Lucca

Silk working and the many merchants with their great abilities brought great richness and the town was interested by a lots of transformations. But wealth and richness oft mean envy and rivalry between the families; Lucca, Guelph, was in contrast with the Ghibelline Pisa.

That’s not me, that’s the Citta of Lucca tourist brochure. I do love dodgy Italian-English translations. Plus I thought it might be nice to get one or two real live facts on my blog before I wrap it up, in case you’re tired of me being all “omigosh you guys this is like totally awesome.”

I didn’t have incredibly high expectations of Lucca. I’d heard of its famous walls, but couldn’t somehow bring myself to a state of frenzied anticipation over some walls. Besides, I’d seen the Etruscan walls at Fiesole – what more could bricks and mortar hold for me?

Well, it turns out that “walls” was a pale shadow of a description. What we have in Lucca, I would describe as ramparts, and massive ones at that. There are grassy picnic areas and a wide path on top, and they give you a great view down onto the town’s buildings and into the walled gardens. I rented a bike for an hour and cycled around there, ringing my bell at the tourists, and on such a hot day it was great to have a little breeze in my hair.

(It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been on a bike, but apparently it’s just one of those things you don’t forget how to do. It’s like…it’s like…gosh, I just can’t think of a good analogy here.)

Then I explored the town all afternoon. It’s a great city to walk around— amazingly unspoiled, laid-back atmosphere, friendly people. I visited a few of the churches and museums, then flaked out in the sun on the ramparts for a while.




The Walls







parts of "portrait of a lady' were filmed here.








really pretty church. Santa something.







the duomo







The roman amphitheatre