Tuscan Time

 Poggio Alloro

“Here in Tuscany, the ingredients for a beautiful life are very simple: good food, good wine, and good friends. We are definitely not rich, but we consider ourselves wealthy. The most generous gift we can give each other is our time.”

-Sarah Fioroni

I’m longing for life before social media while writing on a social media platform; the irony is apparent. Maybe that’s one of my loves for Lucca; history is so close, making it easy to disconnect from the present and spend moments in the past. Choices are everywhere: walk the wall, hike the hills, or stroll along the Serchio and it becomes simple to break the digital habit and immerse yourself in another life, the slower life of Lucca.

Make no mistake, life in Lucca is not endless picnics and prosecco; it’s not a vacation; it’s living in a foreign language. No matter how well we adopt the language, we’ll always be stranieri, navigating the challenges of “local” daily life and bureaucracy. Still, we’re blessed for the opportunity and embrace the challenge, knowing you must earn the privilege of a life in Italy.

As I walk these days, I reminisce more, feeling I’ve lived a thousand lives and weathered a hundred seasons. I’m now living amongst the characters of the moment, many of whom have been called to Lucca for different reasons. Intrepid souls, searchers, and wanderers alike, all in their own way, learning to be still, away from a world in constant motion.

Can this be what Paris in 1922 felt like to the Lost Generation? Today's world is still wrought with the same problems, just in different shapes and sizes, bearing down on new generations. Here we are in Italy; we’re a stone's throw from the world of chaos, but we are comforted in the fact that these walls, these streets, and these people have seen it all before, and prevailed.

When you’re young, you think things will go on forever; time is everlasting, problems will never end, and good times will always last, but all this will pass. When you’re older, you realize you’d trade it all for more time—more time for yourself, your family, and your friends. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear the words of Sarah Fiorini in my head.

To have Lucca in our lives has been a gift beyond measure; it’s brought us deep friendships and a sense of place that we feel is home. Having the time to share it with friends, old and new, brings us great joy, as with each guest we welcome, it's like discovering it again for the first time.

That’s why I share this with you here…on social media! 😊

Speriamo di condividere presto del tempo con voi!

Michael

The Farmhouse

San Concordio di Moriano Casale

“Any arbitrary turning along the way and I would be elsewhere; I would be different. Where you are is who you are. The further inside you the place moves, the more your identity is intertwined with it. Never casual; the choice of place is the choice of something you crave.”

       -Frances Mayes

From looking across the room 40 years ago and seeing my world turn from black and white into color when I first saw Anne to “Taking a Left” in 2018 and finding the path to our second apartment in Lucca, what seemed like the randomness of life at the moment, now seems like a finely crafted play. The photo albums, they say, only have happy pictures and life; it's lived between the pages.

Now, in 2024, another chapter begins in the hills of San Concordio di Moriano, overlooking the Walls of Lucca. Somewhere between “rustic and ruin” is Casale Rigo, the former property of the Ciiti family. As is the case with many Italian properties, it's a multi-generational tale, which, these days, has too often led to a longing for care and attention. This was our calling.

In May of 2023, after finishing our apartment furnishings in Palazzo Busdraghi, we had an “itch” to rekindle our journeys in the hills of Lucca. So, we drove in the countryside, passing familiar properties for sale, whereupon we found one listed by the realtor who managed our two previous transactions. At first glance, it checked all the boxes: land, olive trees, southerly facing, a view of Lucca, a forno, a frantoio, and in need of much love and work, that’s code for being undervalued and requiring much patience, which is another word for money.

For years, before deciding to purchase apartments inside the city walls of Lucca, we vacillated between a life in the hills and the city. Always struggling with the question “what do you want your life to be like?”.  As with most decisions, opportunity and budget were the factors that turned us toward the city center. Now, opportunity and an undervalued property have presented us with this new story in the hills. Within 120 days, a record timeframe for most transactions in Italy, we became the owners of “The Farmhouse.”

Renovating a 125 sqm apartment in the historic city center was a journey; a 350-year-old farmhouse property is entirely another thing! So much is yet to be discovered; what is possible, what is practical, and what will happen in the end are all tales to be told in the coming months and years, but it will be the people who are part of this process that will make the road one filled with great stories. This is likely a project with no end and works to be carried out indefinitely, which is ideal for us, as our goal is to leave a place better than we found it, fill it with love, be good caretakers, and pass it along.

In the end, we hope to share the stories of the farm, now called Casa dei Fiori, with friends, new and old, so that we can all experience life in the hills, even if just for a week, experiencing the harvest of the seasons. 

A presto,

Michael & Anne

Taking A Left

Lucca, Italy

"Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle among scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here, at last, he finds rest."

— Somerset Maugham

And so my story begins. How this quote first came into my life is a tale for another day. On this day, I take a left down a path that started years ago when I first came to experience Italy. Years of trips, months of planning, and weekends dreaming have culminated in this first day of a new phase in life, “learning to live in a foreign language”. What started on February 1st, 2019, with daily lessons in the Lucca Italian School will progress through 2019 towards a new chapter in life when our apartments become available for rent in 2020 and our concierge travel service launches in the Fall of 2019.

