Kathryn Occhipinti, MD, for Conversational Italian for Travelers books
Ciao a tutti! Today I am featuring a blogger who lives in a little known area of small towns nestled in the mountains of northern of Tuscany called “Bagni di Lucca”.
About once a month (or so), I have been re-blogging posts that describe the lesser known places in Italy – or the more well-known viewed in a unique way – under the heading, “Your Italian Travel Tips.” The post for October was written by Debra Kolkka, who writes the blog “Bella Bagni di Lucca.”
Although no longer a tourist “hot spot,” the area of Bagni di Lucca has been known for its thermal springs since the Etruscan and Roman times according to Debra. The name means, “Baths of Lucca,” and it was known as oasis for the super-rich since Countess Matilda had a bridge built to the region in 1101 and especially in the early 1800’s, when Napoleon’s sister Elisa Baciocchi, princess of Lucca at the time, had a road built into the region and spent summers there.
I have to say it is well worth a visit to her blog just to take a look at the photos of these quintessentially picturesque towns set along the Lima River in the crevices of the lush, green Alps of northern Tuscany. I can’t resist adding a link to her photos here.
In her own words, Debra says about herself:
I am an Australian who spends half of the year in Bagni di Lucca. I started the blog to share our lovely village with the world. Bagni di Lucca is a collection of about 25 villages dotted along the Lima and in the mountains on either side. I have visited all of them and you can find a list of the villages and posts about them in “The Villages”.
In the post to follow, Debra describes a tour of the Grotta del Vento, a wind cave (read on to find out just what this is, as I did!) in the Apuan Alps in northern Tuscany, about 35 minutes from Bagni di Lucca. How’s that for an interesting Italian adventure tell your friends about the next time you visit Tuscany!
The Grotta del Vento, wind cave, is a cave in a mountain in Garfagnana, an area in the Apuan Alps in northern Tuscany. It is near the towns of Fornovalasco and Vergemoli. (About 35 minutes from Bagni di Lucca) The cave has 2 entrances, one at 642 metres above sea level and another on the other side of the mountain at 1400 metres.
It is a wind cave because air is able to blow through the cave from one entrance to the other. The direction of the wind depends on the temperature outside the cave. In summer, when the air outside is warmer, the air is drawn through the higher entrance and out of the lower entrance. In winter the reverse happens and the air flows upwards. If the temperature outside is the same as inside there is no wind. The temperature inside the cave stays at around 10.7degrees…
Conversational Italian! 