For the past ten years April is the month when I pack my bags and head to Italy for my Panini Girl week in Lucca. This year due to a wedding in California in early May I planned my tour for mid September. Little did I know that our world would be shaken up and now I’m wondering if I’ll even be traveling to Italy in the fall.
I stumbled upon Lucca on my very first trip to Italy nineteen years ago. J. and I were driving from the Sienna area to Milan (clueless as to how far this trip really was) and saw a sign for Lucca’s centro storico. It was lunch time, we were hungry and we got off the road, parked, found a restaurant and walked on the wall. What a charming place!
My heart goes out to the Italian people. It’s hard to imagine them not out and about socializing, standing at the bar for their morning coffee, sitting in a piazza chatting with friends, sharing meals with family members. Of course we aren’t doing these things either, but I’ve always felt that these rituals are much more part of the lives of the Italian people than we Americans.
I’m holding out hope that I will be back in Lucca this September, that I’ll be sitting around the dining table with my group, touring wineries, eating gelato, baking bread, making pasta, visiting Florence and being enchanted by all that makes Italy so spectacular.
Panini Girl 
April 18, 2020 at 3:33 am
Speriamo! Ciao, Cristina
April 18, 2020 at 6:35 pm
The pictures and the memories of which you speak, remind me of my travels to Italy, as well. I used to wonder, why I ever came back to the US after seeing a life and lifestyle that was so relaxed and completely different than the here in the US. But then, like now, I have responsibilities and obligations which demand my eventual return to the states. The food there is amazing! The air there is different, even the way the rays of the sun seem to caress the villages and countryside with a different, better light. Or maybe it was just the wine? Obviously, I love Italy. Sadly, I have not discovered Lucca in person. I was not too far away in Pisa, like everybody else. I will have to investigate once this pandemic has concluded. Thank you for your post. A little vacation, if only in my mind.
April 18, 2020 at 6:50 pm
Terry-yes you must visit Lucca on your next trip. I’m glad that I could take you to to Italy if only for a few minutes!