The first of July brings with it some of Italy’s highest temperatures this year so far. Next week we may be touching forty degrees centigrade in my village at almost three thousand feet above sea level. Lucca must be steaming very soon.
There are escapes from the heat of course. The two main ones are up in the mountain woods and by the Tyrhennian Sea.
The other day I did the mountain road from Lugliano to the Pizzorne on my Honda 150 cc scooter. It’s only a road in name of course – a rough untarred track with deep ruts and rocky bits – a wonder that they list it as a normal road in local maps. However, summer is certainly the best way to attempt this route; in winter it must be almost impassable although a high wheel base 4 X 4 could do it.
The mountain road levels off as it enter the large grassy slopes of the top of the Pizzorne plateau. Here, near a little church, is a decent restaurant called Aldebaran where I fed on a delicious plate of tordelli, a Lucchese speciality which are like large irregularly shaped ravioli.
For the seaside I tend to choose Marina di Vecchiano which is a semi-wild beach oasis in the natural park south of Viareggio and Torre Del Lago. Here there are two restaurants but this time I went for the bar on the beach with its assortment of soft drinks and shorts plus a decent variety of ice-cream. I like to go there with a sun umbrella and a mat, cross the sand dunes and have a dip in the still relatively clean sea. Marina di Vecchiano is rather less crowded this year: perhaps one of the few benefits the pandemic can offer us.
I always like to return via an alternative route which takes me to Massaciuccoli and its spectacular view of Puccini’s lake:
Meanwhile there is another heat building up and I am not referring to the Canadian bubble. The first of July marks the half-year under brexitician rule for the United Kingdom. We non-leavers knew that there would be no benefits from this crazy decision, apart from the strengthening through unity of the tory party. Now however, some of the brighter leavers are beginning to think the same. I need not point out the difficulty of employers in finding suitable workers for a variety of occupations, especially catering and social services and the continuing dilemma facing Northern Ireland. Indeed, the combination of Brexit with COVID-19 is proving continuingly challenging. However, if one has the money it’s OK: as the most recent covid update I received from HM government states:
“Senior executives can temporarily leave quarantine in England if they are undertaking business activities which are likely to be of significant economic benefit to the UK.”
It’s definitely one law for some and another for the rest of us. Or as an acquaintance succinctly put it: “Well that would be right because the virus, like the government, respects money.”
The combination of covid protocol and Brexit bureaucracy has not prevented some of my braver UK friends from reaching ‘Il bel paese’. Apparently it might be an idea to invest in a car trailer to carry the extra baggage of forms and documents required, particularly for Brexit. At the same time there remain in Bagni di Lucca a certain number of British immigrants (I don’t like to call them ‘ex-pats’ any more) who firmly believe that their decision in voting for Brexit was the best thing since standing up against world powers in the Suez crisis of 1956. I can’t quite believe it. Time will tell, I suppose. Or will it? Are we oldies meant to have the remainder of our life-span oppressed by Brexit and COVID-19? Not unless we want to of course. In lieu of travelling to more exotic locations the sea and the mountains provide perfect escapes from these disasters. Let us follow our paths there and forget the present angst of this Earth, at least for a while.