Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/996797
119 sert, another stirs sauce, and the rest of us roll up our sleeves and knead and roll and cut the pasta. I'm usually not worth much in the kitchen, but this is too easy for even me to screw up, and before long we have piles of fresh noodles ready to drop into the water. e next morning, we're supposed to ride bicycles around the walled city of Lucca. But the weather is bad, so we set out to explore the city on foot instead. Armed with umbrel- las, we duck in and out of modern shops located in medieval buildings. I'm proud of myself when I order a light lunch of soup and roasted vegetables, but when we return to La Veranda for dinner, I think of the fact that I'll be leaving soon, and I wolf down beef carpac- cio, tender veal, and chestnut flour pasta with chicken liver and sage sauce. Not to mention a delectable tiramisu for dessert. (But I'm still not fully living the Tuscan life. When I once again refuse wine, the waiter asks me if I'm sick.) Our last day is entirely rained out, with howling winds like the staff say they've never seen. But my time in the countryside has lulled me into a sort of Zen-like contentment, and I'm happy to hang out at the Renais- sance. I spend some time at the spacious gym and heated indoor pool, and then relax in my room until it's time for my massage. Something about being laid out on the table with the therapist rubbing oil into my back re- minds me of the pasta-making class, and after the massage, I head downstairs to the sauna. It's 82 degrees Celsius—not quite the tempera- ture needed to boil pasta, but not far off. At dinnertime, we once again meet with Georges. We start with some appetizers by the fireplace, and then move to a table in La Veranda, where it seems as though the courses will never stop coming: steak tartare, a small soufflé, risotto with mozzarella, sliced steak, lava cake. After dessert, we sit sipping coffee and looking back on our trip. e mo- ments that stand out for me, I say, are the little things: the burst of flavor from the tomatoes at the winery, a knee-bucklingly good gelato I had on our shopping trip in Barga. "ese are the old things," Georges says. "e simple things. e simpler, the better." Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco Resort & Spa renaissancetuscany.com BARGA, ITALY The resort overlooks the Serchio Valley mountains. Below, The wellness center with heated indoor pool. PHOTOGRAPHS BY, TOP TO BOTTOM, ALESSANDRO PUCCINELLI, RUY TEIXEIRA