from an isola ecologica (loose translation - recycling area). These are found in some neighborhoods and have larger bins (cassonetti) for specific types of trash. In either case, the sorting is key!

Why all the sorting? Well, because Italy has a goal of "rifiuti zero" (no waste). That's a lofty goal; some cities are making huge strides in that direction (Cappanori is a leader, Lucca is on its way), while other cities are still working to adapt to the new strategies. The goal is to recycle everything possible (glass, plastic, paper, aluminum cans) and to compost organic waste. It takes some extra thought and effort to sort and recycle, but it's the right thing to do for the environment!

Here is how it works in Lucca's historic central district. The area inside the walls is divided into two zones, A and B, roughly along Via Fillungo, the main shopping street. The rules are the same in each, but the collection days for some types of trash (papers and boxes)  are different so it's important to know in which zone a particular apartment lies. My apartment this spring was in Zone B, the eastern half of the city and had porta a porta (door to door) collection.

On trash days, these bags line the streets. Luckily the trash trucks make frequent rounds so the streets are cleared relatively quickly. 

The schedule for trash pickup, with specific types of trash collected on certain days. 

All trash is sorted into four types - most apartments have separate bins for each.

Separate bins, one each for paper, mixed materials, and non-recyclables on the patio of my apartment.  The fourth bin, for organics or compostables, was in my kitchen.

Color coded bags for recycling. 

Carta (paper) is the first of the four types of trash. It includes newspapers, boxes and paper packages (i.e., pasta boxes and paper shopping bags). However, not all paper goes in Carta - used napkins and paper towels go with compostables and plastic-coated papers in non-recyclables. If in doubt, most apartments have a booklet that lists how to sort every type of trash imaginable. Carta can be put out in paper shopping bags, boxes, or clear/white recyclable bags.

Next is multimateriale (mixed materials), which includes glass bottles, tin cans, plastic food containers (be sure to rinse first), aluminum foil, etc. Multimateriale goes in the green bag.

Third is organico. In-sink garbage disposals are uncommon in Italy, so food scraps are a large part of kitchen trash. Collecting these scraps (egg shells, fruit rinds, meat bones, teabags, coffee grounds, etc.) helps to reduce the amount of non-recyclable waste. Used paper towels, napkins, and garden clippings also go in organic waste - all will eventually become compost. Most kitchens have a small container for kitchen waste - be sure to empty this often as it can get smelly in a hurry!

Last is non-riciclabile (non-recyclable) and this is ideally the smallest of the four types of garbage. It includes anything that has no recycle value - toothpaste containers, baby diapers, plastic cutlery, sponges, etc. These go in a gray bag for pickup.

These small trucks make the rounds and quickly pick up those street side bags of trash. 

The next step is consulting the schedule of pickup. I'm writing this on a Wednesday, organico day for me. Thursday I can put out my carta and non-riciclabile. Each is left on the street outside my apartment, in its color-coded bag, between 6 and 9:30 am. Small garbage trucks collect the trash bags left along the street. Note that trash bags should never be put out the night before pickup as stray dogs and cats tend to find them and scatter the contents, making a huge mess of the streets. 

In the apartment I rented last fall, things were a bit different. First, I was in Zone A so the pickup days for paper trash were different. Also, I had a resident's card, which opened the neighborhood recycle center bins, so I could choose to deposit any type of sorted trash on any day. I found this to be the easiest way to take out the trash.

An isola ecologica, or centralized trash collection station, available to area residents with a key card, which opens the bins.

Trash - not the most picturesque Italian subject -  but important. Not following the rules can get you (or your landlord) a big fine. So be a good visitor and handle your trash like a local!      

-post by JMB

I love red vespas.  Much prettier than trash!

For further information, including the most current schedule and instructions in English: www.sistemaambientelucca.it

Even a Wanderer Sometimes Needs a Map

One of the joys of having plenty of time in an Italian city is the opportunity to simply wander. Strolling through vibrant neighborhoods and discovering for oneself a fountain, piazza, church, cafe, monument, garden, or historic building is a wonderful experience. Stumbling into an unexpected and intriguing street scene, full of Italian chatter and maybe even some music, is the stuff of Italian daydreams. Getting lost, and finding your way back to a familiar landmark, is part of the fun. But still, even an inveterate wanderer sometimes needs a map.

