Saturday 4th June - On to Viareggio near Lucca via Torre del
Lago Puccini, Northern Italy.
We had
to go head to head with the kamikaze bike riders, Porsche jocks and over-confident
bus drivers as we escaped from cliff-edged Positano – all determined to bully
us over the edge, or at least sideswipe our UK plated, right-hand drive beast,
which we’ve now fondly christened Valerie, into a local assistanza for uber-expensive panel beating…both for us and Val…
Unlike
Oz where, in our experience, 5 hours from departure you’re in Timber Creek or
the Stony Desert, over here in Italy we were pulling into the leafy village, “Torre
del Lago Puccini” for a visit to the Maestro’s villa. OK, here we go…hands up
anyone – apart from us, that is – who’s actually met the Maestro’s
grand-daughter? We told you we’d be moving in loftier circles over here…and
voilà! Simonetta Puccini is a lovely,
gracious, slightly older lady who owns and runs the villa/museum and who is
humanity’s last living link with the l’uomo
who wrote Nessun Dorma…even if he didn’t get to finish the opera (Turandot) in
which it resides…without Giacomo Puccini there’d be no Paul Potts prancing
around the world as Britain’s talent find of the century! Without him there’d
be no Madama Butterfly and where would all those Amerinese love-children find
solace then?
We
had a lovely walk through the rooms where it all happened…we saw the piano
which gave rise to La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly… the whole house is replete
with photos, scores, awards and family paraphernalia, just as it was! It was another very special moment, up there
with Wilde’s tomb, Livingstone’s grave, Newton’s apple tree and Henry VIII’s
favourite beheading block!
In
nearby Viareggio, a seaside resort that’s had a fair share of history, (a heavy
bombing in WW2, and a bad LPG explosion in ’09 when a train derailed, exploded
and killed 31) we found a great campsite so pitched the tent (AUD$32).
