Florence to Lucca (5/20/09)

Today we woke up, had breakfast at our hotel (the cappuccinos have been outstanding) and headed straight to the market near San Lorenzo’s church. We had walked through yesterday,, but waiting on buying anything until today. In the end, Lisa got a very nice leather wallet….and that’s it. We knew we had some trains to catch, so we headed to the hotel, packed up and trekked to the station with our bags in tow. Once there, we figured out which train took us to Pisa, and headed that way.

In Pisa, we dropped off our big bags at the baggage deposit in the train station, because we were just doing a ‘drive-by’ tour. We made our way down the main drag to a small Paninotecca for lunch, and then on to the ‘Field of Miracles,’ where everything is leaning, but people only notice the Tower. The field is made up of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Duomo, and the Baptistry. They all have a lean of some sort. The Tower’s lean is most evident, but if you loko at some of the pictures of Duomo, you can see where it started to sink also.

Pisa is very touristy, so we did the touristy thing and took pictures of ourselves propping up the tower. From there we walked through the Duomo and then started back towards the train station to catch the train to Lucca.



We certainly wish we had more time in Lucca, as it was absolutely charming. The main street, Via Fillungo, was lined with cute stores and chic boutiques, and our hotel was right there, a few blocks away from a café where Puccini sipped espresso (and so we did as well!) Lucca isn’t a hill town, so for protection they built walls around the entire town, and towers to see over the walls. We climbed two of the towers, and for the most part, those are the only pictures we took. I wish I had the camera with me for more of the day, because the town is incredibly picturesque!

The first tower was the clock tower, and it was supposed to have an awesome, hand-wound swiss mechanism that rang the bells on the quarter hour. Then we realized we were only 3 minutes away, we ran up the tower as fast as we could, only to be disappointed when it didn’t ring. The kid at the entry way didn’t understand when we tried to explain that there was no ‘tick-tock’ ‘ding-dong’. At least the views of the city and the mountains in the distance were incredible. The Clock tower ticket also came with admission to the Guinigi Tower, with its characteristic trees at the top, so we climbed that one as well. The other joy of Lucca is the beautiful Ramparts around the town, which is popular for strolling, jogging, bicycling, and relaxing. We rented two bicycles and did a 30 minute loop around the town.



Our evening was spent at the church where Giacomo Puccini was baptized, the site of the only permanent festival in the world. Every night at the church, professional musicians perform arias and duets by Puccini and other composers. We were treated to a selection of music from both Puccini and Mozart performed by a Soprano with a spectacular voice, a Baritone, and a Piano accompanist. It was really incredible. From there, a tasty dinner (Beef is the specialty around here), a stroll around town, and off to bed.

Ciao!