Castles, Cake, and Open Road

Over the next few days in Lucca, we took day trips to Pisa and Cinque Terre--but first, some random pictures of Lucca! I might have already posted some of these cathedral pics, but it's such a beautiful building, so here they are again! Elowen enjoying some bread, her main food group on this trip. She crows with glee when the bread basket arrives.  The hotel left Elowen a fun craft to do for Christmas--cutting out mom's, dad's, and Elowen's hands in green paper to make a tree and decorate.  Also what's that on the shelf?? Dr. Pepper!  We find each other in any city, because we are true loves.  Also, there are a lot of hobby shops in Lucca, which I initially found confusing--but it's because in October there's a comics and characters festival that draws five hundred thousand people! That explains this awesome Harry Potter shop I found by the hotel, with Harry's Hogwarts acceptance letters flying out of the fireplace to make a garland for the tree.  Like I...

 Since we'd rented a car for the two weeks in Tuscany, we drove from Siena to Lucca, stopping at a town called Volterra along the way. Volterra was originally an Etruscan settlement, and you can still see the remains of the some of the walls; it also has Roman ruins, including an impressive amphitheater.  Volterra is also known worldwide for its beautiful alabaster work, and alabaster shops dot the streets. You can buy everything from simple earrings to huge, intricate vases or animals.  We also ate lunch in Volterra, at a place called Don Beta--I had a prosciutto and cream tortellini with sage, as well as some pears with honey and parmesan. Elowen got some pillowy soft gnocchi with wild boar bolognaise, but she wasn't in the mood to eat, so she had some fruit snacks and watched the Grinch (again).  If I had a do-over on the trip, I'd definitely spend a night in Volterra--it was beautiful and we left a lot unexplored.  From there it was on to Lucca, where we'd s...