In this space, I hope to share our passion for Italy, specifically Tuscany. Through the stories of our journeys, including the places, people, and experiences that helped to change our lives, we hope that you too will become inspired to take that leap of faith and one day journey to the land of “la vita lenta,” the slow life.

Tuscany is more than great food and scenic hilltop towns. There’s no time in Tuscany, only a rhythm to each day and the gathering seasons. Filled with experiences both tactile and visceral that are a tonic for the heart, soul and body. The aroma of the pasticceria around the corner in the early morning air, the far off sound of church bells and the rhythm of conversations in the great romance language surround you, luring you into a different sense of space and pace of life. You’re at home, in a place you never new before or are meeting again for the first time.

Welcome to our journey.

A presto,

Gillie

Wake Up Call

This is my most special place in all the world. Once a place touches you like this, the wind never blows so cold again. You feel for it like it was your child.

— Moonlight Graham, Field of Dreams

You awake hun?

I am now…what’s up?

Well, I found a couple of houses for rent in this town not too far from Florence. They’re big enough to fit our group and one place even has a pool. They’re in the hills just outside of this neat little town called Lucca, its a walled city. It looks great from the pictures the owners sent.

So, it’s Italy for sure? Not Ireland or Scotland, the land of our heritage?

Yep its Italy. Mo said if we had one trip to take to Europe in our lives, we should go to Italy with the kids and right now, they’re at the perfect age, they don’t hate us yet, so this is that trip!

I’m in, which house do you think is best?

Well, this one in the village called Aquilea is owned by a guy named James, I think he’s English or maybe even American. His correspondence has been great and I just “have a feeling” Anyway, he just built a pool and it has great views, only 20 minutes from Lucca and we can get to Florence by train.

How about the other houses? Well, they look nice too, a little smaller and cheaper but no pool.

So, this one in Aquilea is pricey but perfect?

I think so…but it really is more money.

Well, we’re only going once, the kids are only young once, so we might as well go for it, you never know what the future holds.

That was 15 years ago and too many trips to Lucca to count. So began our journey. Two apartments and 15 years later, the feeling that Moonlight Graham described has never left; the scent of agrarian life in the morning air and the ever changing colors created by the Tuscan light are just some of the elements that have made each day in Tuscany special.

It’s knowing that while I look at my watch and the second hand is still moving, it just seems to be moving more slowly, giving me hope that our time in Lucca can continue to be shared with old friends, and ones we’ve yet to meet along our journey.

A presto,

Gillie

James

Remains Of The Historic Church Atop Aquilea

“Life offers you a thousand chances….all you have to do is take one”

— Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun

James was to Aquilea what Mr. Rourke was to Fantasy Island. Our journey started the night we decided to visit Lucca but our lives changed forever when we first met James. Over the years, his villa touched many lives, all in unique and very special ways but it was James that provided the fairy dust.

In that moment when we first came to Lucca, we were like you once were or maybe soon will be, early forties, kids, jobs, trying not to be stuck on that long, winding “road to the middle” and hoping to grab just one more rung on the ladder than our parents.  These aren’t negatives. They’re life and we were blessed with many opportunities but suffice to say, we didn’t know any other way.

The first evening with James was all business with a cordial welcome and acclimation to the Villa.  James shared some olive oil pressed from trees on the property along with some pane and vino from the village and we were set for the evening.

The following morning, standing on the patio, overlooking the expansive view spanning from Florence to Pisa we could see numerous hills towns and villages in between, James passionately explained the geography and history of the area, including the village of Aquilea.

That’s it, right? Off to our vacation!  Not quite so as the next morning, just like Mr. Rourke, James appears and pulls me aside for a coffee.  So, what brought you to Italy? Your interests? What do the kids like to do?  Then a game changer; so, what do you guys do for a living? Really, both of you working so hard? It seems all too familiar, you remind me of me a few years ago, so I want to make sure I can share with you this week what I’ve come to love in my years in Lucca. Maybe when your back home, the experiences from the week will remind you that there is more to life than just what’s in front of you.

 At that point in our lives and in fact during this vacation, we were in 5th gear trying to find a 6th, grab it all, do it all, soak it up. Then, somehow over a few days, through his efforts and through our observation, we started to see life through a different lens.                                                                                                              

So, James, how do you do this? “

I guess I was in a position where I didn’t need to work anymore or really what I mean is that I had choices and didn’t need to stay in my original career path, I’m still working, just now at something I love and in a place beyond words.”

What an answer and what struck me was the word “choices” because at the end of the day that’s what life is, a series of choices, easy, hard and everything in between. The key is putting yourself in a position to be able to have choices, then seize upon those opportunities, pushing aside the fear that can keeps us from our dreams. There we were in 2005 making a choice to visit Lucca, which led to Aquilea, to James, to a coffee and so much more…..through the years we became close friends and while we’ve faced various challenges in our lives, what James shared during that first visit never left us, many times sustained us and changed us to this day.

 So here we are in 2019, with a choice to do something different and our story continues…..

A presto,

Gillie