The Festival delle Ville (festival of the villas) is a series of events in some of the most beautiful villas of Capannori, very close to Lucca, during the whole month of September.

Most notably, it includes a hot air balloon festival, both at the local airfield, in Tassignano, and in some of the villas. On Septembre 30th, Villa Mansi hosted the event. The villa, which has been recently renovated, is one of my favourite in the region. It is really beautiful. Add to it the sight of 2 majestic balloons and perfect weather... we spent a great afternoon there.

The entrance fee (€5.50) include a ticket that was entered in a drawing to win a (brief) flight in one of the balloons. Actually there were many, many drawings, and I believe that, by the end of the day, anyone who wanted to fly had done so. But the fact that it was a drawing made it fun, especially for our son who got really excited, then anxious as all his friends got chosen before him, then ecstatic as we finally heard our number being called, then a bit scared of the noise of the burners in the balloon. He was very happy afterwards though, even though the flight consisted only of a 30 foot climb, 5 minutes up, then back to the ground. We did get a very nice view of the villa from up there though. Plus it seemed that all of Lucca was there, from schoolmates of Antonio to our baker to quite a few people that work with Gina, so we all got to enjoy the beautiful weather, chat, and generally have a good time.

posted by michel, 2007-10-09