Montecatini Champagne Festival & Marcia delle Ville Hike

This is the start of a busy weekend. It begins with the Champagne festival in Montecatini, a 25 minute train ride from Lucca. Tickets were 25.00 Euro a each which included 5 tastings, master classes, live music and an amazing setting. In addition to delicious samplings of champagne, we met some great new friends. Giuseppe, Andrews friend and chef met us with two of his clients from Tennessee. Giuseppe teaches cooking classes in Montecatini, which I will be attending in June when my friend, Pam, from California comes to stay. I will definitely post after the class! So while sampling varieties of champagne and listening to the live music in the piazza which was also accompanied by a beautiful dancer, Andrew decides to buy a bottle of champagne and with a sword, cut the top off! Yes it was just like Cameron Diaz movie, What happens in Vegas. It really worked. He was then interviewed by an Italian TV station. All in all, a spectacular event.

Sunday was the Marcia Delle Ville Hike. The 48th edition of the Marcia delle Ville is a non-competitive running race/hike, one of the most important at a national level, promoted by the Associazione Podistica Marciatori Marliesi with the contribution of the Municipality of Capannori and the patronage of the Province of Lucca and the Tuscany Region. We purchased tickets Saturday which was late and we were lucky to get two tickets thanks to the help of my friend Love who owns Fiaschetto (previously spoken of in prior blog). The now historic sporting event includes four routes (4, 10, 16, 26 kilometers). We chose the 10 kilometer and the later start due to all the champagne yesterday! The hike took three hours up very steep hills to beautiful villas. We stopped for wine at one villa and enjoyed a rest on the terrace overlooking Lucca. One of the villas had a group of coral singers. Only in Italy do you hike 10 kilometers while drinking wine and listening to live music in the mountains. It took a double cappuccino and 3 Advil to get me up for this event, but I made it. It was worth every sore muscle and every drop of sweat to see the vistas before me. The scenery is so surreal it cannot be captured in pictures or explained with words, but I will continue to try to share it as best I can. I have said it before and I will say it again...I LOVE ITALY!