Day 24 - July 6 - Lucca

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We got a later start than expected. We ate breakfast on the terrace, finishing all of our supplies, and rested for a bit, then picked up final paninis at Il Forno for our lunch. All this leisure resulted in missing the last train I had carefully planned our potential routes around. though I had carefully planned the shortest route to Lucca, all of the plans fell apart and we ended up waiting half an hour at the Vernazza station, then another forty minutes at La Spezia, and then having to train all the way to Florence, only to turn around and get to Lucca, changing trains three times. It was a long journey, but not so bad after all.

We got to our B&B in Lucca around three, dropped our stuff and headed out to explore. Lucca is quaint, and I have never seen so many bikes! It is true Tuscany - lots of locals, only some tourists. We went up the tower with garden and tree growing on top (Torre Gungi), which hosted spectacular views in a neat little garden-like setting. Then we went up the bell tower with the bells that no longer work, but it was a very cool climb and we were at the top all by ourselves for a few minutes. After the cheapest and one of the best gelatos of our trip - blueberry! - we set out to walk Lucca’s walls. On the way we came across a canal. Fish were swimming upstream, except they weren’t really getting anywhere - they were more swimming to stay in one place! It was neat to see.

We did the whole 5k circuit of the walls - it is like one big park! You could see all of Lucca from around the walls, tuscan rooves mixed with new construction mixed with old building. Some of the rental bikes had kiddie seats on the front and back.

The walls were less imposing and more park-like than I expected, and it was very peaceful to just stroll along them and people watch, check out the statues and monuments, rest on a bench with a view. There is nothing touristy about Lucca’s walls (in fact, there is little touristy about Lucca at all!) - no vendors, no shops, no booths. Its just a pathway and several parks, which is what it was meant to be. Locals use the walls to commute, jog and bike ride, while tourists enjoy them as they were meant to be enjoyed.

We found our way back to the main piazza, and made a very poor choice for dinner. Charlie’s, though cheap, was terrible, and I couldn’t recommend it. Still we enjoyed sitting in the square, and tried to revel in that experience. We wateched families eating dinner, children playing and one father and daughter try to find the focal points of the piazza’s oval shape, so they could hear each others whispers from fifteen feet apart. We called it an early night in our B&B, ready to move on again in the morning.

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