Chris & Kelly's Travel Adventures

Last night Chris took me out for a special meal (just because).  We enjoyed some new interesting dishes.  Pear Pie with pecorino cheese and black truffles, ravioli stuffed with tuna in a tomato and lime sauce, ossobucco with rosemary potatoes and a dark chocolate coffee cake. Yum. :)

9/24/2021

We drove to the walled city of Lucca, also home to Puccini.  If there is bank every 50 ft. in Milan, there is church every 50 ft. within Lucca! If anyone really wants to know, I can try to relist them in order.  Each one had its own look and charm.  Some had wonderful paintings, others sculptures or beautiful ceilings, terrific arches, but one stood out for its archeological history...They had excavated under the church and revealed layers upon layers of different civilizations and time periods, different building styles and materials...it was quiet interesting (this is the 2nd church pictured below Chiesa St. Giovanni e Reparata).   This church also holds free live Puccini concerts nightly.

While strolling to the next church, we came upon a small piazza that had 2 sculptures (a woman and a dog...called risk and reward) The amount of detail was astounding, even more so because it was made from cardboard!

A few more churches, some of them really stood out for interesting facades or vibrant interior colors.  We visited 7 in all today!

Found a little restaurant with almost no customers, but the menu looked interesting so took a chance.  So good, I could reorder the appetizer 10 times over and not get tired off it.  Chris and I were ready to fight over the last bites.  We had pumpkin pie (egg custard w/pumpkin puree and nutmeg) in burrata cheese fondue, followed by meat ravioli in a ragu sauce.  Then we stumbled across a miniature chocolate festival, 5 tents of nothing, but chocolate.  3 chocolate bars (dark w/himalayan pink salt, dark w/candied ginger and dark w/espresso) 1-16 pack of truffles (2 mint, 2 coffee, 2 cookie, 2 berry, 2 dark, 2 lemon) and 1 dark chocolate cannoli!

Amity...(my dentist, my friend) this is for you.  I saw these chocolate teeth and wanted to get them for you, but realized they wouldn't make it all the way back to Oregon as they are even softer than my teeth!