In June my little family got a great opportunity to take a vacation. My sister, her husband, and children had not met my wife and child yet so we decided to meet up in Italy. My sister offered to take care of all the accommodations which made things a lot easier and doable for us.
It was still not an easy process getting the family to Italy. First, we needed to make sure that everyone could travel. We got Bjorn his Ghanaian passport as soon as possible after he was born. We had to wait several months for his biometric birth certificate and ended up having to pay extra to grease the wheels a bit. Next, I needed to work on the US side for him first I had to get an appointment to get his CRBA or certificate of birth abroad, luckily I was able to do his passport application at the same time. We picked up his US passport just a few weeks before travel. The little dude is the first in our family to have dual citizenship carrying a US passport and Ghanaian passport. So when we traveled to Europe we used his US passport. When coming back to Ghana we used his Ghana passport. There are no Visas needed this way.
My wife was a whole other challenge. She has only a Ghanaian passport for now and we had to apply for a Schengen visa for her to visit Europe. Her sister lives in German and she had visited her before so we thought it would be simple this time. I think I will need to make a whole post on the issues she had traveling to Germany before and the whole debacle around getting the visa this time but I will just keep it simple and sweet here. The first problem was that it was impossible to get a visa interview date with the Italian Embassy in Ghana. So we had to rethink things there. So decided we would visit her sister in Germany and do the visa application through Germany. This did not make things any easier. She was denied the visa on our first round and we had basically given up on going on the trip and disappointed the family who already made some plans around it. Dzigbordi's d in law who is a lawyer in Munich got involved and ended up getting us an appeal and the visa just a day or two before our proposed travel dates. So we rushed and moved the dates back a few days and I rushed to book all the flights and the train tickets and get the resort ready to function while I was gone. You can only imagine how stressful this was as we were riding right on the line of our budget for this trip.
We ended up flying to Germany on the 1st of June and spent one night in Munich with her sister. We then jumped on a train the next morning that took us through the Austrian Alps and into Italy. Our first stop was Tuscany. My sister rented an Airbnb in the countryside outside of Lucca. We got into Florence at about 11pm, my brother-in-law came to get us in their rental car and luckily they have a son just a little younger than Bjorn so Bjorn was able to use his car seat for the last 30-minute drive to Lucca.
The first night since we got in so late it was a little hard to get Bjorn to sleep. My wife was also really tired and the poor boy flopped out of bed in the middle of the night. Luckily he was fine being a tough little bugger but it scared the crap out of us. We woke up to this lovely setting in this Airbnb.
The kitchen opened up into this great fenced yard for the kids to play in. The idea was that we would spend our time in two destinations at a kid-friendly home base this one in Lucca and then one in Amalfi. We thought that this would make the logistics with kids a bit easier. Unfortunately, since we delayed our trip a bit we would only get a few days in Lucca before we move onto Amalfi. So we tried to make the best of it and see as much as possible while we could.
The house was a bit out of town in the countryside. Which was great and peaceful. The weather was good not too hot not too cold. My mother was supposed to be staying in the house with us too but there was also a complication there. She spent a week in Italy traveling on her own before she was due to meet up with all of us, and during that time she contracted COVID. My sister is the type that is a stickler for the rules as she is an Epidemiologist working for the Gates Foundation and there was no chance she was going to risk her kids getting sick on vacation so she had to get a separate place for herself in the town.
All of these little issues made logistics interesting. My sister, her husband, one baby, and one three-year-old in tow, my mother at an Airbnb in the town, and then my little family of 3. Taking this into consideration we only had one rental car so we had to do some careful planning. The first day we just planned to enjoy Lucca and explore there. My brother-in-law took my wife, son, and the toddler in the car to the town. My sister and I decided to walk with her baby into town which is not far but a good walk nonetheless.
The walk afforded some nice views of the countryside. It took us down some country roads and then over a berm that ran along the river to some biking and walking paths there.
We took a footbridge over a river.
Lucca is a very old walled city the old part of town is completely circled in walls with major gates at each cardinal direction.
