T0 LUCCA
DAY 15
It
was time to leave and the next morning we caught the train back to La
Spezia where we connected with a train to Viareggio and then another
train to Lucca. It was the only time that Trenitalia let us down as the
connection to Lucca never appeared and we had an hour long wait.
The
railway line passes through Carrara where there are extensive marble
quarries. Practically all of the marble used in the multitude of
statues we saw and would see came from here.
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| The marble quarries at Carrara from the train |
DAY 16
We
had visited Lucca once before so this was a return trip after about 15
years. As pre-arranged we phoned ahead and the owner of our VRBO
apartment was waiting for us. It was a short walk from the station.
Lucca is one the very few cities with a complete wall. Apart from the
fact that it was 50 steps up from the street, this was probably the best
apartment we had. It was spacious and well equipped and the only one with an interesting outside view. After
Riomaggiore steps were no challenge.
For
our first full day we took the train out of Lucca to the station near
Bagni Di Lucca, in the hilly region about 30 km North of Lucca. The last
time we were there we took a train on the same line, but there has
been progress. The 2017 train is very new and comfortable, not an old
diesel rattler.
On the way we passed an old attractive bridge over the river, the Ponte della Maddelena, or Devil’s Bridge, built in the 12th Century and showing its age.
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| The Ponte della Maddelena from the train |
The centre of Bagni
Di Lucca is a modest stroll along the road to where our walk started in
earnest. Once off the main road we started up hill up to a promenade
with a great view of the river valley below.
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| The outskirts of Bagni Di Lucca |
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| The river Lima in the valley | |
Bagni Di Lucca is a spa town and our walk (climb) took us up past last open spa at Bagni Caldi - the Terme Jean Varrau.
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| The Terme Jean Varrau. |
The landmark on the walk was the Chiesina Alpini. A little church on a lovely meadow, quite isolated. It was really very small.
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| The Chiesina Alpini |
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| Flowers in the meadow |
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| A path in the woods |
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| A former wayside chapel |
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| One of the churches in Bagni Di Lucca |
Once
down, we found a pleasant restaurant which had been a casino in the
better old days. We then caught a bus back to Lucca which meant we
could avoid the longer walk along the road to the station. Just three passengers and we were two of them all the way!
DAY 17
A day in Lucca, which started out with a visit to the bus station as I had lost my Raffles hat, likely on the bus or at the restaurant. Amazingly they had it as I had indeed left it on the bus. It would have been the second one I had lost!
Lucca has two favourite musical sons - Puccini, born in 1858 and Boccherini born in 1743. On the way back from the bus station we passed the Puccini Museum and a statue of Boccherini outside the Museum
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| The Puccini Museum |
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| Boccherini |
We spent the rest of the day walking around Lucca. We visited the Botanic Gardens, which were a little disappointing but they did have an art exhibition, some strange objects on view.
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| The Botanic Gardens |
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| Some interesting roots |
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| And flowers |
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| One of the exhibits, made of cane |
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| Inside a greenhouse |
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Not for sitting on
Lucca had many churches and one, the Duomo (Cathedral), was quite near the apartment. It was consecrated in 1070 by Pope Alexander II, formerly the Bishop of Lucca,
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| Lucca Duomo - all the columns are different |
There is a legend to explain why all the columns of the façade are
different. According to the tale, when they were going to decorate it,
the inhabitants of Lucca announced a contest for the best column. Every
artist made a column, but then the inhabitants of Lucca decided to take
them all, without paying the artists and used all the columns.
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| Note the smaller arch at the left. That
is because they had to accommodate the bell tower which already
existed |
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| The nave |
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| The pipe organ |
Continuing our meandering we reached a little cafe that we used to frequent on our previous visit to Lucca and the owner was still there. He was happy that we took his photograph that we have sent to him.
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| Meeting an old acquaintance |
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| The church of San Michele in Foro, again where the columns are all different. |
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| Angels on high |
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| The Piazza dell'Antifeatro |
This is meeting place and an eating place, on every tourist's list. It is built on the site of a Roman Amphitheatre.
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| San Frediano Cathedral with its13th century golden mosaic |
We had reached a restaurant that had very good reviews and that was where we had dinner and had our "To prove we were there" photo taken.
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| One of our best meals |
DAY 18
Another day of wandering, the best way to see Lucca. We decided to walk on the wall, which goes right around the city centre.
In Roman times, with the founding of the city, the first wall was built but was completely replaced by the second wall whose construction began in medieval times, between the eleventh and twelfth centuries and ended in the thirteenth century.
A third wall was built to
between the fourteenth and fifteenth century. Finally in 1545 began the building of monumental Renaissance Wall, the one we see today, whose construction required a century of work. It is 4 km in length and features thirteen bastions, corner pieces.
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| The start of the walk - a corner bastion. |
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| Along the top |
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| Outside the wall |
We left the wall to visit the Palazzo Pfanner which we had read had a lovely garden. It wasn't easy to find in the network of small streets and when we got there, at last, it was closed for a private function. However, getting back on the wall we could see into the garden.
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| The Palazzo Pfanner from the wall |
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| This was why it was closed to the public |
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| The tower of the Basilica San Frediano that we had seen the day before, the one with the golden mosaic |
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| There are extensive green spaces outside the wall |
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| We couldn't find anything about these horses - Roman? |
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| And we could find nothing about this modern horse sculpture |
Just outside the wall was a temporary building being erected. We saw it on consecutive days and construction was amazingly fast and efficient. We found out that it was for the upcoming International Comics and Games Festival. Since 1995 it has been considered one of the most prestigious festivals of Comics for games, cinema and illustrations in the world and attracts hundreds and thousands of visitors.
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| Going up |
There was a smaller version being built inside the walls.
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| Guess who had been here few weeks ago? |
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| The Tower of Guinigi - the tower with the trees on top - a Lucca landmark |
DAY 19
Lucca to Rome
It was time to leave Lucca and head home. We caught a train from Lucca to Pisa where we connected with a train to Rome down the coast passing through Livorno and Citavecchia, both cruise ship ports for Florence and Rome respectively. There were cruise ships in both ports, there always are. One more change in Rome to catch the stopping train to Rome Airport. We were staying at a Bed and Breakfast close to the airport and we phoned ahead and the owner very kindly picked us up and took us to the B and B, It was small and had just two rooms but it was excellent and the family were more than generous. They recommended a good restaurant nearby and next morning took us back to the airport to catch our 0700 flight to Frankfurt. Being so early they gave us a packed breakfast.
In Frankfurt we had a short layover which allowed us the spend a little while in the Business Class lounge and then we boarded our Air Canada flight, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. direct to Vancouver. This is a very nice airplane, everything one has read about it is true. Service was very good, certainly equal if not better than Lufthansa. We had a longer layover in Vancouver while we waited for the Comox flight but that was fine as we were in the Maple Leaf lounge. How can we ever endure Economy again?
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