Found this in a little delicatessen in the back streets of Lucca.
You know one of those magical shops that you stumble across by accident down a little cobbled street. Once you get inside you have to bat your way through the salamis hanging from the ceiling, and be careful you don't sit on the melons or knock over the wondrous bottles of green, gleaming extra virgin olive oil. The smell is gorgeous and you can feel your mouth watering and taste buds tingling and the temptation to buy up half the shop is overpowering. Somehow the cheese and ham counter at Sainsburys loses its allure (if it had any to start with at all of course...) and you think that this is how shops should be.
Lucca is the birthplace of Puccini and the first time I visited there I went to see his house and listen to his music and be overcome. Then last year it was my turn to visit Lucca to sing when I was in the chorus of a performance of Verdi's Requiem in a church tucked inside the walls of this medieval walled town.
It is a wonderful place to be. .
