Evening at La Toretta

After oohing and ahhing the room we went down for apperitive. We were served a white wine Sangria and assortment of small appetizers in a cute little room. There we met Henry and Gillian from Portland. They look quite young and are just doing a little 2 week trip before their third child is born. I was thinking wow, young and living the good life…They told us that they were in Lucca a couple of days ago and there was a large market going on. They bought an old glass chandelier from a woman for 250 euro and now have figure out how to get it shipped home!

For dinner we had Gabriele make reservations at a nearby restaurant.

We walked up some more steep steps to get to Billy’s Trattoria – a small restaurant named for an old sea captain who still comes in sometimes to tell his fishing stories. It is run by two friends who were very charming.

 We decided on pasta with lobster for two and Bill also ordered a small grilled fresh catch of the day.

They started us with more Sangia and bread. The lobster was a whole lobster cooked in some sauce that was also on the homemade pasta that was served on top of the lobster. Probably the best lobster dish I have ever had anywhere! Doesn’t look as good here as it tasted.

The fish was also tasty and Bill could only say good things about this place.

Wine was a local white with Billy’s own label.

Ended with a delicious homemade tiramisu.

And they also brought us some Grappa and another unlabeled drink – I loved the Grappa and Bill liked the other one (that to me tasted like strong cough medicine)

Walked back and put on swimsuits and our spa robes and went to sit in the hot tub, which we had to ourselves. The room is small, lit with candles and the spa water lit with changing colors.

All of these amenities plus the basket of bathroom things (loofa, comb, toothbrush, shower cap, etc) are probably not unheard of in big luxury places and maybe we are revealing that this not the class of service we usually get or expect but somehow it is more unexpected in this tiny hill town built on and into the rocks in very old quirky buildings and certainly not for these prices!