Wine shopping: Lucchesi style.

What a wine shop!  The Vini Liquori Vanni, across from the fountain on the Piazza San Salvatore, Lucca, is a great establishment for any oenophile to visit.  The above ground part of the shop has a fairly extensive inventory of wines from all over Tuscany, including the wines of Lucca from the Comune di Montecarlo about 8 miles east of Lucca.  But it is the cellar of this extraordinary establishment that had me oohing and aahing at every turn of every corner in this subterranean vino-paradise.
I wasn't the only impressed person in the cellar (actually this was my second visit and on my first visit I had had the entire place to myself).  From the very depths of this brick-and-bottle clad cellar, I heard the strains of American accents (oohing and aahing also), so I made my way towards them.  Three Chicagoans were on a mission to find a bottle of Castello Di Ami, 1999 L'Apparita to add to their collection.  I know this because I had a quick chat with them, but there was no eye contact as we were all too busy looking at great wine.  I had already done my meagre wine-shopping (weight restriction, drat), so I didn't buy anything.  However, the folks from the Windy City were last spotted making their way up to the cash register, cradling some vinous plunder in each of their arms.