Sunday, July 3, 2011
Lucca
Lucca, ah Lucca, everyone’s favourite Italian town. But not ours. But we still liked it. A lot. A real favourite actually, perhaps our favourite Italian town so far – small, quiet and yet really nice Italian spaces.
Lovely town. Best part was the walls, which were around 4km and circled the town. Wide ramparts meant lots of room to walk, cycle and whatnot. They also had 18 heart-shaped protuberances with trees and big grassy areas (unusual in the places we have been to), perfect for picnics with sangiovese wine, prosciutto and melon salads, watching the sun go down over cathedral towers overlooking tuscan tiled roofs, drinking local cheeses and salami and playing games with peppers and bread. hard to beat, yes?
We stayed at a b+b right next to the old roman amphitheatre, which had been converted in medieval times into a piazza and houses. The walls could still be seen thru the plaster and window boxes. Very nice. Also some lovely churches, especially the facades, rich in detail and with lots of columns and niches and whatnot.
The piece de resistance was the Torre de Guinigi which we climbed on the last evening. With a big viewing platform complete with trees on top, we had superb views of the whole town and its valley. AmZing (new word).
We had 3 really restful, lovely days here and would definitely go back again. It’s the kind of place that doesn’t have anything really spectacular but which has a really nice vibe, lots of things to do and see and which is just a little out of the way. They have a summer festival in one of the piazzas here which i doubt would seat more than 1000 people - very intimate. and yet the list of people coming is amazing: Elton John, Ben Harper, Joe Cocker and BB King, Arcade Fire, Jamiroquai, Liza Minelli and many more. we're going, huh, how didn't we know about this!!!
Travellers footnote: sometimes you seem to see people again and again without trying. We meet and spoke with a couple from Christchurch (don’t talk about the quakes) at the station one day, and then we saw them about 3 more times in different towns on our way to Croatia (but they were going in an opposite direction – go figure!).
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