Lucca, Italy (September 9 & 10)

After lazing around in Vernazza, we were back on the sightseeing trip as we went to Lucca. Lucca had been recommended by a handful of people who said the ramparts were very cool. We also decided it would be a good base to visit Pisa (30 minutes away by train) rather than actually staying in Pisa. After our interest in Pisa died out in an hour, we were glad we did it this way rather than the other way around.

Lucca is an old city surrounded by high walls. Apparently after they built the walls, nobody ever attacked them again. I guess that's kind of the point, but if I built the walls, I would have been bummed to never find out how successful they could be against invaders.

After Napoleon conquered the city (more accurately they rolled over. Didn't want to test out the walls against cannons and guns I suppose)((Actually, by the time Napoleon took Lucca, their walls and cannon were no match for the artillery available at the time and they were essentially defenseless - AH)), he gave it as a gift to his wife ((sister)) who had grown a fondness for it. She turned the ramparts on top of the walls into a large park surrounding the city. It's probably the only awesome sight in Lucca, but it's cool enough to merit a visit if you're ever in the area.

We were told we had to ride a bike around the ramparts and that was the first thing we did. Sadly no pictures as we were on bikes. However, we did notice that the Luccesan's are the most fitness-happy people we have seen thus far and will probably see since. Maybe it's because of the large pseudo track that surrounds their city. There were bikers, rollerbladers, joggers, and large groups of all of the above working out together.



The next night after Pisa we returned for a brief walk to take pictures and had a pre-dinner picnic on the wall.





We were approached by the police and I thought we might have been violating non-existent open container laws. Really they just didn't want anybody sitting too close to the edge because it's a pretty steep fall down. Fortunately this was the only trouble we had with the law in Italy.

The other sites in Lucca are a former Roman ampitheater which is entirely gone and now only noticeable by the circular shape the buildings around its location still form. (The yellow buildings in the picture below).



There are also a handful of towers built by the wealthy families of years gone by. We climbed the most famous of these, the Tower Guinigi. It has trees on the top. They were planted to keep the guards cool in the summer months. We've been climbing a whole lot of things so we're getting better, but we still need a break once we get to the top.





Finally, there is an extremely old cathedral that was just around the corner from our hotel. The cathedral holds a wooden statue of Jesus (the Volto Santo) allegedly carved by Nicodemus and washed ashore in Italy after being set adrift during a Muslim invasion, discovered by a local priest, and was delivered to Lucca after he placed the cross on a cart led by a pair of wild asses. (... it says asses on the plaque. donkeys.) Without direction, the asses wandered to Lucca proving it to be the rightful place of the Volto Santo. Thanks Wikipedia. Every year on the night September 13th, they solemnly march the statue around the city before depositing it back in the Cathedral. In preparation for this, tons of candles were being put up around the windows of every building in and around the square. Sadly we did not get to see it lit up (and it didn't seem worth spending anothe 4 nights in Lucca), but apparently it is very cool if you ever happen to find yourself in Lucca on September 13th.

We both really enjoyed Lucca. As with every other place in Italy, the roads are supposed to be pedestrian, but it seems to be more of a suggestion than a rule. There are plazas everywhere, interesting shops, and opera (if you are into that sort of thing).