Italy - Home Sweet Home

The Village of Benabbio
Whereas I thought we would be staying in the medieval town of Lucca, birthplace of Puccini, I had it wrong.  We are 25 kilometers north, in the mountains.  We are not even in Bagni di Lucca, with its famous hot baths, we are in a tiny village called Benabbio, 8 hairpin turns up the side of a forested mountain.  We are staying in a small section of this 13th century house.

As the map shows, Lucca is down in the flats and we are up in the mountains.  The two stars show Bagni di Lucca near the river and Benabbio, below..

This is a shot of the side of our house.

The entire town is edible.  We are in the middle of an olive tree grove and our house is draped with grapes.  There are also vegetable gardens loaded with tomatoes and zucchini as well as fig, peach and apple trees and raspberry bushes.  The lady of the house is a school teacher but also has a side business selling honey and olive oil, which I've been cooking with since our arrival.

There are various places to sit and read or take in the sunshine.  This table is at the edge of the property near some grape vines.

Our patio faces south and has sun all day long.

This is the view down onto Benabbio, population 250.