Jumping Herbs

We enjoyed an alfresco lunch in the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro yesterday, which helped a tiny bit to ease the disappointment of The Cats’ loss to Brisbane in the AFL Grand Final.  I fancied some Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe and noticed a side dish of sautéed herbs which I thought I would order with it.  The menu listing for the sautéed herbs, in Italian, is erbato saltate.  So, when the waitress took our orders I trotted mine out in the style of the urbane, Italian speaking traveller that - in my mind - I am.  Turns out; not so urbane.  In my clumsiness I asked for “erbato saltare”, which cracked our waitress up because, she explained between guffaws, saltare means “to jump”.  And this is not the first time!  On another occasion, after the females in our party had been looking at statues of perfect male virility, we had a waiter who smiled wistfully and waggled his index finger at us.  “No, no.  Not pene.  Pene is a very different thing!”

Gordo and Mitch, who had been at the villa with us for a few nights, relocated their camp to within the city walls so they could have a good look at Lucca before moving on.  Their apartment was literally within the walls of the Anfiteatro which once was an elliptical shaped Roman amphitheater that held 10 000 spectators.  Over subsequent centuries the seating and surrounding walls became residences and store-houses, and many are now apartments for tourists, such as the one Gordo and Mitch were staking a claim to.  Theirs was up one flight of stairs, but no ordinary stairs!  It turns out that, centuries ago, nobody realised that the modern tourist might be dragging their overpacked suitcases up these treads.

We also had an interesting encounter when sitting in a laneway enjoying a glass of wine.  In our pre-trip planning, Dory and I had watched about 10 000 YouTube videos about life in this part of Italy, including some on a channel called Authentic Tuscany, hosted by Maria and Lorenzo who live in the nearby village of Vicopisano.  Anyway, whilst we were sipping our wine the very same Maria and Lorenzo wandered past our table as they were showing Lucca to their visiting friends from Florida.