Grotto del Vento

Wendy, Marc, Mary-Sue and I went for a walk this morning on the wall starting at near our place and walk on it until Porta Elisa. From there we walked to a pastry shop we had found earlier. We had croissants & pastries and 3 cappuccino for breakfast as Wendy does not do caffeine. From there we walked thru town to show Marc & Mary-Sue a bit of the town. Pretty quiet at the amphitheater and Via Fillungo at 8:30 in the morning.

Once back at the apartment we got ready for our day adventure. We are going to explore some of the Garfagnana area.

Our first stop was the Devils Bridge in Borgo a Mozzano. I found a spot that you could go down to the water to take good pictures of the bridge. I had missed that spot last time we were here with Wendy. I was a beautiful day and the sky was blue and the sun was out.

View from Devils bridge

We stop at a couple of spot along the road to take some pictures of either snow capped mountains or hilltop villages. Not many spots that you can pull over to do this along the way.

Nice having a sunroof

Very narrow road going up to the caves

One of the stop on the way to the caves and where we had lunch after the caves

We turn off the main country road to head towards Grotto del Vento. It was a 10 km drive that must have taken us about 30 minutes. Very twisty narrow roads going up and down the valley that followed a river. Almost no pullouts so luckily we did not meet any cars. When I when to Barga last week the bus beeped the horn before blind turns. So I told Marc to do this, so basically every 20 seconds Marc would hit the horn. Better to be safe than sorry. We got to the caves at about 11:45 which was good timing as the tours run on the hour. We paid our 9 euro entrance fee and were given headsets for the tour. The Caves were great, No big open spaces but we were inside for about 45 minutes. Every so often we would stop and listen to some history or fact about the caves. Very interesting. There was a bus tour of students at the caves. Not sure how the bus managed to get up here but it must have been tight around some corners and if they met a car someone would need to back up.

Nice collection of stones for sale at the caves

 They found the some remains of a type of bear that is now extinct.

Stood about 10 feet tall.  This one is from Russia

Our off season tour finish here.  In the high season you can go further into the caves

We then drove down and stopped at the first village on the way back to Gallicano. Maybe 2KM from the caves or so. I asked at the bar if they served food and the man indicated upstairs. We went in and there were 3 tables finishing lunch. I think most were road workers that we saw on the way up. The waitress said they were out of cannelloni and steaks. That left about 5 other options. There was trout on the menu and I asked the waitress if it came from the flume (river) that was just outside of the restaurant. She said yes. So we all ordered it. Marc and I ordered fried potatoes and Mary-Sue a mixed salad which ended being a bowl of lettuce and we got french fries which were delicious and salty. They seem to like salt here. The trout was delicious. We ordered a bottle of white wine since we were having fish. For dessert there were 3 choices on the menu. Tiramisu, cake of the day or fresh fruit. Cake of the day was creme brule. So we order a tiramisu and a cream brule to share between the 3 of us. The dessert were homemade and delicious. Mary-Sue had a cappuccino which she said was the best she had so far. The restaurant was own by someone was from the states.  The restaurant was full of western/Indian artifacts.  Kinda strange being in Italy but the meal was excellent so I am not complaining.

We explore the village, walking the small streets. The river flows right in the middle of the village. We did not see anybody around except for the construction workers that were fixing a house. A couple signs of life but not much.

Welcome wagon

Restaurant where we had lunch. 4 Euro bottle of wine is pretty good.

A lot smaller than Bologna and a tad less fancy

We then headed to Barga which was on the other side of the river from where we were. Once we got there we headed directly to the Cathedral to take in the views as I knew where it was since I was there last week. Still amazing and the snow might have even been whiter as it probably snowed yesterday as it rained heavily yesterday in Lucca,

We then visited the Cathedral and then walked some of the street in old town Barga.

Barga Cathedral

Yes honey, I am going to church with Luigi.

Both Fiat 500

I told Marc to turn right going out of the parking lot but it should have been left as this was the fastest way home. A quick U-turn and we made it back to Lucca in about 45 minutes. A quick stop for some groceries and we were home around 5:30.

Stephanie and Paul our new best friends in Lucca (yes our only friends in Lucca) invited us for a glass of wine and visit tonight. We had a very nice visit. They had prepared a nice antipasti platter. We had a great visit. We will get in touch with them again before we leave next week-end for sure, so fun to talk to others that love to travel as well. They gave us a few tips for Rome which is very much appreciated.

At home, I made a quick seafood Tagliatelle with pesto as it was now almost 9PM. We enjoyed a bottle of white wine as we were having seafood. We finished the evening with a shot of grappa to make sure we would sleep well.