Lucca is a 75 minute train ride from Florence--a small town that we just loved. The town is surrounded by a city wall that was made into a biking/walking park by Napoleon's wife (thank you Josephine).
We arrived late morning and got just a little lost trying to find the Piccolo Hotel Puccini (the streets are narrow and not well marked--we would have enjoyed the "being lost" more without the backpacks and the warm temps). But we arrived at our only 3-star pensione (we haven't quite figured out what made this place 3-stars, though it was nice) eventually, dropped off our stuff, and immediately headed to the city wall, walking part of the 3+ miles. Above is a picture of Mike that I took from the park overlooking part of the town.
You'll have to wait for Mike's pictures of Lucca: most of mine are only so-so. Mike climbed the tower in town (that was his plan: to climb every tall thing in every town) to get an ariel view, but this tower has trees growing on top of it!
By 7pm all of the day trippers are gone and Lucca becomes a real town. We had a lovely (and inexpensive) pasta dinner with wine and some leftover paneforte that we bought in Firenze (better than fruitcake, but gelato is still my dessert of choice in Italy).
Most people travel by bicycle in Lucca (very few cars are permitted within the town walls) or by walking. The hotel was down the street from Puccini's House (closed for renovation) and Piazza San Michele where we ate breakfast each morning at "Robby's" bar--that was the owner's name. A group of art students sat near our hotel from 9am until 4pm at least sketching the top of San Michele in different lights while their instructor walked around (we had seen him the night before sketching other areas of Lucca). We were amazed at their stamina!
On our second day we rented bikes, bought picnic food and enjoyed the beautiful weather and park. We visited the amphiteatro and walked all over town. Lucca was a wonderful oasis, but we hadn't yet been to Cinque Terre yet: that was next!
1 comment:
We couldn't figure out exactly which caffe you guys recommended to us in Piazza San Michele, I think there were like four! The one we tried was overpriced and not terribly friendly (likely not the recommendation). However, we did eat our dinner and next day's lunch at Trattoria Da Leo which was awesome (link on my blog)! Lucca definitely was a lot larger and busier than we expected, but we still liked it.
We didn't count the non-stair steps in Manarola, maybe that was the discrepancy?! Sorry to hear Maria #3 also needed mattress/shower improvements ;-)
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