Blogs from Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, Europe - page 2

Geo: 43.843, 10.508... read more

Lucca is a less known destination a little north from Florence. This ancient city bound inside the well preserved city wall(designed by Leonardo Da Vinci) got many historical architecture to offer. On top of these broad defensive walls is a ring park, a relaxing place for leisure. Within the twisting alleys inside the old city, the main sight definitely is the Roman amphitheater, the remains of the amphitheater are gone, bit it still shows the outline and shape of an ancient arena. Among many of the church the Duomo di San Martino and the majestic church of San Michele got impressive facade, some interesting sculptures and carvings like showing the life pattern for each month, and a mystery labyrinth. Another interesting sight is the Torre Guinigi tower with tree grew atop it. Lucca is a very ... read more

We packed out bags for pickup at 7:30 for departure to Lucca tonight. Along the way, we stopped in Sienna to eat lunch, walk alot, see little alleys, a church, aka Domo, public square, hall of justice, and get some history about the city. In Houston, the old section of town, buildings are from 1935, here, 1435 is considered historic. Lots of nice frescos, and it seems they are still finding stuff. The church we toured, was very pretty, and we were fortunate because the floor of this church has 38 panels of inlaid marble in the floor, that tells the bible stories from creation through Christ's Redemption. The artists, forty of them, laid these out between 1347 - 1547. The floor is only uncovered to view two months of the year. This was one of ... read more

OMG talk about wifi withdrawals!!! You'll have to bear with me - I'm covering a few days in this one (starting from 27th, when we were still in Florence)... Up early on Saturday and back to the Cattedrale di Santa Maria dell Fiore to climb the 463 steps of the Duomo di Firenze - we love to torture ourselves!! Then a much needed, yummy Italian coffee. Next, we visited the Leonardo Da Vinci museum (after walking right passed it several times and not being able to find it) then found somewhere to have pizza for lunch. Back to the hostel to collect our bags and off we went to the train station, bound for Lucca. Dad was waiting for us, in their little rented Audi, ready to take us up the hill to the villa (or ... read more

To get to Lucca we had to backtrack from Siena to Florence, then quickly catch a connecting train on to Lucca. When we arrived it was very hot and we dragged our luggage over bumpy cobbled stoned streets, getting more hot and lost and frustrated. Eventually we found our B&B, Anfiteatro almost at the opposite end of town to the station. It was great to be there, kick off our shoes, turn on the air conditioning and rest. Our B&B was next to the Piazza Anfiteatro, hence the name and was very convenient to many cafes and restaurants and the Medieval wall. Although Lucca is another Medieval city, it is quite different to all the others we have seen. It is a living, vibrant city and on the day we arrived, they were holding historical re-enactments ... read more