On to Lucca & Pisa

Following a truly delicious breakfast of wonderful home made breads, flavorful cheese's, home made jams and chutneys, meats, sausages, fresh fruit, yogurts and of course fabulous Italian coffee, I ate much more than I should have done.  All too quickly we were ready to get on the road again, but not before buying a couple of bottles of Alexandra's Olive Oil, made from the olive groves at Tenute Le Viste. I feel sad leaving here, and wish we had a couple of extra days to just stay and indulge, I will absolutely be back...

I had mapped out several different  route's to get to Lucca, most of them taking in other towns and villages along the way, but we decided to just get to Lucca as quickly as possible and enjoy the day there.  Lucca was another on the list of Edi's "you can't miss" places.

The road from Mosciano into Scandicci, around Florence and on to the autostrada didn't look difficult (on the map), and with the use of Lulu we thought we would have no trouble finding it... Wrong again!

In Italy, one has to drive exceptionally fast because all the drivers literally sit on your rear fender/bumper and almost push you along if you are not driving at maximum speed. I have to say it made me more than a little nervous, and was very grateful that most of the driving was in the country with little to no traffic.

The problem is, if you don't know where you're going, and you're driving like Mario Andretti trying to keep some idiot off your rear, managing the correct turnings off one road onto the next can become a real challenge.  Consequently I missed several of the turnings I should have taken, and ended up on a dual carriageway going in totally the opposite direction to our destination.

We couldn't turn around so we just kept going until we came to an exit.  We traveled seven miles in the wrong direction, fortunately we were both able to laugh about it.  We stopped and bought some water and sodas, and headed off again.  This time we managed to get on the right road, and in the right direction.
We arrived late morning at the beautiful city of Lucca.  It was a glorious day with cloudless blue sky and bright sunshine.  Luckily we managed to find a parking space right outside the entrance gates, but  this time we checked all the signposts to make sure we were allowed to park, I even asked a policeman to make absolutely sure we were legal.  We put enough money in for two hour's, and set off into the city center. As with each place we have visited so far in Tuscany, two hour's was not nearly enough.

Lucca is just another of Tuscany's delightful treasures, one of the precious few city's that is a wonderful example of an almost completely intact historic center, and circled by its Renaissance wall that stretches for 2.5 miles around the city, and is a perfect place to either walk or cycle while admiring the city within.

          A great way to see the city sights of Lucca.

Lucca's  remarkable Romanesque churches, picturesque tree shaded piazzas, and busy market stalls that stretch from the Piazza Antelminelli to Piazza San Giovanni are delightful.  Angie and I strolled among the stalls looking for gifts to take home.  I discovered a quaint book store that spilled out into the street offering both new and secondhand books for sale, I spent way too much time browsing, while Angie was off shopping, and ended up buying "A Companion to Lucca" by Andreas Prindl.

As we continued to explore the little streets, we came across the delightful Piazza Anfiteatro, built in 1830 on the site of a Roman Amphitheater. Practically non of the original amphiteatre remains today as most of the original stones were taken after the fall of Rome, and used for buildings elsewhere throughout the city.  Today the street level stands nine feet above the original arena floor.

I watched a man reaching out of his top floor window feeding the pigeons, and spotted a couple of hang gliders flying over the piazza.  The circular piazza has many little cafes, restaurants and touristy shops, it was a hive of activity this Monday afternoon in September.

        The beautiful Piazza Anfiteatro

Moving on we came to Via Sant'Andrea, at the foot of the famous Guinigi Tower, a familiar landmark of Lucca with its incredible garden of holm-oak trees growing at the top of the tower.  For about 4 euros you can climb the 227 steps to the top of the tower to see the tiny little garden, and admire the fabulous views around, I was more fascinated by the oak trees growing at the top of a tall tower, how weird is that!

Lucca is the birthplace of Giacomo Puccini, composer of some of the worlds greatest opera's.  The plaque that marks his birthplace can be seen at the casa di Puccini on the Via Di Poggio.  Unfortunately the house is closed due to a pitched battle between Puccini's grandneice, who owns the house and hopes to renovate it, and the city of Lucca, who want the house to remain in its original condition, until this battle is resolved the house will remain closed.

We briefly looked inside the Church of San Michele, and wandered through the beautiful Piazza San Michele before running back to move the car. At 2:30 we made our way to the Piazza Sant'Agostino to have another delicious Italian lunch, at the restaurant Vecchia Trattoria Buralli.

                Angie shopping at the market      



Angie and I both agreed that Lucca was one of our favorite stops on our Tuscan tour.

Unfortunately Pisa called, we had a hotel booked near the airport tonight, for our early flight back to Bristol tomorrow morning.
I'm not going to write anything about Pisa, we didn't get there until dark, and our  (so called) 4 star hotel was quite horrible, and definitely not worthy of a mention.

Otherwise my trip to Tuscany was wonderful and I can't wait to return.
"Buon Appetito"