The food is traditional Tuscan, with antipasti, primi, including tagliatelle al cinghiale (pasta with a wild boar sauce) and meat. Nothing fancy, just solid local fare. The house wine is pretty good.

The twist though is that after diner, around 10pm, you can go outside, to the back of the terasse, and soon you will see wild boars coming down the side of the hill! The restaurant people will then give you bread to throw at the boars, which will come as close as 10 feet from you, just outside the little courtyard. Of course there is no fence.

The animals are quite impressive, but they seem to know where to stay and don't seem (too!) threatening. When we asked the cook if the wild boar sauce was made from those boars, he looked horrified. He has names for all of them, and would never harm them. Besides he explained that the meat is very controlled, and he would get a heavy fine if he got caught using meat that did not come from a certified provider.

So we had a good time, especially the kids. You have to keep an eye on the younger ones so they don't get carried away and venture too close to the animals, but all the adults here will keep an eye on them and won't let them go too far.

Taking picture in such low light is a bit challenging, but I found that by uping the ISO to 1600, setting the speed to the slowest reasonable time (1/8) and the aperture to 5.6, and post-processing the color balance, I could get some interesting shots.

Practical information

Address: Via Comunale per il Passo Lucese, 72 - Gombitelli, CAMAIORE
Tel: 0584 97 18 85
closed on Tuesdays

map (zoom to display the road)

The atmosphere is homey. Decorated with old wine barrels, antique pots and pans, and painted a warm Tuscan yellow. It can seat up to 50 people inside and has additional seating in its courtyard under a beautiful pergola for summer dinning.

The menu is short but really excellent. My favourite appetizer is the crostini di radicchio e camembert: warm pieces of toast topped with camembert cheese and pan seared radicchio... yum! The crostini di salsiccia(a sausage and cream cheese spread) are also excellent.

All the pasta is home made, following the recipe of the owner's grandmother. The classic tortelli al ragù (meat ravioli, a Lucca specialty) are very good, but the gnocchi con calamari e radicchio (gnocchi are potato dumplings, in this case tossed with a squid and radicchio sauté) win the prize for me.

As for main courses, we usually only order appetizers and pasta, but when we got the tagliatta (T-bone steak cut on the bias) it was perfect.

Desserts include the usual tiramisù, and pana cotta, as well as a very good dolce a la crema, a cup cake filled with cream and toped with wild berries.

Prices are generally on par with or a little cheaper than other trattorias.

Mirò is a little bit off the beaten path, located in a mostly residential part of Lucca towards the beginning of the canal and closest to Porta San Jacopo. That said, it is still quite accessible, as it is just a few minutes walk from Piazza Santa Maria, and quite close to the end of via Filungo. It really deserves a visit, as the quality of the food is excellent and includes some unusual dishes. Most importantly, the service is very friendly.

It is also makes a great place to do a relaxed welcome diner.

Practical information

Address: via del Fosso 213, Lucca
Tel: 320 8134791

Open for lunch and dinner, closed on Tuesdays

The new year also brough us all new Gormiti. All the previous tribes have been changed by yet an other dramatic energy surge, so we now have 13 tribes, and 84 new figurines. All the details, in italian, at Gormiti Final Evolution.

And of course, here are some more "Gormiti da colorare" for you to enjoy (click on the pictures to enlarge them).

[Download all the pictures]

Gormiti(s) (that's the plural form, singular is Gormita) are monsters, some good and some evil. They live on the Island of Gorm, and fight ferociously for its control. They are divided into people, each attached to an element (for some rather loose definition of an element). The evil ones, at the moment (it changes every now and then), are the people of the Volcano, Darkness and Air. They fight for the terrible magician Magor. The good ones, the people of the Earth, Sea, Forest and Light, fight to defend their island, with the help of the Vecchio Saggio (the Old Wise Man) and his Occhio della Vita (the Eye of Life, a magical stone).

The original Gormiti are little plastic action figures sold at newstands. A new collection is released every 6 months or so, at which point the story evolves, new Gormiti appear, old ones gain new powers, new people are created... Then kids try to get their parents to buy them all, which is pretty difficult as they are usually at least 30 items in a collection, and as they come in opaque plastic bags that prevent you from seeing which ones you are buying. Young children find it really frustrating and hate doppioni (doubles), while older ones enjoy trading them with their friends. A note to our young readers: studies show that grand parents seem also to be a very good source of Gormiti.

Italian boys are really crazy about the Gormiti. For some reason most girls seem pretty resistent to the whole thing, though. Maybe it's because they are monsters, the elaborate descriptions of their powers that appear on the cards that come with the figurines or maybe the overall story arc, in any case they provide for hours of entertainement. And passionate arguments between friends about which one is the most powerful of all.

Once you have enough of a collection, you can line them up and create very impressive armies. If you are as crazy about photography as our son is, you can then take pictures of them, tweak them a bit, et voilà: Gormiti planets!

If you are a bit lost (or a parent!) you can also follow the story in the Gormiti Magazine, which also comes with such goodies as the Gormiti Mug, the Gormiti Watch or even a super cool DVD, which will show you all the Gormiti battles, and will no doubt lead your kids to sing the Gormiti music every time they play with the action figures. Note that if you have any doubt about the name of a figurine, or its powers, you can ask the parents of any boy between 5 and 10, they will display very impressive knowledge of the whole Gormito universe.

The maker of the figurine seems to have been initially a bit surprised by their success. 2 years ago you could not find one in Lucca: all the stores were sold out 3 weeks before Christmas. But the company has since recovered remarkably, and you can now buy Gormiti backpacks, shoes, socks, shirts, scooters, battlecards, remote controlled cars, chocolate eggs, potato chips... plus of course bigger Gormiti action figures, even bigger Gormiti action figures, and really, really big, talking, Gormiti action figures. I am sure there is more to come (life size Gormiti statues anyone?).

And of course, let's not forget the Gormiti Musical, now sweeping the country!

But the best Gormito product we have ever found, is without a doubt this video, which sings the sad lament of toy salesmen, whose only way to get fame and fortune (while the marketing department is at the beach!) is to call the Gormiti to the rescue: Gormiti che Passione!

You can also create excellent coloring books from pictures of Gormiti. Our son loved the ones below, I hope yours does too. As with all the pictures on the site, click to enlarge them.

[Download all the pictures]