Tuesday we left our Hotel for the city of Lucca, about a 4 hour drive. Once you get outside of Rome the drive is scenic and the roads are very good, still lots of traffic, but for the most part it moved along well.
We planned to arrive in Lucca for lunch and then meet up with a local specialist for a guided walking tour of the city.
Before we got off the bus, Fabrizio said our guide would be named Helen and "she is a pepper", it did not take long to figure out what he meant by that . Helen's heritage is Lucca and is very proud of her city. The walls of the city were built in the 1500's to protect the city from raiders from surrounding cities like Piza and Florence. We will see the leaning tower of Piza on Wednesday, Helen says in Lucca they build them straight, not like those bastards from Pisa, she was quite entertaining.
The city walls as we enter the city. The walls were also surrounded by a moat with draw bridges.
There are about 150 churches in Lucca, they are spectacular and very old. San Michele in Foro was first built around 800 AD, rebuilt around 1000AD and the facade added in 13th century....but here it stands today.
Helen would be disappointed if I did not include a picture of Puccini, she was a music major and sang us a few versus of some of his compositions.
To say the streets of Lucca are narrow would be an understatement, and there are bicycles everywhere, Helen says about 100 million (she exaggerates).
After the guided tour there was about an hour of free time to wander the city before boarding the bus for the hotel. We decided to find the old amphitheater and The Basilica of San Frediano. We added to our clan one of the other Trafalgar travelers, Eamon who is traveling solo from Australia.
The Amphitheater is now the Beverly Hills of housing in Lucca, but you can see the shape of the arena.
The Basilica of San Frediano, is the oldest church in Lucca, built in the 600s.
It has a spectacular mural.
We sought out San Fredaino not because it has my name but because it has Zita. The patron Saint of Lucca, of servants, and of lost keys, lies in rest in the church of San Frediano, dressed and in full view, some 700-plus years after her death in 1272. Bob's mother and Aunt Zita visited San Frediano once before and Bob wanted to get the picture for his Aunt Zita, who is now 90.
On Bob's suggestion, we decided to rent bicycles and ride the Walls of Lucca. It is only 2.6 miles but was great fun and provided a unique view of the city.
Maribeth in her Wizard of Oz coat...
The view from the top of the wall is unique and you can see many residents have roof top gardens.
We all had a great time riding the walls of Lucca.
We missed the bus back to the hotel, but riding the bikes was definitely worth the 13 EU it cost to get a cab to the hotel. We passed on the optional group dinner that was being held at a local farm and had a relaxing evening at the hotel. We "pre-gamed" in Bob and Maribeth's room with drinks and snacks, it was quite fun.
Wednesday we will visit Pisa (those bastards) in the morning and Cinque Terre in the afternoon.
On another note, Lucca had just concluded ComiCon. It was the biggest festival in Europe dwelling the city within the walls from nine thousand people to one hundred thousand people. ComiCon was over and being torn down and the city was looking to return to quiet!!
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting city and very busy. The bike ride around the wall was fun, good call Bob!
ReplyDeleteWhat can I say about Helen, she was a hoot!
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