May 16th - Over the hill

We journeyed across the marble mountains that run between our valley and the Mediterranean. The original thought was to use this route to get to Cinque Terra because the distance was about a third of the "approved" way. Bad idea, but I really wanted to see the mountains north and west of Barga.

Wonderful little drowned town in the middle, drowned by a power dam. Now a quaint, restored tourist Mecca of sorts for only the most foolhardy tourists. The roofs are covered with a flat, irregularly shaped slate.


The roads are awesome. Switchbacks of more than 180 degrees because the road is cut left into the mountain before it swings right and drops under where you just were. But now you are going the other way and preparing for the next turn. Trying to ignore Penny screaming "Let me out. I hate this ride. We are going to be killed." and like that.

These pictures are all taken from nearly the same spot. The white on the mountains is NOT snow, it is the white marble rock!

And this is an abandonded marble quarry (they seem to be called mines).

Eventually we got down into the sprawl of Masa just south of Carrera (where Michelangelo went to hand-pick the marble for some of his statues and where they still mine marble blocks of incredible whiteness and grain).

Then to the seaside city of Viareggio - where Miami got their ideas for Art Deco kitch.

Back through Lucca and to the Bagne di Lucca region. Not many good pictures here. My fault, the subject matter was great. A cluster of about 25 small towns where Byron and all the rich, royal and famous of that time used to hang out. Also the site of the first casino in Europe. The manager of the BdL casino eventually left to open the one in Monte Carlo.

This little bridge is behind a residence / hospital / rest apartments of some kind. And it leads to this little gazebo. Very restful and new-age from the 18th century. Le plus que change ...

Given a chance, we would spend quite a bit more time around BdL.