It is possible to drive in the gate but then there is parking lots and you can not continue by car in the old neighborhoods.
Inside the gates everything is historic and dated like these old buildings here.
The streets are all narrow and cobblestoned and perfect for wandering around on foot.
We met up with the rest of the family at a little cafe and had a little treat before we started walking around. My mom joined us for outdoor activities saying masked and at a little bit of distance. This was her first time having all her grandchildren together so it was hard for her not to hug and tickle them. Dzigbordi got to try my favorites which are raspberries for the first time.
We got a stroller a little while before vacation and this was our first time really trying it out with Bjorn. He did not particularly enjoy it and preferred to be carried or backed. But this was one moment where the cobblestone streets were massaging him while he was sleeping. This was actually his little cousin's stroller which he might have enjoyed more. My sister has a strict rule about her children not appearing on social media so I respect that you will miss out on some photos because they were in them.
This is the first major Piazza or square we came across with a big church in the middle. Since we were with kids and our main goal was just to enjoy time with family we were not trying to visit every site and learn all the history so we just enjoyed the view as we passed.
Dzigbori rocking her dashiki and busting a pose in one of the streets in Lucca.
The next stop was lunch and our first restaurant in Italy. The food was only ok not the best we had on our trip but this will give you a sampling of what was on the table. Of course, the house wine is always great and so cheap so there was always at least a half liter of red and sometimes some white wine on the table.
I think there is room here for a good selfie. I think I was taking one of me and Bjorn and then his momma decided to join too.
After that, we all rented and piled onto one of those family 4-wheel bikes. Wow, what a workout trying to peddle one of those uphill with 5 adults and 3 kids. There is only a place for 4 people to pedal and that is where all the horsepower came from so at least one person was dead weight the whole time along with the kids who we strapped to a little bench seat in the front. The top of the wall has a path along it so we circled the whole city before returning the bike.
My photogenic babies enjoying their time in Lucca.
Not long after our bike ride it started raining very hard. This one again presented a problem with logistics and only having one car. My mom would not be able to sit in a confined indoor space with us either to wait it out. So we waited out the worst of the rain under an outdoor canopy at a cafe. My brother-in-law then took the kids and my wife back to the Airbnb. My sister, mother,
and I walked through town to another gate to wait for him to come back and pick us up.
I got to see some different angles of Lucca on this walk including these last two that look like a circular courtyard. This historically was a colosseum for gladiators which had evolved to residence and now a courtyard of restaurants.
One of the sites in Lucca is a tower with trees growing on top of it. We did not get a chance to climb it but I did get this nice shot of it while walking the back streets.
Here are some more random shots from this walk through town.
I snuck into this little grocer on the walk. My mom, and sister are vegetarian and my wife does not eat pork so they did not appreciate this truly beautiful site as much as I did. Only me and my brother in law can fully appreciate this. From there we went home and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon at home.
The next day we went to the nearby town of Pisa home to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We took the train back to Lucca and my wife wanted to see the parts of Lucca I saw the day before and do some shopping. It was still a bit of a rainy afternoon but we made due and were able to push Bjorn in the stroller most of the time. I will do a post on Pisa soon
On this walk, I found a little pub full of local microbrews. In Ghana, we did not have any craft beer until a few years ago and I enjoyed this site. I sat down and had a pint. Bjorn thought he needed some too.
I bought a couple of cans and bottles to take home to share my findings and spoils with my brother-in-law later.
We walked back to the Airbnb the way my sister and I walked the day before. Today the sky was a bit more dramatic though after the rain storms.
Our feet were very tired when we got back. I think Bjorn was asleep in his stroller lucky little guy. We did close to 20,000 steps that day.
A dinner at home with some local beer and local ingredients was badly needed and very much enjoyed.
Thanks for taking a walk through Lucca with me you are lucky your feet did not feel it the same way as mine did. I would love to go back to Lucca one day, good food, not overly crowded with tourists and everything is within walking distance.
