Bella Italia- Lucca

A little over a week ago I boarded an 8 hour train ride to Tuscany to visit a dear friend of mine living with her parents in Italy and it was absolutely wonderful.  We spent our days touring the sights of Italy and our nights drinking red wine and cooking incredible pasta dishes! First on the itinerary was Lucca, an hour outside of Pisa and my home for 5 nights.  My dearest friend is my antiquing and vintage shopping buddy and the weekend I was in town the monthly market arrived and was truly an overwhelming experience.  We ventured out to explore the markets in the afternoon and I just could not comprehend the quality, age and sensational variety of antiques available.  Everywhere I looked I wanted to buy something!  I did end up buying a beautiful silk vintage scarf in an abstract print filled with greens, blues, black and yellow that I intend to frame when I finally settle in one country but it would be too easy to fill a shipping container shopping in antique markets like that one!  I think perhaps photographs will tell you more than I can describe.

The delicacies were too much to take!

I am in love with this circus mirror (bottom left).

Just everything was so amazing!

One of the things I noticed most about Lucca was how quiet it was during the day.  The day we shopped the antiques market was a Saturday and it wasn't until 5pm in the evening that the streets filled with locals and the antique stalls turned on their makeshift lighting to keep selling in to the night.  Everyone walked in groups and stood in the squares socialising with their little dogs nipping at their feet for attention while my dear friend and I watched them all eating some of the most delicious desserts I've ever tasted!