Maps provide more than just direction; they can give context to a place, delineate neighborhoods, link important landmarks (rivers, bridges, buildings) to discoveries made while wandering, and provide a quick and efficient orientation to a new place. A good map is a treasure.

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A View from Lucca's Wall

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Portico, Lucca

 When visiting larger cities, it's fairly easy to find a detailed map, or a good guidebook. There are so many choices for Rome or Florence that it's easy to find just the right one to suit any need. But in the smaller cities, places less visited by tourists, finding a good map can be a challenge. I certainly found this to be true when I first visited Lucca.  The American guidebooks devoted just a quick page or two to Lucca, seemingly an afterthought in a guide otherwise devoted to Florence. If a map was included at all it showed just a few main streets and sites. I found better guidebooks in the local bookstores once I arrived, but the maps available were still small and lacking in detail. I often found myself wandering down a small vicolo (lane) that I simply could not locate on any of the available maps, or looking at a marvelous building, garden, or church with no idea of what I was seeing.

And then, several years ago during an online search before a return visit to Lucca, I stumbled across The Wanderer's Map of Lucca and it's accompanying guidebook, "The Wanderer's Guide to Lucca." Both map and guidebook were written by Brian Lindquist, an American who came here for a visit and, in his own words, "got waylaid." How fortunate for us that he did, because he has written what I consider to be the essential tool for getting to know Lucca. The book is divided into sections that cover the history of Lucca, the churches, the palazzi, the families who played an important role in the history of Lucca, the city streets, and the three generations of city walls.  

The book is a fascinating and informative read for those who want to dive deep into the history of Lucca, those who love its Medieval streetscapes and architecture (count me among them), and anyone who has looked at a structure such as the Torre Guinigi (Guinigi Tower) and wondered who the heck those Guinigis were and why they have a tower named after them. Readers interested in art history will also find the information about art, especially the art original to the many churches, invaluable.

But the map - or should I say THE map - is an essential tool for getting to know Lucca. My copy is so creased and worn after accompanying me on many trips that I recently ordered a new one. I now have one to bring with me and one posted on a wall in my house to feed my recollections, mental meanderings, and daydreams!  

Why is the Wanderer's Map so important?  To begin with, it's big (19 x 26 inches) and easy to read. It shows the important features of Lucca, including the footprint of all 3 walls (Roman, Medieval, and Renaissance) and all the streets, from main drag Via Filungo to the smallest vicolo. The existing churches are shown as are the locations of churches that used to stand but are no more (Lucca used to be called the City of 100 Churches; today there are about 40 within the 2.5-mile circumference of the city walls). Each palazzo is named and its location shown. The map key is clear and easy to use - in the section pictured below, churches are in red, palazzi in purple. The orange lines signify Medieval streetscapes.  Flip the map over to find that it is annotated (linked to the numbers shown on the map below), giving information about each church, the walls, and the families whose names still are important in Lucca, as seen in the many local streets and palazzi that bear their names.

The map and guidebook are my companions in Lucca. They provide a wealth of information and inspiration. I love having at my fingertips a resource that tells me that the church of Santa Caterina, one of the recently restored small churches in Lucca, was built in 1575 or that San Giovanni e Reparata church (shown in the photo below) once housed the relics of St. Pantaleone. My visiting friends tell me that I make a good tour guide - if so, it is thanks in large part to all that I have learned from the Wanderer's Map and Wanderer's Guide to Lucca. 

Piazza Antelminelli, Lucca with a view of the back of the church of San Giovanni e Reparata

Both map and guidebook are available from Lindquist Historical Guides, Inc. 119 Midland Street Bridgeport, Conn. 06605 or oline from www.lindquistguides.com.  The book with a copy of the map is available for $27.95 (includes shipping); map alone for $9.95. Note that they only ship to addresses within the United States.  Book without map is also available on Amazon.

Grazie mille to Brian Lindquist for kindly giving permission to include photos of the Wanderer's Map in this post.           Post by JMB